Ramesh Darwada, 34, is a happy man. He has a 'pucca' house now and he does not have to worry about the threat of the wooden logs in his earlier house falling on them. "All this was possible only for Habitat for Humans," he said gleefully, thanking the NGO which offered him a loan without interest to build a new house with bricks at Mograj village of Raigad district, a few kilometres away from Karjat.
According to a survey, a large number of tribal families in Raigad (14.6%) and Thane (18.9%) live in a state of extreme poverty with inadequate housing, insecurity of land tenure and lack of livelihoods options. This prompted the NGO to extend their support to the village for its development. Habitat for Humans not only gives monetary support but also ropes in corporate houses and international students to volunteer in helping them. Volunteers work as unskilled labourers in laying the foundation of a house, supplying construction materials and painting the walls. They work with the home owners, interact with them and experience the hardship a family faces during the making of a house.
Loans are given to beneficiaries who are below poverty line (BPL) and have ancestral land. They are selected from the self help groups in the village. The beneficiaries who cannot repay the loan are told to give 'shram daan' (help with physical labour).
"They gave us a loan without interest. Now, after 8 years, I have spent Rs3 lakh on building this proper home. This might sound a bit disagreeable that a house is built with just that much money but Habitat aims at building cost-effective and nature-friendly houses," said Darwada.
"The bricks are made of mud from the fields. In place of cement, we used mud and this cut down the cost. The cost of tile-making was also reduced as they were made by a skilled mason in the village. They helped us build a house of around 400 sq. ft.," said Bhau, a ground-level coordinator who is hired by Habitat for Humanity to help the natives.
Apart from housing, the NGO also helps the villagers earn additional income by helping them grow fruits and vegetables in the open space in front of their houses.
The sanitation units that have been built in the village has increased the number of students to the school. "Due to the sanitation unit built in the school, my daughter regularly attends classes," said Asha bai.
Box:
Habitat for Humanity India
Habitat for Humanity India is an international NGO that works towards housing and sanitation, having served more than 54,000 families across 17 states of India. For over 30 years, Habitat and its partners have been working with low-income, marginalised families to build homes, provide housing-related services and spread awareness on the need of proper housing and sanitation. The motto of the NGO is building one home at a time. They have a target of building around 1,00,000 sanitation units by October next year to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti.
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