$300 dollar house

Issue 1

“A portion of land mostly on the outskirts of city. Rich in Rags. Most of the sewage water and city waste surrounds the area. Amids’t this you find a considerable portion of the world living, in their so called houses. The houses are in a way architectural wonders. Mostly made with rags tied to poles. Or sometimes using waste aluminum /iron sheets. And the dwellers here emanate zero sanitation and poor health…”

In a word it’s called slum.

Be it a Metro, town or a village they are present everywhere-The slum dwellers. They live in highly unhygienic areas and unstable houses. There is no protection for them, neither from rain nor from sun. And they and their area breed diseases. Not just slums but many poor villages depict the same scenario. It’s not that they chose this lifestyle. They just don’t have enough money to move to a decent lifestyle.

Food, Clothing and Shelter are said to be the basic needs of people. In the above case people are almost deprived of one of their basic needs “shelter” and also “health”.

We always talk about developing the society. We talk about increasing the standard of living, producing a trained and educated human resource. When we say “society” we must consider people dwelling in these areas too. And as far as People in these areas are concerned nothing is possible until and unless they get their basic needs right. If they don’t have their basic needs satisfied they will never ever think of development/education.

Issue 2

“The houses are drowned in water .Buildings have fallen down to the level of land. Everything is either submerged or thrashed down completely. There is devastation, destruction everywhere..People have no homes.”

  

This is a typical scenario whenever we are struck by natural calamities.”Rehabilitation” is usually done .But it’s a time consuming process. And pretty costly too.. Until rehab centers are built people are deprived of their homes and they are left as wanderers…

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As it is evident, the answer  to the above mentioned issues(and many others) is an efficient housing solution .A solution that is not only cheap but something that can be built very quick..Luckily one such solution exists

“The $300 dollar House”

It's a project headed by Christian Sarkar and his team. The sole purpose of this project is to make sure that the poorest of the poor has a stable shelter. A “Shelter” that can ensure protection from Rain, sun and wind. A shelter that can ensure sanitation. A shelter that can be built quickly. A shelter that can ensure good health, education, to the dwellers .Basically a shelter that is a “Health delivery System “as he calls it. And the most remarkable thing is that all this is achieved at a cost of Rs 300 dollar.

They have already completed projects in Haiti and Have built Rehab centers in Bihar( For Flood victims) and Pondicherry(For Tsunami Victims).Great work sir….

Before concluding I just hope that the project gets good exposure and implementation. I wish Christian Sarkar and team all the best for their Endeavor and salute them for not just providing a house to the poor but for giving them a dwelling place which they can proudly  call as “HOME”.

Watch this video to know more:

Franklin Templeton Investmentspartnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012.