Houses for the Poor

Under the Housing programme, a major area of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), interventions were made at four levels.

1. Building new houses for the Below Poverty Line families under Indira Awaz Yojana (IAY), subsidising part of the cost for new houses under the Credit-cum-Subsidy Scheme.

2. Upgradation of unserviceable kutcha houses in IAY.

3. Introduction of new technologies like stabilised mud blocks.

4. Training for rural youth in the low cost technologies and taking up specialty groups for attention. In all DRDA Kanyakumari has constructed large number of houses and helped up-gradation of Kutcha houses.

During the current year 786 unserviceable Kutcha houses were upgraded and a total of 1575 New houses built both under IAY. To the former a subsidy of Rs.10,000 each was paid and to the latter Rs.32,000, all the families belonged to Below Poverty Line category and the ratio of the recipients was 60 percent SC/ ST and 40 percent other categories. In all the above 1575 new houses were built costing Rs. 504,00,000 and 786 kutcha houses up-graded in the district at a cost of Rs.78,60,000. During the year 2001-2002 796 unserviceable kutcha houses were upgraded and 1593 new houses built

Other innovative attempts tried includes adoption of the new technology Stabilised Mud Blocks, where the necessary equipment has been procured and a group of local youth volunteers trained in the making of Stabilized Mud Blocks which is expected to benefit the building sector of the district as the stabilised mud blocks are more cost-effective and strong.

The stabilised mud blocks were introduced through youth groups, Nethaji Narpani Mandram and the Nehru Yuva Kendra, Manakavilai. The rural communities are slowly accepting the new technology which is expected to save costs up to 40 percent.

In Kanyakumari district almost all the SC/ ST families with patta lands have been covered under these schemes. Those without land deeds are now being provided pattas by the government and these are to be taken up in the next phase. The implementation of the Samathuvapurams, two in the district, one at Kalingarajapuram in Munchirai block and the other at Chempakaraman puthur in Thovalai block also added to the housing programme adding 100 houses each.