Costford:
We will be working with a non-profit organization called Costford while we are here. Costford was founded by a British architect in the 70s. Baker had come to India in the 40s and happened to meet Ghandi, who asked him to stay in India and use his training to improve the quality of life for Indians. Through Costford, Baker came up with design techniques, building techniques and philosophies in order to create better housing solutions that are accessible to all Indians. Since then, Costford has built over 20,000 buildings. Not only does Costford create homes and buildings for Indians, they also create social development groups that help the community as a whole. Costford will typically design buildings and fully or partially assist in building. They receive government funding to build low-income housing through government funding, and all other homes (middle-income, high-income, government buildings, and commercial buildings) the owner is responsible for purchasing the building materials and paying an architect's fee to Costford.
Kerala:
Fun Facts:
Housing in Kerala is broken into permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary or makeshift housing. With a 4% population growth and the number of citizens living in urban areas nearly doubling in the last 10 years, "rurban" areas have been created, where cities don't feel like big cities and rural areas don't feel very small. These strains have caused fathers to migrate to the Gulf states for work. Currently there is more of a demand for white collar jobs versus much demand for blue collar workers in the last 10 years. The blue collar workers were subject to much exploitation, being paid far less than they were promised and not being able to return to their families because their employers would hold their documents. Now, white collar workers are needed and are allowed to bring their families with them. They typically stay about 8 years, in which time they are able to make about 4 times as much money as they would in Kerala. They stay until their debts and expenses are paid.
Although the view of women is changing, girls are still seen as a burden to families. However, there are more women who complete their required 10 years of schooling and many more that go on to higher education. One thing about Kerala is that there are more women than men, which is not true of any other state in India. When asked if they would prefer their parents choose a husband for them (and receive a dowry) or if they would want to choose, 70% of college girls said they would rather their parents choose for the following reasons: they would be more respected in the husband's family if they were to bring in money of their own, they don't know how to choose the right man, they would be more secure with their own family if a husband was chosen for them, and if something went wrong in the arranged marriage, it wouldn't be their fault.
We will be working with a non-profit organization called Costford while we are here. Costford was founded by a British architect in the 70s. Baker had come to India in the 40s and happened to meet Ghandi, who asked him to stay in India and use his training to improve the quality of life for Indians. Through Costford, Baker came up with design techniques, building techniques and philosophies in order to create better housing solutions that are accessible to all Indians. Since then, Costford has built over 20,000 buildings. Not only does Costford create homes and buildings for Indians, they also create social development groups that help the community as a whole. Costford will typically design buildings and fully or partially assist in building. They receive government funding to build low-income housing through government funding, and all other homes (middle-income, high-income, government buildings, and commercial buildings) the owner is responsible for purchasing the building materials and paying an architect's fee to Costford.
Kerala:
Fun Facts:
- Kerala is one of 13 states in India, similar to states in the United States.
- Kerala was the first democratically elected communist state
- Kerala is about 40,000 square km
- There are about 850 people per sq. km
- ~91% literacy rate
- ~10% infant mortality rate (this is 4 times better than most of India)
- There are sizable populations of Christians, Hindi and Muslims
- 30% of houses do not have a private toilet in the house or on the compound
- the percentage of girls who complete the 10 years of education are higher than the percentage of men who do
- 20% of women go on to complete higher education
- 1/4 families has experienced migration to gulf countries
- 48% of the population in Kerala is considered urban in 2011 versus 25% in 2001
Housing in Kerala is broken into permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary or makeshift housing. With a 4% population growth and the number of citizens living in urban areas nearly doubling in the last 10 years, "rurban" areas have been created, where cities don't feel like big cities and rural areas don't feel very small. These strains have caused fathers to migrate to the Gulf states for work. Currently there is more of a demand for white collar jobs versus much demand for blue collar workers in the last 10 years. The blue collar workers were subject to much exploitation, being paid far less than they were promised and not being able to return to their families because their employers would hold their documents. Now, white collar workers are needed and are allowed to bring their families with them. They typically stay about 8 years, in which time they are able to make about 4 times as much money as they would in Kerala. They stay until their debts and expenses are paid.
Although the view of women is changing, girls are still seen as a burden to families. However, there are more women who complete their required 10 years of schooling and many more that go on to higher education. One thing about Kerala is that there are more women than men, which is not true of any other state in India. When asked if they would prefer their parents choose a husband for them (and receive a dowry) or if they would want to choose, 70% of college girls said they would rather their parents choose for the following reasons: they would be more respected in the husband's family if they were to bring in money of their own, they don't know how to choose the right man, they would be more secure with their own family if a husband was chosen for them, and if something went wrong in the arranged marriage, it wouldn't be their fault.
