Exploring the relationship between social housing and livelihood development : a qualitative study of life mission in Kerala

Abstract

Affordable housing and livelihood development are separate age-old questions that various academics and policy practitioners have explored individually or together over the years. Various solutions to the challenges in these areas have been formulated by policymakers from various ideological backgrounds. This study explores how an affordable housing program by the government where the state takes not just the provision of affordable housing but also allied services such as education, healthcare, social protection, and financial support results in a change in the livelihood outcomes of the beneficiaries. Through a qualitative study based on the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) method, this study identifies the challenges faced by the beneficiaries of the program in formulating a sustainable livelihood strategy to identify the most actionable challenges. Rather than focusing on a top-down study where the researcher looks for challenges based on a pre-set checklist, the PRA method ensures that it is ultimately the beneficiaries that guide the researcher in identifying the challenges that matter to them. The key findings from this study are that this model of affordable housing provision has had a noticeable impact on livelihood outcomes, and the main challenges for the beneficiaries are access to markets and lack of proper training. The way forward in this particular case would be creating market networks between a Rural Non-Farm Economy (RNFE) and the tourism sector and equipping the beneficiaries with skills demanded by the market.