Affordable housing technologies : CBRI Role in National Development

Abstract

Shelter is one of the fundamental need of human beings after food and clothing. Owning a house ensures certain degree of economic as well as social security to a citizen and determines the overall development of a nation. With the ever-growing population, providing adequate shelter, especially in the rural areas is a serious challenge faced by the country. A large portion of the nation's population reside in the villages with primitive environmental conditions and living standards. To arrange the required finances for the construction at one time is a humongous task for the rural population. They build houses from familiar and locally available materials using the local knowledge regarding housing construction. Majority of rural population lives in houses built of mud and thatch that lack proper amenities, comfort, quality, and durability; do not meet the minimal standard of safety, health, and hygiene. Though the problems and sufferings of the rural population are understood, the constraints of finances, the scarcity of skilled workforce and lack of proper roads and transportation facilities to import materials and relative prohibitive cost of better building materials are major deterrents in providing an immediate substitution to these mud houses. CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee has evolved technologies, to apply the scientific knowledge in the betterment of these thatch-mud houses through efficient planning, improved construction, utilize sustainable, environment friendly, locally available materials, economical disposal of wastes and provision of certain minimal basic amenities. In this article, efforts have been made to propose these low-cost affordable housing technologies.