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Mador : An Experience in the Innovative Sustainable Habitat Process August 10, 2006 marked as an eventful day for the residents of three clusters in the Mador village in Bundelkhand, when the DA group formally handed over the completion certificates of 35 houses to the house owners as well as to the masons trained under the Innovative Building Technology Training Programme
he Indian Constitution in its list of Fundamental Rights to the citizens has provided for a ‘right to shelter’ under the Article 21 of Right to Life. In a democracy so large, the unfortunate reality remains that even sixty years after Independence, a large section of the poor in India do not have access to adequate shelter – a major portion of this being in the rural areas where only 41% of the population is living in pucca houses (Source: Census of India: 2001). Such large scale prevalence of inappropriate shelter could be attributed to poverty, unemployment and perpetuation of rudimentary building systems without upgrading the cost efficient and environment-friendly materials and technology with time. Another important fact being the failure of institutions including some of the well-intentioned government programmes, the Panchayat and the promise of the banks. The Habitat programme of the Development Alternatives group, over the years has attempted to address the rural habitat issue in India in a holistic manner making it sustainable in as many ways as possible. Mador village in Tikamgarh district in Bundelkhand region in the state of Madhya Pradesh offered one such opportunity to work with various issues related to habitat develop-ment for the rural poor – the keyword being ‘innovative’. In 2004, a proposal was passed by Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technologies (CAPART) to construct 35 houses in the village Mador under the Innovative Stream for Rural Housing and Habitat Development. It is a component of the Government’s Indira Awas Yojana – a scheme for construction of houses for the rural poor lying Below Poverty Line (BPL). Despite the large devolution of funds, this scheme has been known for bypassing its objectives. The Innovative Stream scheme basically promotes the use of innovative design, materials and technology in rural housing; but the Mador example has proved to be innovative in more than one ways. The region where the target groups’ family income on a daily basis is not more than Rs.50 despite tedious labour work in the farms or on construction sites, the DPIP scheme of the M.P. Government for poverty alleviation came along as an opportunity. This was also incorporated in the project wherein the funds available in the village were utilized towards infrastructure creation for livelihood generation, the medium for which were the women members of the SHG groups.
Thus, instead of waiting for the families to gain an economic mobility over generations and hence capacity to access pucca houses for themselves, they were given a chance to generate livelihoods too through capacity building of local artisans and masons in training programmes and creating individual poultry farms. Apart from the technical systems and institutions, the most innovative aspect of the Mador project has been the fact that despite being a part grant-based work, the housing project does not come across as charity nor does it alienate beneficiaries from the habitat process. The aim of the project was to help the rural poor and vulnerable groups - communities and families, by facilitating improvement in shelter and infrastructure through sustainable access to appropriate technology, skill and finance. Specific objectives were: n To provide improved shelter for 35 families from the BPL, SC, and ST communities and other vulnerable groups in village Mador. n To establish community facilities and local infrastructure such as hand pumps, street drains and community spaces in the targeted villages. n To build capacity of local artisans in production and construction with innovative building materials and technologies. n To strengthen local village community processes such as SHGs, Panchayat mechanism and village building communities to be able to manage village habitat and infrastructure processes over a long term. n To set up a rural housing finance mechanism, wherein the contribution by each beneficiary would be one third of the total cost of the house. The balance two-third would be in the form of grant through scheme. The project strategy was based on the following two aspects: n Strength of the village based women’s self help groups and their savings, linked with village based artisans and local building material production units set up for the construction of new houses and community infrastructure. n The provision of housing finance in the form of part grant and part loan linked to the use of innovative technologies enabling a large number of poor families to access improved shelter. A shared vision and willingness of various stakeholders in the system has been of prime importance for creating Mador a success. The following stakeholders were involved in the project: 1. Village Community – mainly the underprivileged groups of Adivasi, Ahirwar and Prajapati, some through SHGs. 2. DA team at TARAgram consisting of architects, engineers and social mobilizers as the facilitating partner, assisted the project in the following ways: n Awareness-raising through regular information and know-how to the families to explain various aspects of the scheme and how it could benefit them. n Regular technology orientation to introduce and build up people’s confidence in new technologies. n Training of local masons. n Design development in families’ presence and monitoring the execution of work. 3. CAPART, an autonomous body coordinating the partnership between the government and DA. 4. PRADAN and District Poverty Initiatives Programme (DPIP) of the Madhya Pradesh Government who supplemented the habitat process for the poor through critical livelihood support initiative. Some Innovative Features of the Project: Institutions and the Process:
Self Help Groups n Groups of 10 to 15 people coming together with a common aim of savings and economic activities are operational at present with group savings between Rs. 3000 to Rs. 20000. Women from these groups are primarily targeted for house construction. These groups were introduced with various capacity building activities for empowering women through trainings such as poultry farm maintenance, construction and repair work, animal husbandry, all of which has actually raised the confidence of the illiterate women of the village community. Family contribution procedures have been facilitated and standardized through these SHGs that act as the social collateral. Housing as Self- Help Process n Housing in Mador followed the process of self help not only to reduce labour costs of house construction but also to educate people to uphold the process after the completion of the project. In spite of financial contribution, they put in their unskilled as well as skilled labour in the construction which led to cost reduction of the house. Thus, the project developed a sense of ownership to the people. An important idea developed within the system was to hand over the management of construction to the villagers through constitution of three committees – Accounts (Hisab), Construction (Nirman) and Store (Bhandar) under the Village Development Committee but this did not work due to a small number of villagers involved in the project, i.e. only 35 families, that too in three different communities. Hence, the system was eventually managed by a small group of 4-5 people from the village. Selection of the beneficiaries was done through a Gram Sabha meeting to avail the opportunity. Focused Group discussions with the villagers were carried out to understand the requirement of training skills in different fields. Built-environment The trainings and techniques introduced to the villagers at various stages of development are as following: n Roof Rain Water Harvesting System in the community building as a demonstration unit for the village. The community building was also the demonstration site for training programme. n RCC Chowkhat (door/ window frames) enterprise in the village which is again a low cost and maintenance product. n Rat-trap bond construction technique for walls that not only cuts down on the cost by reducing material quantity but also significantly insulates the enclosed spaces from extreme weather conditions. n Water resources in the village for construction as well as drinking – construction of storage tanks and setting up and repairing of hand pumps. n Repetition was avoided and individual identity for each house has been enhanced. n The micro-concrete roofing (MCR) tiles have been introduced over the iron understructure for roof. These are more durable than the indigenous clay tiles. n Sanitation has been paid special attention to, through provision of individual water tanks with taps as well as toilets with efficient soak pit system to each house. Proper use of these facilities has to be inculcated amongst the occupants through sanitation training as presently hygiene is not a prime concern for the communities.
A formal event was
organized at Mador in the Adivasi cluster on August 10, 2006 Outcomes The Mador housing project has had strong, positive, direct and indirect impacts: n Masons’ guild of 10 people has been formed with training in selective building systems such as MCR, CEB, Rat-trap bond and RCC D/W frame etc n People have learnt the entrepreneurship tactics by getting enterprise-based employment opportunities with TARAgram projects. n Women’s participation in the SHGs and habitat process has increased the self-confidence of poor, uneducated tribal women. n A sense of ownership has come amongst the house owners by contributing in the process of construction of their houses. n Improved housing and infrastructure like water resources has led to a cohesive, better living environment. n A sanitation awareness programme has recently been approved for Mador. Potential Sustainability The Mador housing project has verified a sustainable model for rural housing delivery through a grant cum loan based model. It is an achievement of this project to make families contribute in the construction activities through continuous training, education initiatives and informal mason’s guild formation. These masons are getting constant construction jobs in the village as well as in the neighboring areas devoid of support from DA. The project has gained sustainability with commencement of the DPIP project of establishing poultry farms with 90 percent grant for the people of Adiwasi community. This has helped people to obtain economic potency to repay the housing loan in installments @ Rs. 450 for 18 months. Replicability The replicability of this kind of initiative, which is partly grant and partly loan based, at a large scale is limited. The project of the scale like this requires fewer members in the management committee to avoid chaos. However, the process initiated by the Mador Housing Project, can be replicated in the context of similar format. The issues of sustainability and replicability are described briefly as follows: n Linking savings of SHGs with access to improved housing. n Setting up and enabling local habitat management systems at the village level. n Setting up small scale production units linked to a local building center. n Ensuring continuous technical support from the local building center. n The above steps have developed a cadre of local skilled artisans for further habitat activities in the neighbouring areas. Conclusion
The innovative and cost effective housing and habitat
delivery to the rural poor Zeenat Niazi zniazi@devalt.org
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to hand over the house ownership and mason training certificates to the
villagers. Apart from the DA team, the event was attended by Mr. A. S. Gangwar, CEO, DRDA, Tikamgarh; Mr. Sharada Tripathi -DPM, DPIP,
Tikamgarh and others along with the representatives of some of DA’s NGO
partners from Bundelkhand. The villagers including the beneficiary house
owners and the trained masons participated in large numbers. An
interesting feature of the project has been announcement of awards for
three best houses in the three clusters and one for the best cluster
award that went to a community, in this case the Adivasi cluster. This
motivated the house owners to participate in the construction and
finishing of their houses with full enthusiasm and also to maintain
their community building and the environment. The community award was
not in the form of any money but a solar energy based street light was
installed in the cluster.
and vulnerable group of village Mador, Orchha,
has been an achievement as it has approached and stimulated people to
think about their own priorities and help them decide on a selection of
technologies based on what they need and can afford. The SHGs and
various capacity building training programs have a direct influence on
the quality of their life. In this case people started with housing then
ended up with income wherein ideal condition income security comes
first, then housing. There is an important lesson to
be learnt here for all
those working in the development sector that instead of different
programmes and schemes targeting a group for development activities on
different tangents, if the efforts are converged in a concerted manner,
the results would be much more dynamic and successful. Here, it is also
noteworthy to add that since there are not many takers for the
Innovative Stream scheme amongst the various stakeholders, the
government is thinking of closing it down. It is pertinent instead to
look into the expanded interpretation of innovation not only to cover
technology and materials but also institutions and processes.