V. Sriraman

It is really heartening to witness a process leading to visible benefits for people in our villages. Yes, in village Duda, a technological seeding through training and skill upgradation has lead to construction of houses by the villages themselves. Housing, especially in a rural context, benefits tremendously from participation of people and the resulting sense of ownership. A large part of rural housing is facilitated by several Government schemes like Indira Awas Yojna and undertaken by petty contractors and masons.

Samagra Awas Yojna (SAY) is a unique Government scheme in which the Gram Panchayat is empowered to take lead in the implementation of housing, sanitation, water supply and habitat improvement activities in a village. The beneficiary contributes 10 % of the cost of the house. The Chief Executive officer of the district sanctions funds to the Gram Panchayat and the ‘sarpanch’ is authorised to appropriately utilize funds for the intended purpose. The idea is to empower the village community, which can take decisions though the Gram Sabha for development of the village. Unfortunately, these Gram Panchayats have limited or even no access and no exposure to appropriate building technologies and best building construction practices.

Village Duda in Tikamgarh presents a typical rural picture of poor building material resources and quality of construction. The minimum required skills for upgrading shelter quality also do not exist. But now, under the SAY scheme, a collective effort of providing technical know-how for better shelter at reasonable cost is bearing fruit in village Duda, district Tikamgarh. People are involved in the production of cost-effective building materials and in building their houses with these materials.

In order to create awareness, amongst beneficiaries of cost-effective housing options, key effort and initiative was taken by the Chief Executive officer, district Tikamgarh and the Project officer of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). Development Alternatives (DA), a premier NGO, which is committed to the creation of sustainable livelihoods, joined hands with the district administration for the purpose.

At first, awareness creation campaign was conducted at village Duda. Samples of concrete blocks, micro concrete roofing tiles, concrete paving blocks were shown to the villagers and expectedly evoked a mixed response of apprehension and curiosity. The need for another round of exposure and awareness was felt. Soon, the ‘sarpanch’ of Duda led a group of villagers to visit TARAgram, DA’s sustainable development resource center located near Orchha. The visit struck a favourable chord and convinced the villagers about the strength, durability and accessibility of these technologies. Self production of these building products and using them to build their own houses seemed like a clear possibility now.

Development Alternatives then, after the approval of villagers, held discussions about the setting up of building material production systems at Duda. Soon, the process of setting up production was initiated for cement concrete blocks for walling and Ferrocement roofing channels and micro concrete roofing tiles for roofing.

But, the trial production as part of training did not come about without the problem of villagers doubting the eventual cost-effectiveness of the technologies and the resulting cost of house. An exercise of cost computation was jointly conducted with the villagers who supplied the raw material costs. This cleared prevailing misconceptions and found favour with the villagers (the arbitrary figure of Rs.8 or 10/- per block came down to Rs.5.) Full fledged material production could now commence.

A total of 35 houses are proposed under new construction, which is currently in progress to be subsequently followed by upgradation of 65 existing houses. Cost sanctioned under SAY is Rs. 30,000 per house, with a beneficiary contribution of 10%, thus making a budget of Rs. 33,000. For upgradation of houses, a budget of Rs.10,000 per house has been sanctioned. The new houses have been designed for single room, cooking space, a verandah and individual toilet at the rear side of the house in an area of approximately 18 sq.m. The building specifications are:

Besides providing durable and cost-effective building products for houses at Duda, setting up of production units will upgrade the local skills and generate livelihood opportunities. A few self help groups have already got the approval for setting up concrete block production enterprises. Once this picks up, it will not be very difficult to set up more livelihood opportunities based on building materials.

As a spin-off activity, several self-help groups from other blocks of Tikamgarh district have been given exposure to cost-effective building material production. A technological intervention supported by people's participation has led to improvement in shelter quality in village Duda. q

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