Karrigan Nagar, Cuddalore district
Karrigan Nagar is one of our most ambitious projects to date. We are building 28 dwellings, containing 56 houses. The whole site is being built using CEBs, with each house having its own eco-sanitation toilet and shared rainwater harvesting facilities. We believe this to be one of the largest eco-constructions of its kind, certainly in India, maybe the world.
The project is for the benefit of the so-called Scheduled Caste, commonly known as the untouchables or dalits, the lowest in the hierarchy of the oppressive Indian caste system. Dalit is a Sanskrit word that means ‘broken, discriminated or shattered people’. These people perform the most menial and degrading tasks in Indian society, including clearing rats and snakes from farmers’ fields, and manually removing faeces from toilets. In spite of the horrendous work conditions they suffer, the wages they receive are a pittance: as little as Rs.5 a day (6.5p). Manual scavengers are never provided with even basic protective equipment like boots or gloves, making the task much more difficult, and increasing these workers’ susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections.
The land at Karrigan Nagar was secured for the village population after a 20 year legal battle. There are currently ten houses completed, and CEBs stockpiled and ready to build the rest. Once completed, this innovative project will literally transform the lives of all the families in this community, and will also act as a blueprint to duplicate and develop similar projects in other impoverished communities in the district.
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