Co-Solve Hub : Workers' Movable Shelters

From 2011 to 2030, India's urban population would grow from 377M to 600M.  Indian cities are grossly inadequate to provide the basic infrastructure and services to the residents even with addresses.  The 74 million migrant workers from rural areas come to the cities and live under make-shift tarps. Not having an address or a legitimate living space in the city, they are deprived of even the basics of shelter, sanitation, education, health, financial services.  Women and children are greatly exploited and harassed.  The government or employers alone cannot address this.

Four promising factors embolden us to step up to the challenge:  various policy reforms, innovative shelter products and services in the market, multi-stakeholder technology platforms, growing access to smartphones in migrant and rural communities.  

We are creating an online and offline platform for multi-stakeholder matching, engagement, and co-development of migrant shelters.  The future of work demands a collective response now.

In spite of automation, India will continue to employ  70+M workers to build roads, railways, buildings, and industrial complexes. The workers will need to live close to the worksite, and they will require decent shelters that can be moved elsewhere.

Many large employers provide shipping containers or tin roofs and walls for their skilled workers. However, they are woefully inadequate and downright dangerous in the hot summer days. Smaller employers are not obligated to provide any housing to their migrant workers, as they are hired by intermediaries who skirt many labor laws.

The root of the problem is that neither the municipality agencies nor the employers have the capacity or the full responsibility to address this issue.   

We contend that a break-though can come only from a collective of champions from civil society organizations, NGOs, the construction industry, academic institutions, social investors, technology partners, and public service agencies. They must work together to remove obstacles and tap into promising opportunities while engaging the workers and the employers at every stage.

Our first pilot is in Ahmedabad (8.3M population), Gujarat state, India.  The city boasts thriving industries, commerce, civic, academic, and cultural life.  The city also has ~400 slums and additionally, 45000 migrant laborers annually come to the city for work.   

Our first phase, already underway, will see the creation of a platform - CO-SOLVE - and a team of stakeholders mentioned earlier. In the second phase, the team will build and offer online and offline resources for movable housing solutions. 

When a rural migrant worker arrives in an unknown city with no identity, meager resources, and no access to services, he or she is entirely uprooted and vulnerable akin to a situation of going from a fire-pan to a fire.  

Our virtual platform, CO-SOLVE, offers partnerships to 

(i) Ahmedabad-based NGOs who work closely with a large number of migrant workers and have high credibility among this community. They also actively engage with local municipal and governmental entities as advocates for policy reforms towards safeguarding rights and entitlements. 

(ii) Ahmedabad's best professional and academic institutions.

(iii) Suppliers and fabricators who will co-design highly functional, affordable, and modular shelter designs and provide hardware for allied services such as energy and sanitation.  

Our strategy is to have these NGO partners take the lead in outlining the key concerns of migrant workers' including issues related to habitat, employer and peer relationships, health and sanitation, maternal and child care, physical and sexual harassment, energy needs, privacy, wage negotiations and upskilling. Through a highly iterative process, the CO-SOLVE team will develop shelter products and business models that will be piloted and upscaled in Ahmedabad. 

In order to remain relevant and resilient, we seek for ourselves to be a learning organization.  We will leverage global and local universities groups to set the metrics, monitor, and reconfigure our assumptions, processes, shelter offerings, our technology platform, etc.

Despite a projected increase in demand for construction workers in India in the next decade, it will not translate into fair labor practices for the millions of migrant workers due to supply outpacing demand. Technology-driven modernization of the industry will further marginalize these workers unless there is a matching upskilling. Thus the ability to adapt and learn new skillsets is critical in order to sustain and improve their participation in the labor market and create prosperous livelihoods for themselves.

Our interpretation of the Challenge is premised on the assumption that upskilling and empowering the workers will not yield desired results unless we create habitat conditions that alleviate the extreme distress that they suffer today. There is robust evidence to suggest that persistent poverty, deprivation and hardship severely impede human cognitive capacity (see article). This causal relationship explains why there is low uptake of inputs among this community for skills up-gradation.  

In other words, any effort to upskill and organize the transient workers to face the future of work in this industry will be severely undermined if one of the most fundamental needs - housing - remains a barrier.  Dependable housing solutions will create the enabling foundation for the workers to face the future of workers.

The CO-SOLVE's initiative is to bring together players who can contribute to the housing solution for this marginalized group.   

Dr. Shashidharan (Shashi) Enarth will anchor the implementation of the solution. He comes with a background of (i) leadership positions in NGOs working at the grassroots and intermediate levels (ii) international consulting for the World Bank in Nigeria, Tanzania and India. (iii) Research and teaching at the University level.  

Our solutions offer three innovations: 

1. Participatory Design: Engaging a cohort of users to participate in the design of various shelter modules for optimal trade-offs and design decisions, and user experience preferences.  This addresses the chronic sub-optimal results of community-facing development solutions that fail to engage the end-users at critical stages of design and implementation.

2. Product and Service Innovation:  Use of scalable, modular building materials that enables a high level of customization and leverage existing market innovations to meet specific needs of the users while also supporting the site-specific considerations. This addresses the common limitations faced by projects that offer one-size-fits-all solutions. 

3. Robust Business Model: Provision of portable shelter through a social enterprise that will recover operating and depreciation costs. Traditionally, provisioning of basic services to low-income or vulnerable segments of the population is done through a fully subsidized welfare approach. This has proven to have a very limited impact due to two inhibiting factors: 

1. Reinforces the myth that vulnerable communities require a perpetual infusion of subsidy/grant to sustain activities for/by them.
2. Philanthropic sources are very limited. The demand for such services far outweighs the limited supply. If the enterprise runs on an economically self-sustaining business model, it will offer templates for social entrepreneurs and capital markets to take the idea to scale. 

Using our market-resilient, the lease fee will be structured in a way that it not only recovers the operation and maintenance expenses but also repays the capital cost through the amortization process.

As described in the above sections, the main causes for the paucity of housing solutions are, among others, the incompatibility of the existing traditional use of building technologies and materials. Brick-and-mortar structures, rigid container-like options, hazardous asbestos sheets, unhealthy tin sheets or worn-out tarps, and canvass have all proven highly sub-optimal in meeting the needs of our target group.

Our solution will see the use of innovative technology on three counts: 

(i) use of processed prefab panels made of climate-friendly re-usable materials including bamboo panels as basic building (cladding) material.

(ii) An assembling protocol for the shelter that gives the user an opportunity to take a "build-your-own-house" approach. This will allow the user to add on energy, water and sanitation requirements.

(iii) use of smartphone App to optimize user options and service delivery through transparent pricing. 

(iv) Design Studio Tools: Our design partner institutions (such as Design and architect students and professionals) will hold design workshops and use a variety of existing tools, such as ConceptBoard, PhotoShop, to co-design with the migrant workers, building vendors, utility service providers, and so on.  

The business model is the second dimension of innovation. It will establish the viability of businesses that serve the underserved, bottom-of-the-pyramid, segment of the population.

The Log Frame matrix presents an abstract of the activities and broad outcomes and corresponding impacts. In turn, each activity, outcome and impact converge towards the goal of this initiative. i.e. Contribute towards the significant improvement in the quality of life of a transient migrant worker and their family so as to reduce the cognitive burden and predispose them to upskilling and build their capacity to be able to adapt to the demands on industry modernization.      

In the first year of implementation, we are expecting 100 shelter units to be in use in the city of Ahmedabad. This will demonstrate the economic and institutional feasibility of the enterprise. This period will also provide an insight into the behavioral responses of various stakeholders to the enterprise. Of particular significance is the response of: 

1. the worker: impact on his/her employment opportunities, health and wellbeing, particularly of women and children.

2.   Labor contractor/construction company: improvement in productivity, a decline in absenteeism. 

3. Social enterprise: sustaining business operations 

Successful use of portable shelters is expected to generate higher demand for more units. This will be achieved through (i) scaling up of the existing unit in Ahmedabad and (ii) franchising the model to other cities through local entrepreneurs and tapping capital markets and public funds.

Demonstration of upscaled operations and persistent advocacy: The success and larger adoption of this model will also depend on the policy landscape that governs land use and labor laws and city bylaws. As demand grows, in-situ land (at the construction site) will be insufficient. Land banks that state and city jurisdictions manage will have to be accessed. This will require persistent advocacy work with the concerned jurisdictions. The advocacy work will be premised on the fact that housing solutions for transient workers will significantly reduce the strife and disruptions caused to public life due to encroachment of public spaces such as pavements, bust stands and parks by homeless workers. 

There are tangible and intangible outcomes and impacts. While both are  measurable (using contingency value methods), the direct and early indicators are:

A. The number of active members on the CO-SOLVE platform. Besides quantitative measures, a qualitative dimension would be the diversity of disciplines and stakeholders represented on the platform. Among them are:

1. Representatives of migrant workers
2. Subject matter specialists (architects/designers/livelihood/habitat practitioners, scholars and civil servants).
3. NGOs, civil society advocacy agencies
4. Vendors and suppliers,

B. The number of shelter units fabricated/leased/paid for and well used.

C. The categories of users (Single/bachelors occupant, family units etc)

D. Impact on quality of life of the worker family (gender-segregated direct and indirect costs on health care, childcare, leisure activity, education etc)  E. Impact on Livelihood activity: Absenteeism, wage-rate increase, skills upgraded.  

G. Frequency of incidents of conflict, loss of assets due to break-ins and/or exposure to elements of weather.

The most significant barrier at the beginning of a scalable housing solution is the attitude of the employers (labor contractors and builders) towards the transient migrant workers. Given the vulnerability and weak bargaining ability of the workers, the employees believe that they have no incentive to invest or even allow any effort to alleviate the hardship faced by the workers. This is likely to manifest in the form of denial of space or amenities such as water supply, power and sewage connection, where available, at the construction site for the shelters

The second biggest barrier will be the initial capital required for building adequate physical stock of the movable shelter. Since the business viability of the enterprise is not yet demonstrated on a scale, institutional and market-sources capitals are shy away from financing the enterprise. 

Over a 5 year span, as the demand for movable shelters picks up, the main barrier would be the availability of land and the legal space for securing temporary space for setting up shelters. At present, there is a policy vacuum that creates some ambiguity and supply constraints in making use of unused public places for setting up the units. 

The attitudinal barrier that will inhibit the employers from embracing this solution comes largely from a widely held misperception that a vulnerable workforce makes for competitive economic advantage in the form of foisting exploitative wages and working conditions. Fortunately, there are now some examples, though less known and understood, of the mutual benefits of a happy and heathy workforce by way improved productivity. We will develop a communication plan that will help convey this to the employers. We have also coopted a few progressive builders and labor contractors to pilot our initial units.

While institutional financing is the most sustainable approach to meet the capital requirements, we have mobilized part of the initial capital from philanthropic individuals and charities in the US. These contributors have pledged funds specifically to support the innovative and transformative characteristics of the project.

Well-crafted policy advocacy is the most effective answer to the third barrier posed by the anticipated short supply of land for the increasing demand. Fortunately, a policy breakthrough is highly likely due to the concept of an urban "land bank" that local governments have control over. Besides, a new policy can stimulate the real estate market to participate in this business.  

Full-time: FOUR (This will include a Lead to anchor the CO-SOLVE platform, A coordinator in India, A vendor-development coordinator and a Community Organizer. 

Part-time: FOUR (This will be staff positions from partner organizations on the ground to deal with incremental workload)

Consultants: THREE (two Designers/Visualizers and one Resource mobilizer)  

The current team brings the following skills and work experiences:

As the team lead, I have the advantage of being familiar with North American resources and socio-economic and political contexts of India in general and Gujarat in particular. I have led multi-disciplinary teams of varying sizes on various development programs in India and Nigeria. My academic stint at the University of British Columbia brings analytical rigor and diagnostic skills. I have been a resident of Ahmedabad City for 9 years and have worked with the urban poor, including migrant workers.      

The team consists of urban planners and designers with very relevant experience in user-driven design protocols. They have worked on habitat development with a special focus on housing and public spaces for underprivileged segments of the population.

Our partners in India include two NGO leaders who are heavily invested in improving the conditions of urban migrant workers. One of them, in fact, has done pioneering work in developing digital solutions to housing challenges for migrant workers in three states of India. 

Our team comes with an excellent development communication specialist who is adept at using performing arts to increase awareness and facilitate interaction with vulnerable communities.

We come into this mission with the firm belief that there are a few conclusive reasons why major serious social and economic problems have persisted despite many significant attempts to address them. One of them is the failure to ensure that the process is adequately inclusive in its approach. Habitat development and sustainable livelihood promotion require the intersection of multiple disciplines and interest groups. Indeed the raison d'être of CO-SOLVE is an acknowledgment that solving the challenge will require a convergence of expertise and interests. 

Though compelled by the changes forced on us due to the pandemic, we have institutionalized our ideation and decision-making process through consultation and deliberation. With distance no longer a constrain, all our key decisions have come after a series of electronic conferences. The use of real-time visualization applications such as ConceptBoard has become the norm. Our approach to conceptualization and decision-making process, aided by electronic tools has become the norm, making it possible to have stakeholders in India and North America participate in real-time. The sketch of a preliminary design of the portable shelter provided in an earlier section in the proposal is an example of this approach. 

We are currently partnering with two NGOs (i) Bandhu: They have a mission that is seamlessly linked to the goals of our project on movable shelter for migrant workers. (ii) Manjari: They are actively promoting women-focussed livelihoods and understand the rural-urban linkages very well.

We are in the early stages of collaboration with Good Business Lab a US-based organization with a mission to improve the lives of all workers. They have a presence in India too.

DR Kunvar Yadav from SVNIT (Surat) will contribute towards the sanitation and gray water recycling component of the solution.

An entrepreneur or an NGO will operate this on the business model. 

The broad structure of operations will be:

The design, fabrication and testing of a prototype will be done by CO-SOLVE through grants. However, the cost of fabricating subsequent units will be considered as the capital cost to the business. The entrepreneur/NGO will manage the inventory of shelter units and manage the leasing out, supervision of installations, collection of user-fee, restocking and refurbishment before leasing it to the next user. The lease fee will be assessed after computing amortized capital cost, depreciation, operation and maintenance costs including salaries. The entrepreneur repays the CO-SOLVE the capital cost over a period (to be decided).     

A smartphone based interactive app will assist a potential user or their employer in specifying their needs. To bring in transparency, the app will offer multiple options and price points instantly, enabling choices for the user.

Our solution to the challenge depends not only on a good understanding of the true cost of business-as-usual for the migrant workers' housing needs but also on an astute assessment of their willingness and capacity to pay. Both of them require a combination of technical and financial investments. If our solution is among the winners, we will have access to a much wider knowledge resources. The solutions proposed by other winners will have many common strands that we can learn from each other. Of particular importance is the invaluable cumulative knowledge that MIT-SOLVE’s repository has from all the previous successful Solutions. Our endeavor has many characteristics of a start-up of a social enterprise. As all start-ups are prone to, we will be dealing with many risks due to environmental factors beyond our control. However, there are risks that can be mitigated by better resource management strategies. Lessons distilled from past Solutions will be a rich source of knowledge in this regard.

The Solution that we propose will be considered a success only when the business model is replicated or, where required, adapted by more entrepreneurs and mainstreamed by the state through the enactment of suitable public policies. While our assessment of need is quite conclusive, translating that into demand and placing it in a competitive market will require additional support from experts who have taken socially relevant enterprises successfully to the markets through tapping capital markets and other methods of raising capital. The winning combination for success may include more sophisticated pricing methods, using smart cross-subsidies, framing fair but robust terms of business such as service contracts and conflict adjudication methods. We will seek partners who come with this expertise. Venture capitalists and impact investment agencies are some of the examples of the partners we seek.

There is a rich repository of knowledge within MIT on social enterprises that serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid customers. Access to and mentorship by successful social entrepreneurs will be a great benefit.