A Case Study of House Types in Village Mundhal Khurd

INTRODUCTION

In 1946, Finch Trewartha have further explained that “as a geographic element „house‟ is meant to include not only the residential house, ranging from the humblest huts of a poor to the most elaborate and massive city mansions, but all other human structure as well, where people congregate or where their grains or goods are stored, such as warehouses, stores, schools factories and churches etc.” In a simplistic way, a house is a „shelter‟ to live in. It is one of the basic human entitlements which connect its occupant with the society. Brunhes, (1920), advocated as “the houses are the product of cultural traditions and natural conditions”. Dwellings are the universal and basic element of settlement geography. Many geographers have also studied the dwellings in different forms in India as well as abroad. In the classic studies, „house and building‟ were a part of human geography (Jackson, 1952). But in geographical literature it is the most important component of cultural heritage, cultural style, functional needs, positive and negative aspects of non-cultural environment (Kniffen, 1965). This study deals with dwelling based on size such as caste-wise number of households and number of rooms, house types building material such as caste- wise number of households with floor material, wall material, roof material and house types.

The size of rural dwellings denotes the economic level of the people. The six & above room dwellings are fairly distributed in the village with maximum number (37.50 %) of the rural households. Two (40.00 %) out of total 5 dwellings occupy one room houses owned by Heri caste. Six (40.00 %) out of total 15 dwellings occupy one room houses owned by Dhanak caste. About 43.76 per cent dwellings occupy two or three rooms and most of the people of this category belong to economically poor and slightly well caste like Chamar (73.34 %), Chura (72.50 %), Punjabi (60.00 %) and Manihar (60.00). About 34.69 per cent dwellings occupy four or five rooms belong to Kumhar (80 %), Brahman (60.00 %) and Jat (56.25 %). It is recorded that most of six and more room dwellings belongs to Jat (32.50 %), Lohar (40.00) and Maniyar (20.00 %) of the total dwellings of this particular category in the village. It is shown by [Table-1.1].

As reveal from the [Table-1.2] that the floors of most of the houses of the village are made of

which most of the house are made of brunt bricks, cement, tiles/stones, marble etc. because of good economic conditions of houses and share of percentage in it. 100 per cent of the total houses belong to Brahman, Punjabi, Khati, Chippi, Kumhar and Heri, 97.50 per cent to jat, 80.00 per cent to Nai, 70.00 per cent Jhimar, 66.67 per cent to Chamar, 60.00 per cent to Dhanak and Manihar, 57.50 per cent to Balmiki and relatively a smaller percentage of houses of these castes are built up of mud in which 42.50 per cent to Balmiki, 40.00 per cent to Dhanak, 33.33 per cent to Chamar, 30.00 per cent to Jhimar, 20.00 per cent to Nai and only 02.50 per cent to house floors to Jat.

The walls of the houses in the village are built of brunt bricks with mud and cement. Out of total households, 73.44 % household‟s wall made of brunt bricks with mud and 26.56 % household‟s wall made of brunt bricks with cement. In General Castes 60.87 % household‟s wall made of brunt bricks with mud and 39.13 % household‟s wall made of brunt bricks with cement. In Other Backward Castes 66.67 % household‟s walls made of brunt bricks with mud and 33.33 % wall made of brunt bricks with cement. In Scheduled Castes 86.67 % households walls made of brunt bricks with mud and 8.70 % households walls made in brunt bricks with cement. In village Mundhal Khurd 73.44 % household‟s walls made of brunt bricks with mud and 26.56 % households walls made of brunt bricks with cement [Table no.1.3].

The roofs of houses of castes are 93.33 percent to Chamar, 90.00 per cent to Balmiki, 86.67 per cent to Dhanak, 80.00 per cent to Chippi, Jhimar, Manihar, 60.00 per cent to Kumhar, Heri, 50.00 per cent to Brahman and Nai respectively are made of wood timber. These castes have used very small share of roofs materials like cement/concretes and stones. The roofs of 37.39 % houses belong to general population like Jat (40.00 %), Brahman (26.67 %) and Punjabi (60.00 %), while 24.44 % and 23.13 % houses of other backward castes and scheduled castes are made of cement/concretes and stones in the village [Table-1.4].

The environment and economic conditions of the people are, reflected in the use of building materials (Singh, 1985). Generally, the houses in a rural set up are built by using materials available locally. However, if the owner of houses can afford to bring materials from other areas, by bearing the cost of transportation and materials, he may construct his house of choice, not restricted to locally available material. In the study area, the building materials of houses in the village are classified into three groups. These are follows:

[Table-1.5] shows that the floor of most the house in the village is built of cement (54.06 %) and mud (16.56 %) and relatively 15.94 %, 09.39 % and 04.06 % are floor are made of marble, bricks and tiles. The wall of the houses (73.44 %) is made of bricks/mud and 26.56 % houses are made of bricks/cement. It is observed that the roof of most of the houses (62.81 %) are built of wood timber and relatively 23.13 % houses are made of stones/tiles and 14.06 % of cement/concretes.

BUILDING MATERIAL

On the bases of building materials, two types of houses have been identified in the village Mundhal Khurd. These are following: - [Fig.-1.6] (i) Pacca House: (Floor with brunt bricks, cement, tiles/stones and marble, wall with brunt bricks/cement and roof with concrete/cement and stones), (ii) Mixed House: (Floor with mud, wall made of brunt bricks with mud and roof with wood timber). (I) Pacca House: The pacca houses are occupied by socially and economically rich people in the village. 119 houses (37.19 %) of the total houses are pacca and are made of floor with brunt bricks, cement, tiles/stones and marble, walls with brunt bricks/cement, and roofs with concrete/cement and stones. About 58.26 % households belong to general population like Jat, Brahmin and Punjabi have pacca type houses, while other backward castes population like Khati, Chippi, Nai, Jhimar, Kumhar, Lohar, Manihar and Heri (obc castes, 46.67%), and Chamar, Balmiki and Dhanak (scheduled castes, 08.70 %) have very low share of percentage of pacca houses [Table-1.6].

Mixed house are occupied by people of middle class of the village. The 201 (62.81 %) houses of the village are made of mud floors, wood timber

Manihar, 60.00 % to Kumhar and Heri, 50.00 % to Brahmin and Nai castes have mixed type of houses.

It is concluded that the pacca houses in the village belong to upper castes and other backward castes people who have a good quality and specious houses rather than the low caste people. It is noted that most of pacca houses belong to Punjabi, Khati, Lohar, Jat, Brahman and Nai castes of village and these castes have good socially and economically status. It is observed that the mixed houses are diminishing day to day replacing by the pacca houses due to improvement in economic conditions of inhabitants and availability and suitability of local building material in recent years.

Brunches, J. (1920): Human Geography, Chicago; Rand Mc Nalley. Census of India (2001): District Census Handbook, Jind District, Series-8, Haryana Jackson, J.B. (1952): ‘Human, All too Human Geography’, Landscape, Vol. 2, pp. 2-7. Kniffen, F. (1965): „Folk Housing: Key to Diffusion‟, AAAG, Vol. 55, p. 549.

Net, M.Phil., Department of Geography sumanchamar200.sc@gmail.com