Dream homes become reality for Solapur Bidi workers

Solapur, Maharashtra, Sep 3 (UNI) ''My dream to own a home has been fulfilled and this house is more beautiful than heaven,'' said Shakuntala Panibhate, who was among the 10,000 odd women bidi workers who became proud owners of their houses, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handed over Asia's largest housing project to them here on September one.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Narsayya Adam, who conceived and executed the project, told UNI, it was the death of his mother, also a bidi worker, due to tuberculosis in 1985, that prompted him to think of doing something for women bidi workers, who earn a meagre income of Rs 40 a day and live with their families in small 6' by 8' shanties with no electricity or water supply and work in filthy conditions.

The low-cost housing project started to take shape in 2000 when the Centre and State Government acted as facilitators for the project by arranging land and providing subsidies, said Mr Adam.

Accordingly, workers who became members of the housing society, paid Rs 20,000 towards the cost of the house, which is Rs. 60,000.

The balance Rs 40,000 was shared equally by the State and Central governments.

However, Mr Adam added that credit should be given to women bidi workers, who spared time to wage a struggle for better living conditions and mobilised under cooperative housing society called Comrade Godutai Parulekar Mahila Beedi Kamgar Sahkari Grih Nirman Sanstha. This view was endorsed by veteran CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri, who, while talking to reporters, said, ''There is no dearth of resources and this project has clearly indicated that public mobilisation and pressure can work wonders.'' Under the project, ground structured houses have been built on 435 acres of land at Kumbhari on the southern fringe of Solapur city.

Each house has been allotted 555 sq ft of land, of which more than half has been left as open space. Each house, which is approachable by a three metre wide road, consists of a living room, a kitchen, bathroom and latrine.

The unique feature of the project is that a private construction company headed by a Solapur resident A V Pandhe (nephew of CITU leader comrade M K Pandhe) came forward to meet the challenge of constructing low-cost houses.

Mr Adam will now spearhead its second phase proposed as Comrade Meenakshi Sane Mahila Beedi Kamgar Sahkari Grih Nirman Sanstha, under which, homes for another 10,000 workers will be built. Dr Manmohan Singh and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have already announced increase in Central and State subsidies for homes from Rs 20,000 to 40,000.

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