Scheme for Promotion of Affordable Rental Smart Housing (SPARSH)

What is the SPARSH scheme?

SPARSH. The Scheme for Promotion of Affordable Rental Smart Housing: is a Labour Department scheme of the U.T. Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu that builds and subsidises quality rental housing for industrial workers and labourers. The erstwhile Union Territory of Daman and Diu notified the first SPARSH scheme vide Notification No. LE/LI/DMN/SPARSH/2018/11 dated 9 April 2018, for the period 2018 to 2023. The UT portal records the scheme date as 24 June 2018 and its stated benefit simply as "affordable and quality housing stock" for workers.

After the two union territories merged on 26 January 2020, the administration issued revised operational guidelines as SPARSH 2.0, notified on 6 July 2022 by the Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Labour). SPARSH 2.0 extends the scheme to all three districts; Daman, Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and runs for five years, from 2022 to 2027.

The problem SPARSH addresses is described plainly in the guidelines. About 2,10,000 persons work in the union territory's plastic, engineering, pharmaceutical, electrical, garment, textile, soda water, rubber and ice-block industries and on its construction sites. Many are migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, and the shortage of housing pushes them into congested chawls that the guidelines describe as unhygienic and overcrowded.

How does SPARSH 2.0 work?

SPARSH 2.0 operates through four verticals:

1. Registering housing complexes that meet the scheme's minimum facility standards as SPARSH 2.0 housing complexes.
2. Relaxing construction norms to incentivise developers to build or redevelop housing for the urban poor.
3. Obliging government bodies, municipalities, district panchayats, PSUs and autonomous bodies, to identify land and run at least one SPARSH 2.0 housing in their jurisdiction.
4. Subsidising the rent of EWS workers who stay in these complexes.

For a complex to qualify, it must either already be registered under the central Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme, or meet SPARSH's own specifications: each dwelling unit at least 322 sq ft, with not more than 33% of units above 350 sq ft; at least two rooms plus a separate toilet and bathroom; a kitchen per room or a common kitchen; proper ventilation; dedicated water supply; solar panels with free common-area lighting; valid construction permission or occupancy certificate; and septic tanks or soak pits sized at not less than 105 litres x 5 x number of dwelling units x 2, or CPHEEO norms, whichever is higher. Where a unit is used as a dormitory, it must not contain more than 1 bed per 55 sq ft.

Two conditions protect the worker. At least 66% of the dwelling units must be reserved for renting to the Economically Weaker Section, and the owner must agree to keep renting that 66% to EWS tenants for at least 20 years.

What incentives does a builder get under SPARSH?

Planning and development authorities and municipalities in the union territory must grant a SPARSH 2.0 complex an additional 50% of the applicable FSI, an additional 20% of ground coverage, relaxations in setbacks or abutting road size, and permission to use 20% of the permissible ground coverage for commercial or business purposes — everywhere except the Green Zone. Existing complexes that fall within these relaxed guidelines are to be regularised, and revenue departments must prioritise non-agricultural (NA) applications for such construction. The authority is required to decide a construction permission or occupancy certificate application within 30 days.

Who is eligible for the SPARSH rent subsidy?

You can claim the subsidy if:

• You are a worker, industrial labourer or construction worker staying in the union territory.
• You are an EWS person or a member of an EWS family. An EWS person is defined as someone whose yearly income does not exceed the daily wage rate of skilled labour x 365, or Rs 1 lakh, whichever is higher. An EWS family is one whose total income does not exceed the daily skilled-labour wage rate x 12 x 27 x 3, or Rs 3 lakh a year, whichever is higher.
• Every earning member of your family holds an Aadhaar number and a bank account.
• You actually live in a housing complex registered under SPARSH 2.0.

Preference goes to people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Where eligible applicants exceed available funds, priority is given to SC, ST, widow and physically disabled applicants.

You are not eligible if your family income is above the EWS ceiling, if you live in a chawl or building that has not been registered under SPARSH 2.0, or if you are claiming for a future period, the guidelines state the subsidy shall not be granted in advance, only for time already spent in the complex. A person otherwise eligible under the central ARHC scheme is not barred from taking additional benefits there.

How to apply for the SPARSH scheme

For a worker or EWS family claiming the rent subsidy:

1. Confirm that the housing complex you live in is registered under SPARSH 2.0. If it is not, ask the owner to apply first. The subsidy cannot be released for an unregistered building.
2. Obtain Form C, the application for release of subsidy, from the office of the district nodal officer designated by the Secretary (Labour).
3. Fill in Form C with your personal details and the bank account into which the subsidy is to be disbursed, and attach the receipt of the rent paid for the period being claimed.
4. Submit the completed form to the nodal officer. The officer makes such inquiries as he deems fit, approves the subsidy and transfers it to the beneficiary account.

For an owner registering a housing complex:

1. Apply in Form A to the officer designated by the Secretary (Labour) for your district, with all documents listed in the form.
2. The nodal officer scrutinises the application within 30 days, and may take the help of a technical person or the Associate Town Planner, Department of Town Planning, Daman, to check plans, layout and land details.
3. On approval, the nodal officer issues a registration certificate in Form B and enters into an agreement with the owner as set out in Annexure 5.
4. Renew the registration annually. It is verified every year by the nodal officer and can be cancelled after a 30-day show-cause notice if the scheme terms or agreement are no longer being followed.

Who receives the SPARSH money?

SPARSH 2.0 directs that the subsidy be transferred to a lady member of the family through an Aadhaar-linked bank transfer. In the case of a dormitory, it goes to each individual person. Only where no female member is available or none stays in the housing complex does the money go to the Aadhaar-linked account of the karta or the senior-most earning male member of the family.

What has SPARSH delivered so far?

The first housing complex built under the original SPARSH scheme was inaugurated at Ringanwada, Nani Daman, on 8 October 2019. Major industries of Daman contributed basic amenities for the dormitories: hygiene kits, shaving kits, bed sheets, mattresses, geysers, a solar system, bathroom and kitchen items: costing approximately Rs 33 lakh. A total of 230 workers were accommodated in that complex.

At the time SPARSH 2.0 was notified, only one housing complex with 48 dwelling units was registered. The guidelines set a target of 470 beneficiaries in 2022-23 and again in 2023-24, rising to 720 in 2024-25, 970 in 2025-26 and 1,220 beneficiaries in 2026-27, with an anticipated expenditure of Rs 73.20 lakh in the final year. Fifty new dwelling units a year were estimated from 2024-25 onwards. Expenditure is booked under budget head 2230 to Labour and Employment.

Why a SPARSH claim gets held up

• The complex is not registered. This is the single most common reason a worker's claim fails; the subsidy attaches to a registered SPARSH 2.0 complex.
• No rent receipt. The owner is obliged under the scheme to issue proper receipts for rent paid; without one the period cannot be verified.
• Claim filed in advance. Subsidy is released only for a period already spent in the complex.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-linked, or the account is not in the name of an eligible family member.
• Income above the EWS ceiling, or earning members without Aadhaar and a bank account.
• Funds exhausted for the year: disbursal is subject to availability of funds, with SC, ST, widow and disabled applicants taking priority.

Where to get help with SPARSH

SPARSH is administered by the Department of Labour and Employment, DNH and DD. The district Labour and Employment offices are the practical point of contact: Vidhyut Bhavan, Kachigam, Daman 396215 (0260-2261059); Old Circuit House Building, opposite Bal Bhawan, Silvassa 396230 (0260-2642374); and the Labour and Employment Office, Collectorate, Diu 362520 (02875-252444).

Scheme Monitoring Committees at UT and district level are supported to remove difficulties, interpret the scheme's provisions and modify the forms and agreements. General complaints can also be routed through the Grievance Redressal link on ddd.gov.in. Nothing in the scheme permits construction or regularisation in a Green Zone or forest area, and no fee is charged to a worker for filing Form C.

How to check your application status

SPARSH does not run an online applicant portal or tracking dashboard: both Form A (housing complex registration) and Form C (rent subsidy claim) are paper applications filed with a district nodal officer, so status has to be checked directly with that office rather than online.

If you filed Form C for the rent subsidy:

1. Note the date you submitted Form C and to which district office: Daman, Silvassa or Diu, since each has its own nodal officer.
2. Visit or call the same Labour and Employment office and ask the nodal officer for the status of your Form C application. Keep your acknowledgement or a copy of the submitted form ready; the office does not issue a separate tracking number.
3. Ask specifically whether the subsidy has been approved and transferred, or whether it is still pending because the housing complex's registration, your rent receipt, or your Aadhaar-linked bank details are being verified.
4. If the subsidy has been sanctioned, check with your bank (or the family member in whose Aadhaar-linked account it is due, ordinarily the senior-most female member) for the credit, since disbursal is by direct transfer rather than a cheque or cash payment collected from the office.

If you filed Form A to register a housing complex as an owner:

1. The nodal officer is required to scrutinise a Form A application within 30 days, so follow up with that office if this window has passed without a decision.
2. Ask whether the file is still with the nodal officer, has been sent to the Associate Town Planner for technical verification of plans and layout, or is ready for issue of the Form B registration certificate.
3. Once registered, confirm the registration is renewed annually. It is the nodal officer, not the owner, who verifies the complex each year, but an owner should confirm the renewal has actually gone through rather than assume it is automatic.

For either application, if the district office cannot give a clear answer or a decision is unreasonably delayed, raise it with the UT-level or district-level Scheme Monitoring Committee, or file a general grievance through the Grievance Redressal link on ddd.gov.in, quoting the date and office where the form was submitted.