Servicing Shelter Needs of Rural Bundelkhand

Servicing Shelter Needs of Rural Bundelkhand
TARA Gramin Nirman Kendra, Orchha
Zeenat Niazi

There is an urgent need to provide affordable alternatives to augment the supply of building materials and components and upgrade construction skills in the rural sector. Depleting natural resources, spiralling cost of industrial building materials and lack of trained manpower at the artisanal and professional levels have resulted in a rapid deterioration of shelter quality in rural areas.

Recognising shelter needs in the rural areas of Bundelkhand region, Development Alternatives has set up a Rural Building Centre - TARA Gramin Nirman Kendra (TGNK) in Orchha under HUDCO’s Building Centres Programme. This building centre is promoted by TARA Nirman Kendra, New Delhi and supported by the Society for Development Alternatives.

TARA Gramin Nirman Kendra operates from the Tara Gram Campus of Development Alternatives at Orchha, located strategically on the main road to Orchha temples in Village Bavedi Jangal, Newari block, District Tikamgarh. It services a large rural and peri-urban population in and around Orchha town. The building centre’s area of influence includes three urban nodes - one medium town - Jhansi and two small towns - Orchha and Barua Sagar. The entire rural region falling within this triangle forms its initial captive target. Besides this, the region of north and western Bundelkhand are also expected to benefit from the activities of TARA Gramin Nirman Kendra.

The main objective of the building centre is to develop itself into an autonomous, sustainable and financially viable institution capable of serving as an agent of change at the local level. It strives to achieve this objectives by providing a variety of shelter guidance and support services to help in the repair, upgrading, design, construction and maintenance needs of households. The activities include setting up of micro-enterprises and employment generation in the construction sector. TGNK’s programmes and technologies respond to local shelter needs and available resource base. The centre has evolved an appropriate mix of building material production, construction and training activities the scope of which will be gradually enlarged in a planned and phased manner. It seeks to undertake a variety of activities within the framework suggested by the guidelines of the Building Centres Programme These fall under the following broad categories:

Dissemination of innovative appropriate building methods especially suited to the local area are being undertaken through a variety of means like training, demonstrations, turn-key construction, exhibitions, seminars and workshops. Government rural shelter programmes like the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY), have already been initiated and form important means of technology transfer. Besides these, the most vital route is that of development of micro-enterprises. The centre itself functions as a primary enterprise and offers consultancy and technical know-how to set-up smaller decentralised production and marketing centres.

Manufacture of cost-effective building materials and components based on local resources

Crusher waste from the many stone crushers set up in the region, local soils and sand from the many river beds and indigenous varieties of secondary timber form the raw materials from which stabilised compressed earth blocks, concrete and stone-crete blocks, ferrocement roofing elements are being manufactured. Cement, an industrial product is common to all the foregoing and has to be procured from the local market at cost.

Existing local, traditional skills and the need for new skills in the region have been identified. Innovative construction methods appropriate to the local area are being introduced through TGNK’s ongoing construction projects, thus upgrading traditional skills and augmenting the local skill base. Specialised training programmes for roof laying, stone masonry, production and use of compressed earth blocks, ferrocement roofing system etc. are designed for each artisanal category. Training is also being provided during the construction of various buildings of the building centre itself that provide the first and continuing demonstration of the technologies being promoted.

The building centre undertakes design and construction projects in the local area. Construction projects undertaken by TGNK in its first year of operation include 50 houses for Sahariya tribals in a village near the Kendra under the IAY scheme, a Pratikshalya (bus shelter) at Orchha, Guest House at Orchha for the Police department and roofs using ferrocement channels for many rural clients. These projects contribute in a major way towards the economic sustainability of the Kendra and also provides a continuity of work to the artisans trained in various construction technologies and systems at the Kendra.

A network of trained local artisans, supervisors, professionals and entrepreneurs is being developed and maintained at the building centre. Some of the members are on the rolls of the centre, while others are listed on a panel that is made available on request to individuals and institutions seeking assistance in building design and construction.

The building centre has on its rolls, trained professional staff and artisans who provide technical guidance in design, construction and entrepreneurship development to individuals, development agencies and public housing bodies.

The technologies developed by institutions like CBRI, CSR, Auroville, Development Alternatives and other building centres are being constantly field tested at the centre and are adapted to suit the specific needs of Bundelkhand. The building centre is associating with existing government housing programmes under the TRYSEM/JRY, NRY and other schemes. It also seeks to network with other building centres, R&D institutions, validating and regulatory bodies in order to exchange information regarding innovative building materials, technologies and construction methods and adapt the same for dissemination in the captive region of Bundelkhand. q

The Bundelkhand Solution

Jawahar

What started out as a roofing system that was piggy-backing on an existing MCR network, the Ferrocement channel, has eventually carved out a niche for itself.

Our first customer was a poultry farm owner who probably understood the intricacies of a roof with chickenwire reinforcement. Today we have a regular order of 1000 sqft. Most of our customers are urban house owners and small businessmen (attachakki, shops) all of whom have approached us only through a word-of-mouth approach.

Ferrocement is seen as targeting the flat segments of stone slabs as well as the reinforced cement concrete roofs. While the savings are about 20-25% in terms of costs, the improvement in strength is more than double. This is one roof which results in appreciable cost economies for better strengths. Another sector in favour of this roof is the time reduction in installation and the savings from shuttering and scaffolding for roof.

A breakthrough has been the savings in transportation of channels which has been reduced from almost Rs 30/m to Rs. 8/m through innovating stacking patterns using tripod loading stands. This has been tested out over distance of 30-35 kms, in vehicles with an average speed of 40 kmph, without breakages.

Available from our centre at TARAGram at cost ranges depending on the type of service required, channels can be acquired at Rs. 180-200/m. The installed roof is today delivered at Rs. 350-400/sqm, depending on whether the finish required is totally flat, or only valley filling, leaving the external curved profile intact.

It is an approximate estimate that in the next five years there will be a minimum of two new fully functional enterprise in the Jhansi district alone with a market share of about 4%.

Today we are convinced that there is considerable demand for the product. As yet most of the dissemination has not occurred through a pro-active strategy for marketing. With an approach to a “single-window access” for technology-marketing-finance, the TARAGramin Nirman Kendra is expected to facilitate and make possible the dream of improved shelter in Bundelkhand. q