Building Blocks Approach to Rural Housing: Experiences from an Innovative Rural Housing Programme

This document comprehensively presents the efforts, experiences and achievements of Jana Chaitanya Samagrabhivruddi Sangam (JCSS), a Non-governmental organisation (NGO), in the implementation of an innovative rural housing project in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. This project was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and HOLTEC consulting private limited (HOLTEC). The document establishes that JCSS achieved substantial results in enabling: people's access to housing rights through linkages with government programs, micro credit institutions and through facilitating appropriate, technologies in the form of lowcost housing models. As part of the above process, some of the key interventions that came up in response to external challenges include, facilitation of innovative cooperative societies: in the form of Tribal Honey collectors as well as with rural artisans. Apart from highlighting JCSS's successes, this document also points out some of the limitations of the above approach and process.