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Ajapar : A Livelihood Metaphor DA-CARE Livelihood Project in post-earthquake Gujarat focused on two
initiatves (a) a building material enterprise development project contributed to material supply and livelihood creation (during crunch reconstruction phase) and a hand-made paper project (b) helped create livelihoods (in the rehabilitation phase). DA was entrusted to provide technical training for paper products and market generation for these products. Seventy Five women of two villages Kotda (taluka Bhuj) and Ajapar (taluka Anjar) were trained. CARE
commissioned DA to manage the establishment of a training cum
production centre (TPC) in the village Ajapar. Tara Nirman Kendra
took the job of constructing the building that would also be a
demonstration building of DA’s alternative construction technologies
as well as boost the sales of the paper product. The Design TPC was conceived as a building where apart from the main function of training and production, other community activities would also take place. Therefore the C-shape of the building was derived where interaction amongst women would be enhanced. The rooms were designed considering the production flow of paper products. The main central hall was given the training hall status. Apart from that there are separate store rooms for raw materials and finished products with machine room and production room in between them. The focus of the building is the shop cum exhibition room. As for services separate toilets for men and women and a generator room is provided.
TPC has a variety of construction techniques much to the interest of the villagers, who had never seen such experiments before.
The building uses random rubble masonry from foundation to the plinth and then from plinth band to the sill level. Above that, interlocking compressed earth block are used for the rest of the walls (with holes in them for vertical reinforcement). As for the roofing options the store rooms has filler slab, the filler being locally available Morbi tiles, the training room has ferro-cement channels, the corridor and the toilets have sloping Morbi-tiles with cyclone resisting aluminium clips and the shop has a brick masonry dome. The entire construction has been done in conformation to the earthquake resistance norms decided by the Government (GSDMA). The building uses Sulabh type septic tanks based toilet system. The building also utilizes small Ferro-cement products as its furniture etc. The courtyard has been filled with fertile earth by the women (stakeholders) in order to plant bougainvillea and ivy. The premise has been cordoned off by a boundary wall due to the concern raised by the women about the security of the building.
All in all, the building has been successful in rendering an identity to the project and build a sense of territoriality and self-confidence among the stake-holders, who monitored the progress and quality of construction throughout and ensured cleanliness of the building. q |
