Care Home brings back smiles to people left homeless by floods

Suchitra still trembles with fear, describing the terrible day she lost her dear home two years ago. The 42-year-old widow watched from a distance as a huge hill came off, burying everything on its way. Tons of mud cascaded down the slope, bringing along with it, trees and houses, and blanketing the area with a thick layer of mud and stones.

The landslip completely turned a scenic village into a red lake of mud and stones. Today, as she stands outside her newly-built house, Suchitra is a relieved woman. The government might not have returned everything she had lost, but it has at least built a new home for her.

The Care Home project of the Department of Cooperation has come as a huge relief to thousands of people like Suchitra who were left homeless by the floods and landslides that took place two years ago. The government built 2,000 houses under the project across the state.

The cooperative societies joined hands with organisations like the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society and Cooperative Academy of Professional Education on a voluntary basis to provide technical guidance for the project. While the Department of Cooperation gave Rs 5 lakh towards building each house, the local cooperative societies provided their profit share for the project. For drawing out plans, the engineering students came up with the necessary inputs.

As these houses were built without any set of models, a beneficiary council was formed to work out a plan for each family. The council, which has representatives from cooperatives, panchayats, and the beneficiaries, sat together with the flood-hit people and asked about the plans they wanted for their houses. The plans were worked out according to their requirements and looking at the geography of the area, as much of it is flood-prone.

As the houses were built on pillars, the beneficiaries can now live in their houses without having to fear floods or landslides. The construction was completed with a proper foundation that can withstand a normal flood. In the second phase of the project, the government is mulling the construction of apartment complexes in each of the districts for homeless people.

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