Tuesday, March 5, 2013

KARIMADOM

How to create real change

19th June 2010 11:37 PM







THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chenkalchoola was an eye-opener.
That concrete houses do not bring a big change in the lives of people inside it. Changes ought to happen within the community, good enough to alter the thinking and behaviour of residents.
Kudumbasree  Mission has taken the cue and Karimadom colony might savour the real change soon.
A community development programme has been envisaged by Kudumbasree and Costford (which designed the new look of the colony) together, which has been hailed as the first in the State to be implemented for the overall development of a slum. Kudumbasree mission hopes to develop it as a model for the entire State.
A comprehensive survey of the colony was taken by Kudumbasree Mission to get a first-hand information on all the residents. The aged, the young, the students, the disabled, the jobless, the ill ones - everyone were counted and all details possible collected.
"We have started on the mobilization work. Social workers in the colony have been identified to work with the people, talk to them of the need to change and above all to develop as a community," says Liby Johnson, Programme Management Unit team leader of Kudumbasree Mission.
As a starter, two study centres have been opened in the colony where students gather, spend time with books and are taught about the need to be educated. Students - both boys and girls- are motivated to take part in competitive examinations which is a rarest of the rare happening in the colony.
Chenkalchoola (Rajaji Nagar colony), which was one of the first slums to receive better housing facility, had failed miserably where it came to developing a better living style. Out of the 90 flats which were constructed, 40 were illegally inhabited by tenants outside the beneficiary list. Apart from the shift from huts to houses, nothing changed for the children there, nor the adults.
"The case is a perfect example of how slum development is not limited to improving the houses but also the lives of people inside it. So, when Karimadom development was in progress, we had stressed on the need for a community development programme," says Saajan of Costford.
However, the main focus is on the aged and palliative care. According to social worker Aswathy (also an inmate of the colony), there are many people who die in the colony without proper medical care. She cites the case of a woman who had died of cancer recently, who never took any treatment for various reasons. Palliative care is the need of the hour in the colony which the community development programme has envisaged.
The Kudumbasree women in the colony would be given help to form small-scale industrial units. Already, there are two such units working in the colony and setting up of more has been encouraged under the programme. A bio-waste management system with the help of the City Corporation has also been included in the project.
The response has been positive so far, Kudumbasree official say. Residents are opening up to the idea of their children receiving education, getting treated, their elderly getting the care and receiving neat places to market their products and clean surroundings to live.
If found successful, the project may get its due recognition in all slum development schemes in the State. Presently, it has been converged with the BSUP (slum development scheme under JNNURM) for its smooth implementation.
asha.nair@expressbuzz.com

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