Sholapur Bidi

Status: Complete
People Housed: 2,505
Country: India
City: Sholapur
Partner: SSNS
Year Approved: 2003

Total Invested

INR 29,306,247

Total Invested

$391,566

Delivery of Homes

Total Financed

Completed

Basic

501

Project Overview

This project is located in Solapur, which is home to 60,000 workers who roll bidis indigenous Indian cigarettes. The bidi workers in Solapur are women and the accompanying trade union is led primarily by women. For this project, the workers in the union formed a housing cooperative society the Maa Saheb Bidi Kamgaar Sahakari Grih Nirman Sanstha Ltd. The housing society purchased land just outside the municipal limits on which to construct their homes.

Bidi workers are entitled to an INR 20,000 housing subsidy from both the State and Central Government. However, these subsidies had not been drawn down effectively or very often, because the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) would only build the houses for bidi workers at a price out of the reach of bidi workers. SPARC Samudaya Nirman Sahayak (SSNS) therefore drew down these funds and combined them with funds from the sale of commercial units on the project along with community contributions to cover the costs, with Reall funds used to bridge-finance the project.

501

Homes Completed

501

Homes Occupied

501

Connected to Water and Sanitation