Reimagining Policy Frameworks for Integrated Rural Development in Uttarakhand

The hill state of Uttarakhand, nestled in the western Himalayas, hosts a fragile ecosystem that is among the most hazard-prone regions of the country, suffering from successive natural and man-made disasters with increasing vulnerability to climate change impacts. At the same time, a rapid increase in construction activity with a large extent of technically incorrect and unsupervised habitat development in the rural areas further increases the disaster-vulnerability of buildings and risk to human life. The shifting of construction practices from the rich heritage of vernacular to ‘modern’ RCC-based technologies has further exacerbated this condition, while also proving to be more energy and carbon intensive. There is a dire need for policy interventions to move away from current trends in the construction sector and effectively address these critical issues, while building strategies and frameworks for integrated rural development in Uttarakhand.

Figure 1 Community building constructed in Kamad village in Uttarkashi using appropriate materials and technologies procured through micro-enterprise based delivery systems

Some innovative development mechanisms and improved technologies for construction were explored by DA through the project, ‘Delivery Model for Eco-Friendly Multi Hazard Resistant Construction Technologies and Habitat Solutions in Mountain States’, which was piloted in three villages in Uttarkashi district under the DST TIME-LEARN programme focusing on improving disaster resilience of building using locally appropriate materials and technologies delivered through local micro-enterprises. The project shed light on various policy gaps which hinder the large-scale applicability and implementation of sustainable habitat projects. We discuss them here.

Firstly, there is a general lack of focus on low carbon systems in the construction sector. Considering that India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rates are much lower than those of developed countries, most current policies including the National Mission for Sustainable Habitats (NMSH), do not prioritise the need for replacement of high-energy materials such as cement, steel and burnt red bricks for construction. While these priorities may partly reflect in building codes like ECBC and green building certification systems such as LEED, GRIHA, and IGBC, these focus majorly on urban settlements with low adaptability of the concepts to the rural context where there is need for technical guidance for developing resilient low-cost, low-tech and environment-friendly habitats.

Another pressing need in this arena is for coherent and improved communication between various stakeholders and across different levels of government in order to eliminate knowledge gaps towards use of relevant policy instruments, while avoiding overlaps and multiplicity of interventions. There is a need to strengthen capacity building measures among these stakeholders for efficient implementation using state-of-the-art technology and data. This communications strategy must also include measures for improving awareness among both policymakers as well as consumers with localised dissemination in vernacular languages to improve the message delivery.

To address challenges of rural development, strategies for the building and construction sector must take into account forward and backward linkages with respect to local economic activities. For this, policies must recognise the potential benefits from fostering a healthy enterprise ecosystem to improve the supply chain of eco-friendly building materials and enhancing the scope of micro-enterprise-based delivery systems in the region. This requires a cross-sectoral approach to livelihood generation and integration into policy frameworks for the buildings and construction sector, building on complementarities from important sectors in Uttarakhand such as rural development, MSME, skill & entrepreneurship, disaster management, forestry and ecotourism as well as leveraging financing through policy initiatives such as PMEGP, PM Mudra Yojana, Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Micro & Small Enterprises, etc.

The need is for a strategic framework to address these policy gaps and creating an integrated model of development that builds on local strengths while addressing the twin issues of strengthening supply chains and also inducing demand for sustainable goods and services for truly effective integrated rural development.■

Mohak Gupta
mgupta@devalt.org

Anoushka Das
das.anoushka@gmail.com