Housing for the poor — I

Our Prime Minister has offered to build houses for the poor. Although our poor people know how to make houses for themselves. They have been doing it for thousands of years. ^

Our economists might have told the Prime Minister that it will have a multiplier effect and kick-start the economy. In fact, it will benefit the middlemen and corrupt and lead to further inflation. It is not the future we want. Please remember that we are committed to UN to rights of family to a healthy and productive environment, which will meet needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations,

When John Maynard Keynes propounded his general theory to boost effective demand and create full employment, Adolf Hitler built autobahns and Franklin D Roosevelt proposed the New Deal; they did it in countries which had idle skilled labour. This was also the reason that after the Second World War, American aid to Germany and Japan made them economic giants but did not help African and Asian countries.

What our poor require is skill and knowledge, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote human well-being, by developing low-cost, carbon-free and waste-free methods based on traditional heritage and renewable materials.

It was working on these lines that our barefoot entrepreneurs have built about fifty thousand houses in about two hundred and fifty villages at a cost of 13,000 rupees for each safe house which are earthquake proof, rain and flood resistant. And when combined with one eco toilet shared by two families, one hand pump shared by five families, smokeless oven and communal forests cost about 30,000 rupees at about zero carbon. In the process, illiterate beggars at Makli Shrines, men and women, have acquired skills and bank accounts.

The foreign NGO and local contractors who built the same facility at ten times the cost could not believe it therefore they asked the NED Engineering University to examine it. The Vice Chancellor of NED Engineering University personally supervised the test and concluded that even an earthquake of twice the intensity, which hit Kobe in Japan, will not harm it. It was also demonstrated at various universities abroad, including London and Melbourne. And has received innumerable awards. Few examples are:

Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah) Laureate 2013, Japan Asian Fukuoka Laureate 2016, World Habitat Laureate 2018.

Karachi Suhail Zaheer