THE PEOPLE

HOUSES AND HOUSING

Housing is one of the indices of the cultural development of any section of society. Economic considerations heavily weighed against better housing in the past. Houses of majority or the people, and especially those of the peasants, craftsmen and labourers, were mere dwellings providing shelter against sun, wind, cold and rain. The prime consideration for a house builder in the past was to ensure safety and protection.

The pattern of houses and housing has changed to a great extent during the past few decades. The change has been more  definite and marked in the towns. However town planning is implemented only in a few towns.

Excepting the newly built houses in Amravati town, most of the urban dwellings are built in bricks and mortar and have a stone foundation. The walls are plastered with mortar or cement.

Houses owned by the old aristocracy are built round a quadrangle with walls of stone or burnt bricks, tiled roofs and verandas. Galvanised sheets are used for roofing purposes. These houses are generally one or two-storeyed. The most remarkable feature of these houses is exhibited in the spacious and imposing gate which leads to the quadrangle and a congregation of rooms. The congregation comprises broad verandas, a watch-room (devadi), store rooms, kitchen and living rooms. On one side of the quadrangle there is a cattle-shed and store of agricultural implements. Very often there is a small well and bathrooms. But houses of this type are gradually becoming unpopular.

The majority of the houses in the district are built with burnt bricks, dressed stone, teak-wood beams and poles, bamboo ceiling, and have tiled or flat roofs. The building structure is based upon strong stone foundation, and is supported by teak-wood poles and thick side walls. The walls are commonly built of bricks and mortar; but clay walls are by no means uncommon. The rich often have attractive wood-carving on the fronts of their houses. Houses occasionally have a flat top (dhaba) of whitish grey earth; but more frequently they have sloping roofs of tiles or galvanised sheets. It is only the poorest, generally living on the outskirts of villages, who use thatch.

Very few houses in villages are properly ventilated. An average house is designed to provide hardly a couple of small windows, a couple of apartments and a kitchen which is, very often, adjoining to the bathing corner. The floor is made of earth, whereas the bamboo ceiling allows the slow percolation of earth from above. In a majority of cases, the upper floor of the house is utilised as store room.

The rich have independent bungalows comprising a veranda, a drawing room, bedrooms, a kitchen, a parlour and a pantry. The rooms are so arranged as to have an independent access to each. The walls are of stone or brick masonry in lime or cement mortar. The doors are panelled or glazed. They are built with due consideration for ventilation and convenience. The R.C.C. constructions are finding greater patronage among the rich gentry, at Amravati, Badnera and Acalpur. The bungalow type houses in the camp area of Amravati city are built with due consideration for architectural designs. The Samnagar, Ambikanagar and Topenagar areas of Amravati city are developed on accepted principles of town planning. A few housing co-operative societies have come up in Amravati, which provide independent flats.

For the last two decades there has been a shortage of houses all over the district. The housing problem is, however, more acute in towns. The mountjng cost of construction and shortage of the requisite building materials have arrested the growth of the building industry. This has resulted in the shortage of good houses in the district.

According to the 1961 census, there are 3,76.364 occupied houses which housed the population of 12,32,780 in the district. Of these, 2,82.372 houses are in rural areas and 93,992 in urban areas. As many as 27,973 houses were vacant at the time of census. The following table gives the statistics of various categories of houses as per the 1961 Census.

TABLE No. 13

HOUSES IN AMRAVATI DISTRICT IN 1961

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