सह कार्यम् फाउंडेशन
Sah Karyam Foundation
Co-Solve Collective's first enabled collective in India...
Sah Karyam Foundation is an Independent Social Enterprise registered as Section 8 company in India
Co-create Transformative Solutions
to Persistent Social and Ecological Problems
Shelters for Boiler Workers
Sah Karyam Foundation (SKF) and its partner Aajeevika Bureau Implementation in Ahmedabad
Unique Aspects
Financially Sustainable — We movitvated the employer to pay 100% of the construction costs.
Residents and Employer Inputs in the Design
SKF hired architects for highly feature-packed shelters; the templates can be modified elsewhere
Space design allows for childcare activities, common social area, dust barriers and garden….
SKF’s Shelter Imeplementaton at Parth Textiles, Narol Industrial estate, Ahmedabad:
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS
THEN TO NOW…..
Six family units — safe, clean, ventilated, natural light
insulated, electricity, fan, children’s play area, common patio, fenced area, separate toilet and washroom block….On the factory premise, 100% of construction cost by the factory owner, SKF paid for the design, construction oversight, and on-going child-care programs.
Prior shelters of the boiler room workers and families. Such conditions are normal for thousands of families in such industrial estate. We are aiming to change this.
Architects (CS4 Firm and SKF) at site visit during the construction phase.
SKF and our partner Aajeevika Bureau have implemented a five-day a week childcare program.
Insulated walls, Screened section of the roof, Bamboo mats for inner walls, foldable beds, storage space, fan...(rendered image)
OUR PARTNERS for SHELTERS FOR THE
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS
Co-Solve Collective
Visioning of the project, building of this collective of the partners, and providing seed funding for demonstration and advocacy
Sah Karyam Foundation
PARTNERS
Project Management, Construction Quality Monitoring
Aajeevika Bureau
Partner with strong rapport with the Industrial workers, owners, and advocacy for dignified shelters and other services for migrant workers
Indian Institute of Human Settlement IIHS
Data and documentation of the evolving process and developing advocacy and policy insights over time
Compartment S4
Architecture and fabricator management
Our Collective at work...
Undocumented migrant workers and their families are exposed to hazardous and toxic working conditions in the chemical and textile processing industries of Ahmedabad. Their abject poverty and disempowered situation compels them to live close to boilers and toxic chemicals. But the status-quo of how workers live in and around the factories is hard to shake.
Aajeevika Bureau - a well regarded NGOs for developing systemic solutions for migrant workers - shared with Co-Solve team about the hundreds of industrial units in Ahmedabad alone where there is a great need for safe, clean and dignified shelters and social services for the industrial workers.
Aajeevika Bureau team knew just which owners are the best first ones to approach, while Co-Solve developed a compelling vision and hired Compartment S4, an architect firm of young architects who designed the shelters with the inputs of all parties.
Through dialogue, persuasion and back-stopping support, the factory owners have been enabled to take a lead role in addressing this challenge, including paying for the shelters. Moreover, India's well-known Bengalaru-based Indian Institute of Human Settlement has joined our collective for documenting and data gathering for policy advocacy over time.
Sah Karyam Foundation will do the project management and quality monitoring, while all partners in the collective will plan out strategies to scale the successful demonstration elsewhere,
Sanitation for Brick-kiln Workers
Sah Karyam Foundation (SKF) and its partner Atul Foundation Implementation in Valsad, South Gujarat
When open defecation is the norm, neither the labourers demand toilets and washing area, nor the employers have any motivation to providewith our partnerswe were able to get the employer to make this a priority.
Heavy monsoon and high water table in South Gujarat requires extra design features of double pit latrine in order to not contaminate the ground water. SKF provided the toilet block design, and our partner Atul Foundation provided engineering and construction funding through their CSR.
SKF provided the .
Meet The Core Team
Sah Karyam Foundation
Sah Karyam Core Team
Community-Centered Architect and Project Manager
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Co-Founder & Advisor
Sah Karyam Foundation
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Co-Solve Collective USA
Arati is a co-founder of both, Co-Solve Collective (USA, 2021) and Sah Karyam Foundation (India, 2022). Co-Solve morphed out of the prior non-profit that Arati had co-founded in the USA in 2009 to create collectives for clean energy and water solutions. She was a co-founder of a clean energy tech start-up (2011-2018) for design and development of a commercially viable solar thermal concentrator technology.
Arati brings to Sah Karyam her multi- disciplinary background and experiences of team building in corporate and start-ups in the USA, as well as with NGOs, companies, and communities in India.
Learning about diverse fields from the practitioners, experts, communities is something that goes with the territory of collective-building. This also builds a network. Arati is currently taking a course from MIT titled Beyond Smart City Emerging Design and Technology. She is hopeful to expand Sah Karyam's connections with various Design and technology programs at MIT and elsewhere.
Music is another way that Arati engages with the global communities. Her solo concerts in the USA, India,, and France as well as her collaborative compositions of Indian classical and Western Choir (performed at Lehigh University and Princeton University) have drawn from the social and ecological themes and bringing musicians and audiences of the East and the West together.
Arati has a Ph.D. in Biophysics from MIT, USA, and a Sangeet Visharad diploma (vocal Indian classical music) from an all- India music institution. She lives in the USA but is active in CoSolve/ SKF projects in India.
Harshil is an architect, teacher and social organizer, all rolled into one. He has chosen to apply his training to serve the underprivileged communities from urban and rural areas. He owes a debt of gratitude to the society for all the support and mentorship he received from his family, teachers-professors, friends, employers and colleagues from all the work environments. It is a privilege that motivates him to pay it forward. Through gained and evolving architectural knowledge he creates create opportunities for underprivileged; creates supportive environments where people come, learn from each other and grow together. As a firm believer in multidisciplinary nature of his profession, he sees architectural service becoming more impactful through collaboration and not in isolation.
Besides volunteering with different NGOs like Manav-Sadhna trust to refurbish government school buildings, Harshil is busy helping VIKAS, another NGO, to develop coastal villages of Gujarat through programs in holistic education, health, empowerment and improving living conditions etc. He graduated from CEPT University in 2014. His connection with his alma mater didn’t end with it. Since 2019 he is teaching at CEPT, focusing on Co-production principles in the design studios.
Harshil is a consummate community organizer. As a lead member of SahKaryam, he is playing a pivotal role in our pilot projects in Narol and preliminary scoping activities for our project with GIFT City.
Shashi Enarth
Co-Founder & Board of Director
Sah Karyam Foundation
Co-Founder and Board of Director
Co-Solve Collective USA
Shashi Enarth is a co-founder and a board of director of CO-SOLVE COLLECTIVE (USA) as well as India's COSOLVE FOUNDATION (CSF).
Shashi comes to Sah Karyam Foundation with a mix of academic and professional experience. From 1986- 2000 he worked with three well-known NGOs in India (co-founding one of them).
Having been an international consultant to the World Bank projects in Nigeria, Tanzania and India and as the Graduate Program Director at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at University of British Columbia. Shashi brings to COSOLVE his decades-long understanding of the political economy of vulnerable communities, diagnosing systemic problems, situating it in the policy landscape and bringing together globally sourced best practices.
Shashi has a Ph.D. from University of British Columbia, Canada.
Sanjay Sharma
Co-Founder & Board of Director
Sah Karyam Foundation
Founder & CEO of Manjari Foundation
Sanjay Sharma is the founder Executive Director of Manjari Foundation based at Dholpur Rajasthan. Since its inception Manjari Foundation has grown to empower more than 100,000 rural women through various women enterprises in agriculture, livestock, food processing, and apparel product lines. www.katori.co.in, www.upaya.co.in ).
He also has vast experience of working with international development organization and oversees which included Cambodia, Kenya, Mali and Senegal.
Sanjay has professional experience and expertise include social mobilization, institution building, pro-poor livelihood value chain development, organizational development and advocacy and public policy formulation in rural development sector.
Sanjay is recently honored with Ashoka Foundation Fellow. He was also awarded International Ford Foundation Fellowship for the period of 2006-08 given his commitment to the cause of social justice, poverty eradication, and women empowerment, Sanjay Sharma brings to Co-Solve his significant experience and guidance.
Rajesh Jasoria
Co-Founder & Board of Director of Sah Karyam Foundation
A chartered civil engineer in Ahmedabad with passion for environmental and social equity and wellbeing aspects of the community, Rajesh Jasoria has stepped up to a challenge to create a Co-Solve Collective in Ahmedabad (India) for dignified shelters for migrant workers. Towards this, he brings his life-long experience, insights, and contacts in Ahmedabad's construction industry in order to navigate the "last mile" landscape that is invariably filled with obstacles as well as opportunities for shelters for migrant workers.
His career includes projects in residential and commercial building and infrastructure, Renewable Energy, Environmental Compliance, Golf Course, Media structural implementation, and so on. His community and social welfare projects include building of schools and community hall, Swatch Bharat Toilet constructions in two villages, as well as working with a USA non-profit group for advocating and building ramps and railings for physically challenged, and more.