One of the privileges of living in a rural setting is to stay close to nature. This is a season for the birds to find their home for the breeding season. Many birds occupy every space they find on the walls of buildings. Sometimes they compete for the same space.
During our frequent road travels Anna and I notice that vast areas of agricultural land are getting converted into housing plots. All these are private property development initiatives.
There is a pressure to provide housing at an affordable cost. However, the property developers have converted it into a commercial activity to make huge profit margins.
I like the way the Christian Medical college approached this issue about 20years back. The college bought land and allowed its employees to buy it by paying the cost in installments and offered to give them a loan to construct houses from their pension and provident funds. The college has continued this practice since then and is helping its employees to have a house of their own.
This social housing programme is most valuable and commendable.
I have been checking with several organizations and institutions to find out whether the managements have considered this as a priority. Those medical institutions who offer financial support to the employees for the education of their children, make provisions for housing, offer concessional medical treatment and give post retirement benefits are truly organizations that promote a second mile culture in people building.
I remember visiting a few homes of the employees of Christian Fellowship Hospital at Oddanchatram, Tamil Nadu when Anna and I worked there in the early eighties. They not only received loans to build houses from the hospital, but were given loan to buy goats, buffalo, cultivate the land, etc. to buffer their income. This was Dr. A.K.Tharien's way of building a community around the hospital.
Those who own houses can feel how desperate others are to have a house of their own!
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