CABIN HOMES FOR HOMELESS , A SOCIAL IMPACT MISSION
It takes only 15 days to construct a small house that caters the needs of a small family, that too with a low cost less than 2,00,000 INR. This is a project to help poor and homeless people at his village Padam. The house consists of a bedroom, bathroom, sit-out and a kitchen. The company has gifted 3 homes for needy families in Padam village. I used a portion of the profit from my busnesses to complete this project.
Cabin home projects are mainly beneficial for old aged people, financially backward families, transgenders, widows who are homeless or living in make-shift sheds.Though cabin homes are relatively smaller, it serves all the needs and safety for a micro family. Usually it takes 5 lakhs to 8 lakhs and several months to construct a small concrete house and often times beneficiaries are unable to raise sufficient funds. That is why, cabin homes gain more importance. Those who struggled to raise money to construct home and people who use old plastic sheets, advertisement boards and jute sacks to create a shelter are the beneficiaries of this project.
Cabin homes are designed usually based on the family size and needs . For a single person or 2 member family, cabin homes costs 1.5 to 2 lakhs. Similarly, for a nuclear family 2 bedroom cabin homes are constructed and costs between 2.5 to 3 lakhs. Cabin home sizes varies anywhere from a total built up area of 200 to 300 sq feet. All the beneficiaries of cabin homes are poor and once lived in unsafe conditions.
Cabin homes are usually constructed by low cost hollow bricks, used roofing tiles, V-boards, aluminium sheets etc. Such homes are safe, eco-friendly and provides all basic facilities. For a single person or a 2 member family, a cabin home with 1 bed room, a sit out, an open kitchen and a toilet. For a nuclear family, the cabin homes are constructed with 2 bed rooms. The average area of a cabin home is 200 to 300 sq feet. The cabinhomes are constructed by reused and light weight items hence reduces the labour cost and transportation cost. We don’t assert that “the cabinhomes are luxurious as normal concrete houses of Kerala”. There are no limitations for basic facilities such as bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and windows.
“I was living in a completely damaged shed. Earning money to build a safe home on my own was not an easy task for me”, says Ravi, a transgender who is one of the main beneficiaries of cabin home in Padam village.
There are many people in our society are struggling to get a home for their own. It is almost impossible for them to earn 8 lakhs or 10 lakhs rupees to construct a home. Obtaining documents of land and sanctions to build a house from a is a difficult task for some due to documentation complexities. This acts as a motivation to social groups to come forward and implement the cabin home project.
There are 55 applications received for such cabin homes from Konni constituency alone till date. C360 team is conducting panchayats level meetings with the applicants to increase awareness of cabin homes to identify beneficiaries and prioritise. In first phase, the goal is to build one cabin home each at all 11 panchayats in Konni.
Other than the housing projects, I support many other social impact activities such as computer training, sports coaching and educational scholarships for Youth-as-Risk in rural village areas. “We need less talk and more actions. Community development is a responsibility of every citizen, not just government”.
Twitter — Barun Chandran
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