Page 75 - HUDCO BEST PRACTICE AWARDS

IS came up with the proposal for provision of Shelter, as a part solution to the problems
faced by these homeless people. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC) provided IS with
a building which can house 80 inhabitants , to provide a safe and secure place of residence
to the identified women. Financial needs to run the shelter was made by converging funds
from Social Welfare Department, companies, trusts and foundations. As the women recover,
they were gradually brought, without any force, into the day to day activities, aided to socialize,
given training in skills, resettled back to family life, thereby communicating to the society that
they are treatable people. The programme has so far catered to more than 2000 homeless
persons with psychosocial disability.
The learnings and experiences from the project helped greatly in developing the shelter
programme for the targeted population. The motivation remains the same across all of Iswar
Sankalpa’s programmes i.e. mental healthcare becomes accessible to all, and no poor has to
suffer neglect and abuse due to his/her disability. Women working under Iswar Sankalpa programme

Activities under Iswar Sankalpa Programme

Year 2013-14

Pro-Poor ActiVitiES through Micro Enterprise Support, Skill training and

community Mobilization by Municipal Administration, government of tamilnadu

n the year 2013-14, Tamil Nadu Government took up the project of universal coverage mobilizing the community towards development of their living standards, utilizing support
Ifor urban poor towards livelihood and improvement in the environmental condition for of all poverty alleviation schemes.
Inclusive Housing. The implementation of housing scheme for the Urban Poor through The beneficiaries are assisted with subsidized cement through government cooperatives to
agencies like Urban Local Bodies and Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board were attempted to make their construction of dwelling unit cost effective. Community participation is ensured
provide 16000 dwelling units for the year 2013-14 out of the total target of 1, 30,000 planned by involving the beneficiary to construct their own housing unit as against the traditional
through 145 projects in the state. Tamil Nadu emerged as the first state to bring beneficiary procedure of engaging the contractors/NGOs/ department etc. for construction of dwelling
led house construction through in-situ development. The state committed to strengthen units. Apart from the above, the state also had 86,504 active neighborhood groups and was
the serviceability of the Urban Local Body in addition to providing shelter for the poor. effectively functioning through support of individual and group micro enterprises and skill
In line with the above, sustainable development was aimed through improvement in the development training programmes over the last 15 years.
financial ability of the Urban Local Body to meet the increasing demand caused due to As a result, 37,402 beneficiaries were trained, 14,004 were placed in jobs and 10,857
rapid urbanization. All the Urban Local Bodies have earmarked a minimum of 25% of the individuals were assisted with self-employment ventures. All these efforts by the government
municipal financial resources towards the basic services to urban poor fund in the Municipal led to the improvement in the environmental conditions and livelihood generation for the
Budget. The community based organization structured on a three tier basis has helped in urban poor.

75