It’s the realization of a dream. Every tribal wants to live in dignity and very soon the Tribals of Kerala will have a decent house to stay. HRDS INDIA has brought about a revolution in the lives of 1000 Tribal families in the Attapadi Tribal Block in the Palakkad district by ensuring each one of them has a proper house. Out of this 300 houses have been completed and will be handed over to the tribal families shortly.

For long the Tribals in various states have been neglected and  marginalized a lot. Most of them don’t have even the basic requisites like housing and clothing. Now for the first time in the history of independent India, the Tribals are going to get 1000 pucca houses by an NGO in Kerala. Well, this great feat has been made possible by HRDS INDIA, an NGO dedicated to uplifting and improving the conditions of the tribal population in the country. This is the first time that such a large scale housing scheme has been launched exclusively for the Tribals in the country and HRDS INDIA are the pioneers in this field.

The Sadhgraha Tribal Housing Project is India’s unique initiative started by HRDS INDIA, the only one in the country which caters to all the needs of the Tribals and particularly to give them the self esteem—something which they have been deprived of from ancient times. All the other sections of society have evolved, but not the tribes.

The Sadhgraha Tribal Housing Project will be a game changer in the annals of tribal history. For the Tribals they will build houses across the length and breadth of India. ‘We have plans to build similar houses for  Tribals in Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Gujarat,  and  Northeast States of India,” said AjiKrishnan Founder and Secretary of HRDS INDIA.

HRDS INDIA, an NGO started in 1997 has  been relentlessly working at improving the betterment of the Tribals in the state. The NGO has had a chequered history by becoming the first organization in India to fructify the homes of Tribals—no where has any organisation taken up the task of building houses for Tribals on such a large scale.

On his part, Mr. Krishnan, founder and secretary of HRDS INDIA outlined the fact that he had worked closely with the tribal people for the last 20 years. He said to know how the Tribals lived, he and some members of the HRDS INDIA adopted a novel method of acclamitasing with them, they started to live with them.

“We had to know how they lead their lives.. The sort of challenges they face, their aspirations for this we had to be part of their lives. The members of HRDS INDIA started staying with them in order to `get used to their way of life and also the problems faced by them on a day to day basis. This was the only way we could get a clear peek into their lives and understand them,”.

Well lets now have a small glimpse of to come to the details of the Attappadi Tribal Block we have to understand certain things. It must be mentioned here that Attappadi is a large geographical area located on Western Ghats near to Silent valley wild life sanctuary. The 60% of the population in Attappadi Block is Tribal people. Irula, Maduga, Kurumba are the main Tribal communities in Attappadi Block. There are 192 Tribal hamlets in Attappadi and a total tribal population of around 30000 people.

So how difficult was it to work initially with the Tribals? Well surprisingly, there was no such thing called difficulty.  They are very simple people who generally keep their problems and worries to themselves. They are very self respecting lot and will never come out and ask for redressal of their problems,” said Mr. Krishnan.

When asked to elaborate on what sort of material they use to build the houses , Mr. Krishnan explained ‘HRDS INDIA introducing Fibre Cement Panels which is an innovative building material for individual houses in the proposed project site. Fibre Cement Panels are certified green products which are help to conserve the environment in many aspects. Fibre Cement Board is composed  of a composite matrix containing special grade cellulose fibres, ordinary Portland cement, fine silica, quartz, and some mineral additives. Its main advantages are eco – friendly, less time consuming, easy installation and cost effective. As per the project, HRDS INDIA is constructing 370sq.ft. Pre – Fabricated House for the Tribal Homeless family. Sadhgraha Tribal Housing Project closely follows a Traditional Indian design which includes 2 Bed Rooms, Hall, Kitchen, Attached Bathroom and a small verandah etc. Moreover, it will take only 12 days to complete an Individual Sadhgraha house’.