The task of housing millions of the rural poor needs to deal with the twin challenges of facilitating affordable shelters and large scale ecological construction. Adequate models are required for processes aiming at a sustainable habitat development in villages. These processes must address concerns of energy and resource efficiencies in construction, delivery mechanisms that support and enhance local skills and economies, and also development of a durable and safe habitat in response to local climatic and geo-morphological conditions. Thus, an eco friendly construction in India must be promoted through innovative and efficient service delivery models which:

Development Alternatives (DA) has been working intensively to institutionalise a sustainable model for the delivery of hábitat products and services in Bundelkhand by developing a host of cost-effective and environment friendly building products and sanitation systems. A network of local artisans - TARA Karigar Mandal - has been set up for this purpose. TARA Nirman Kendra - a local building material production hub of DA provides hábitat products and services to a host of rural families in Bundelkhand.

DA has been working for the last 30 years to support delivery of cost effective and environment friendly building material and construction services for rural and peri-urban communities through micro-entrepreneurs, artisans and financial institutions. During this journey, a comprehensive eco-habitat delivery model has been developed and field tested in the Bundelkhand region which included various projects such as production of eco building materials through micro enterprise mode, capacity building of masons and credit based rural housing supported by some financial institutions like, for example, local Grameen banks.

Based on their long term experience, DA started providing consultancy services for organisations / institutions interested in replicating the service delivery model for an eco-habitat developed by DA in other geographical regions.

One such project is Nari Utthan Sansthan (NUS) located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan.

The principal aim of these consultancy services was to provide relevant eco-friendly and cost effective construction technologies through

a) building requisite capacities of SHG women members and local masons for setting up eco-building material enterprises in NUSgram

b) construction of eco-friendly and low cost cattle shed-cum-fodder storage units for the villagers' families

The major components of the consultancy services are as follows:

DA provided technical services for the site plan and design of the NUSgram enterprise, accompanied by three alternative designs and cost estimates for the cattle sheds, using eco friendly building material and construction technologies.

TARA Machines and Tech services (P) Ltd (TMTS) supplied the machines and other equipment required for production of eco building materials; they also provided training for installing and operating the machines.

TARA Nirman Kendra (TNK) and TARA Karigar Mandal (TKM) conducted capacity building training programmes for the SHG women members in the production of various eco building materials. These women, now well trained, are running a building materials enterprise with the support of Nari Utthan Sansthan.

TARA Karigar Mandal (TKM) conducted a one month training program for capacity building of 10 local masons / artisans in the course of which an office building of 1000 square feet was constructed on the NUSgram campus. These masons were trained in eco friendly construction technologies such as rat-trap bond technology for masonry walls, hollow concrete block masonry, brick arch construction, fixing of precast RCC door/ window frames, MCR roofing and plank and joist roofing. Alongside, these masons were later on imparted management skills required to manage and supervise eco construction projects. A local civil engineer and construction supervisor were also trained in these processes so that they could support the masons whenever required. Within one month of completion of the training programme the masons started taking up contracts for MCR roofing and hollow concrete wall construction from villagers in the surrounding area.

NUS has developed a unique financial model where a loan for the purchase of 2 buffaloes and construction of a cattle shed-cum-fodder storage unit was given to 650 SHG women members. These units are now being constructed by trained local masons using eco friendly construction technologies like hollow concrete block masonry walls and MCR roofing. Initial discussions have also been conducted with some local banks to explore the possibility of replicating the ‘Build Together Pay Together’ model developed by DA for credit based eco housing in rural areas.

Quality control is one of the most critical elements of this service delivery model and it has a major impact on the sustainability of the latter. TMTS developed manuals for the production of eco building materials as this organisation looks after quality control. Regular monthly field visits are conducted by a DA team to check the quality of the building materials manufactured in NUSgram. Similar manuals were developed also to acquaint trained masons and artisans with the new eco construction technologies.

This service delivery model for eco-habitat with all its components enjoys a great potential for replication in different geographical regions of the country. It can address issues of climate change by promoting low-carbon building materials and construction technologies. It can also solve the problem of rural and urban housing shortage in India. q