And Mile to Go...

Tara Nirman Kendra (TNK), an offshoot of Development Alternatives, provides low cost and environment friendly alternate housing solutions for the construction industry.

The notion of ‘Gaia’ - mother earth as a living creature is most emancipating in a world where everything around seems to be available for use-abuse and exploitation.

Now that we seem to be running out of resources, there is a marked shift of priorities - may be we have become conscious of the harm we are causing, may be because we have no choice but to look around and mend our ways.

There is also quite an ado about the billions of shelterless around us. Hence the search (originally) for low cost shelter alternatives and (lately) for cost effective alternatives.

As aptly noted by Kiran Keswani (in Building Research and Information, January - February, 1997) “.... No amount of subsidies can solve the problem of housing delivering in a country where the per capita income is as low as it is in India, where almost half of the population in some cities live in the slums, where the growth of the economy of the country is not going to be high enough for timely solutions to the shelter issue, where people must continue to live on the pavements therefore they work tirelessly through the day only to be able to afford food ....”.

Then came the understanding that all our activities-income generating or other wise must be in harmony with the environment. Also that we can do longer afford to keep living in our own shells, without caring about our surrounding environment - physical, cultural and social.

Society for Development Alternatives was set up for working toward “Sustainable livelihoods for all”. With the same idea for the construction industry Tara Nirman Kendra (TNK) was born on March 28, 1989. With financial support from DA and HUDCO, TNK set out to play the tough role of a facilitator and not a provider of shelter to the shelterless in India. This was very much against the prevalent wave of providing low cost housing to the shelterless. In fact the Building Centre movement itself was still teething.

Around the 80s, phrases such as “low cost housing” and “sustainable development”, were being used ad-nauseam by bureaucrats and technocrats - everyone who was supposed to speak. Today they have become cliched - very much a part of the professional jargon. Today’s professional does not want to use these phrases. In fact, today the entire approach has changed. There is a greater faith in the archaic systems of construction, there is a greater confidence in the indigenous materials and their economics, there is more respect for the man on the street and his labour, there is willingness to learn from the family in slums who build with just about anything-card board, plastic sheet and thermocol.

Today’s professional is humble enough to observe, learn, improvise (if need be)/innovate and then practise.

Hence, our understanding of our goals gets more and more clear with each new experience and we at TNK humbly acknowledge that we are a part of “a grass root level technology transfer mechanism”.

Any technology package developed by DA is tried and tested at TNK before it is taken over by TNK for “lab to land transfer” (large scale dissemination). The techno-economic viability of each package is rigorously investigated and finally demonstrated by TNK. Dissemination is carried out by way of design or construction of habitat related training programmes, workshops, seminars etc.

TNK has so far used compressed earth blocks technology for walling and ferrocement channels and micro concrete tiles for roofing. RCC chaukhats, ferrocement beams and rafters and other ferrocement elements are also a part of TNK’s basket.

Traditional systems such as domes, vaults, arches and corbels are important elements in TNK’s design projects. Rat Trap bonds, filler slabs and other technologies promoted by other building centres have also been appreciated and used by TNK.

TNK does not believe in rejecting the traditional systems of construction. TNK supports and practices vernacular systems as an obvious, appropriate response of a rational man to his problems of shelter.

TNK has a “common sense” approach to architecture. The result: cost effective, appropriate, environment friendly alternate solutions. Hence, the training programmes for masons, artisans and professionals.

Besides specialised training programmes, TNK also has conducted on-the-job training in all her construction projects. In the last eight years TNK has trained about 1000 semi-skilled workers in various technologies. About 500 entrepreneurs and professionals have also been trained.

3. Manufacture, production and retail of cost effective environment friendly building materials and components

Based on local natural resources and wastes - with a view to supporting “sustainable livelihoods for all”.

In her various projects, TNK has so far employed and inspired about 5,500 workers. Walling material worth Rs.20,000, roofing material worth Rs.40,000, door and window frames worth Rs.15,000 and other components worth Rs.20,000 have been produced and sold exclusively for retail.

The various design and construction projects serve as demonstration buildings for the technologies TNK believes in. Further they contribute in a big way to make TNK a “self sustainable” body, while also providing work to the manpower trained at TNK.

So far, TNK has completed design projects worth Rs.52 lakh and offered project management consultancy for about Rs.1.45 lakh.

Well equipped laboratories at TNK are a support to R & D work and are very encouraging and supportive to new ideas from fresh minds. Today TNK has a basket of technologies to offer to suit the needs and budget of the client. The emphasis, nevertheless is on cost effective, environment friendly technologies.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for arts, the workshop for Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Leprosy Centre at Jaipur, Primary Schools in Andhra Pradesh as a part of APEP, various farmhouses and community centres, TNK is proud of all her projects because TNK has grown through each of them.

TNK aspires to be a consortium of construction systems that are cost effective, environment friendly and hopes to create a new architectural grammar for a better house, a better world.

The top-most priority for TNK today is to establish appropriate technology as a good alternative to the so called “conventional technology”. Specially in and around Delhi, one finds a greater inclination towards RCC and burnt brick construction not realising the extent of damage such technologies do to the environment and eventually to our cultural heritage. One does see a ray of hope in the growing demand of ethnic ambience and specially of jaali work in Delhi, but this is true in the case of the elite who are willing to accept this even in RCC and burnt brick (with mud patchwork on surface) for the sheer aesthetics of it. Hence the mindset must shift in favour of mud and other appropriate technologies not only for aesthetics but for reasons of appropriateness, environmental concerns, cost effectiveness and “pure common sense”!!

A CEEF (cost effective, environment friendly) club with TNK as a coordinator for disseminating alternate technology to professional students is also on the cards.

Once this herculean task of popularising “appropriate technologies” is done, TNK would shift her focus to the cause of the shelterless by involving Indira Awas Yojana and other such programmes.

Meanwhile, there would be a conscious effort at establishing partnerships with other NGOs, Building Centres and like minded professionals.

Eventually, TNK wants to look at the whole world as a family and extend her help and expertise to the “not so lucky” all over the world. q

Anand was born in the conservative family of Sarkaris.

Anand was a smart young boy, though rebellious at times.

As Anand grew, he came across this beautiful girl, helpless because of the cyclone that hit her family - all the more a reason for Anand to marry her. Despite the difference between their backgrounds, wedding bells finally rang for them and soon they had a lovely child - Kesnik. Kesnik grew to be an ideal son and the prosperity of Anand’s small family set the trend for the ‘Sarkari’ family to marry out of their community.

Their distant relatives, “gair-sarkaris” also started wedding their sons out of caste specially if they found suitable girls in need of help.

The grand father in the family of gair-sarkaris - dadaji committed his son - Tanik for marriage to help one such girl.

Tanik grew to be smart, ambitious young man, eager to learn and confident to experiment. Today he is still settling down with his new job and new family. He also has his bad days but he is courageous enough to face them and work his way out.

At times, he also has problems with his wife - his very raison d’etre but then he understands how much she needs him and is quick to understand that she cannot do without his support.

Hence this bond of love and understanding has kept their relationship alive for the last eight years.

Tanik also helps the orphans who cross his way. He helps them not by providing for them but by facilitating from them a means of living and helps them settle in life. The lives of Tanik and Kesnik are exemplary. May their clan grow...

Editor’s Note

The readers might recall that the Building Centre movement in India was started in 1985 by C.V. Ananda Bose, I.A.S., the then D.C. of Kerala. The first Building Centre was Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra (Kesnik). DA also started their own Building Centre in March 1989 by the name of Tara Nirman Kendra (Tanik in the article).