Housing, Sanitation and Water Schemes: PMAY, SBM and JJM

The correct answer is A, 2 October 2014. The mission was launched on the 145th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, with the target of an open defecation free India by 2 October 2019, his 150th birth anniversary, and its logo is a pair of spectacles recalling him. Option B is wrong because 15 August 2014 is the date of the Independence Day speech in which the Jan Dhan Yojana was announced; the Jal Jeevan Mission was announced from the same rampart five years later. Option C is wrong because 25 June 2015 is the launch date of PMAY-Urban, AMRUT and the Smart Cities Mission together. Option D is wrong because 2 October 2019 is the date on which rural India was declared open defecation free, that is, the target date rather than the launch date, which is exactly the confusion the question is built on.

The correct answer is B, 2 October 2019. The declaration was timed for the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, exactly five years after the mission was launched, and the second phase then began with the goal of ODF Plus villages that sustain the status and manage solid and liquid waste. Option A is wrong because 2 October 2018 was only a milestone year in the campaign and no declaration was made then. Option C is wrong because 1 October 2021 is the launch date of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0, the second-generation urban missions. Option D is wrong because 15 August 2019 is the date on which the Jal Jeevan Mission was announced from the Red Fort. Keep the three dates apart: launch 2014, ODF declaration 2019, second phase of the urban mission 2021.

The correct answer is B, 2015. PMAY was launched on 25 June 2015, on the same day as AMRUT and the Smart Cities Mission, with the aim of a pucca house for every eligible family. Option A is wrong because 2014 is the year of the Swachh Bharat Mission and of the Jan Dhan Yojana. Option C is wrong, though it is the closest distractor: 20 November 2016 is the date on which the rural arm, PMAY-Gramin, was launched by restructuring the Indira Awaas Yojana, so a question that says PMAY-Gramin rather than PMAY has 2016 as its answer. Option D is wrong because 2019 is the year of the Jal Jeevan Mission and of the creation of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The safe way to answer is to read whether the question names the urban scheme, the rural scheme or PMAY as a whole.

The correct answer is B, 25 square metres. PMAY-Gramin raised the minimum unit size to 25 square metres, which must include a dedicated area for hygienic cooking, an increase over the 20 square metres allowed under the Indira Awaas Yojana. Option A is wrong for that reason: 20 square metres was the old norm and is kept in the options to catch candidates who learnt the earlier scheme. Option C is wrong because 30 square metres is not a PMAY-G norm, though carpet area limits of that order appear in the urban scheme's affordable housing definitions. Option D is wrong because 40 square metres exceeds anything prescribed for rural assistance. Along with the size, remember the unit assistance of 1.20 lakh rupees in the plains and 1.30 lakh rupees in hilly states and difficult areas.

The correct answer is B, 55 litres. The mission promises a functional household tap connection giving at least 55 litres of potable water per person per day of prescribed quality, a norm raised from the earlier rural standard. Option A is wrong because 40 litres per capita per day was the service level of the earlier National Rural Drinking Water Programme, and that is the figure the question hopes you will pick. Option C is wrong because 70 litres is not a prescribed norm in either the rural or the urban mission. Option D is wrong because 135 litres per capita per day is the planning norm often used for piped supply in cities with sewerage, not for the rural mission. Remember the slogan Har Ghar Jal and the implementing ministry, Jal Shakti, with the 55 litre figure.

The correct answer is B, Ministry of Jal Shakti. The mission is run by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in that ministry, which was itself created in 2019 by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with drinking water and sanitation. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Rural Development runs PMAY-Gramin, MGNREGA and the rural livelihoods mission. Option C is wrong because the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs runs the urban schemes, including PMAY-Urban, AMRUT, the Smart Cities Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission-Urban. Option D is wrong because the environment ministry handles forests, wildlife and pollution control. The quickest rule to remember is that rural water and rural sanitation are with Jal Shakti, rural housing with Rural Development. Village water and sanitation committees, often called Paani Samitis, run the schemes on the ground under this ministry.

The correct answer is B, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The urban half of the mission, including the construction of community and public toilets, solid waste management and the Swachh Survekshan ranking of cities, is with that ministry, and its second phase, SBM-Urban 2.0, was launched on 1 October 2021 for garbage free cities. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Jal Shakti runs the rural half of the mission through the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Option C is wrong because the Ministry of Panchayati Raj supports the institutions of local self government but does not implement the mission. Option D is wrong because the health ministry has no implementing role here, although sanitation improves health outcomes. The division of the same mission between two ministries is itself a common question.

The correct answer is A, Indira Awaas Yojana. The old rural housing scheme was restructured as PMAY-Gramin with effect from 20 November 2016, with beneficiaries now identified from the deprivation data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011 and verified by the gram sabha instead of being chosen from the earlier below poverty line lists. Option B is wrong because the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was the sanitation programme replaced by the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014. Option C is wrong because the Rajiv Awas Yojana was an urban slum scheme, and its work was absorbed by PMAY-Urban rather than by the rural scheme. Option D is wrong because JNNURM was the earlier urban infrastructure mission whose successors are AMRUT and the Smart Cities Mission. The urban scheme also absorbed the work of the earlier Basic Services to the Urban Poor programme, a detail that appears in state papers.

The correct answer is A, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. Launched on 25 June 2015 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, AMRUT funds water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water drains, urban transport and green spaces in selected cities, and AMRUT 2.0 followed on 1 October 2021 with an emphasis on recycled water and the rejuvenation of water bodies. Options B, C and D are wrong because they are invented expansions built from plausible words; no scheme carries those names. Full forms are easy marks in Railway and SSC papers, so learn PMAY, AMRUT, SBM, JJM and also the companion names in this chapter: ODF for open defecation free, CLSS for the credit linked subsidy scheme and ISSR for in-situ slum redevelopment. Note also that the urban mission AMRUT was launched on the very same day as PMAY-Urban, which papers use to test the date.

The correct answer is B, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Swachh Survekshan has been conducted since 2016 as part of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, and it ranks cities on waste collection and processing, public and community toilets and citizen feedback. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Jal Shakti handles the rural mission and the rural sanitation survey, not the urban ranking. Option C is wrong because the statistics ministry conducts the large statistical surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey and the consumption expenditure survey through the National Statistical Office. Option D is wrong because NITI Aayog prepares index reports such as the SDG India Index and the composite water management index, but it does not run this survey. Note also the companion campaign Swachhata Hi Seva, held in the fortnight before 2 October.

The correct answer is B, 1.20 lakh rupees. PMAY-Gramin provides unit assistance of 1.20 lakh rupees in the plain areas, released in instalments linked to the stage of construction and paid directly into the beneficiary's account. Option A is wrong because 70,000 rupees was the order of assistance under the Indira Awaas Yojana before the restructuring. Option C is wrong but is the closest trap: 1.30 lakh rupees is the assistance in hilly states, difficult areas and districts affected by Left Wing Extremism, so the answer depends on which area the question names. Option D is wrong because no rural unit assistance of that size exists. Remember the convergence benefits as well: ninety days of MGNREGA wage labour, a toilet from the Swachh Bharat Mission and a tap connection under the Jal Jeevan Mission.