SAS 1100
The thematic standard for slum development, affordable housing and resilient cities, illustrated by Swagruha's Niwas project, which repaired 1,265 slum homes in Mumbai.
In plain language
SAS 1100 covers projects on slum development and affordable housing. It also covers work to build resilient cities.
The workbook's case study for SAS 1100 follows Swagruha. This is a Mumbai-based NPO. It builds, repairs and maintains affordable housing for marginalised communities. Its project, called Niwas, repaired homes for slum families. These families work in informal trades: domestic helpers, waste pickers, vegetable vendors and daily-wage labourers. Niwas fixed cracks, roofs and doors. It also added safe drinking-water supply.
Swagruha did one more thing. It helped eligible families enrol for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the government's housing subsidy scheme. So Swagruha's own repair work links to a wider government programme, rather than standing apart from it.
How it works
The project's own scale and evaluation criteria, per the workbook:
- 1,265 families received housing facilities through Niwas
- Over 11,000 people impacted across Maharashtra
- Total spend: Rs 4.67 crore, from January 2019 to December 2022
- 23% of beneficiaries received a PMAY government housing subsidy
- 75% of beneficiaries now have improved toilet facilities
- 83% now have safe drinking water supply
- 95% of families feel more safe; 93% feel confident dealing with disasters
- 35% decrease in local crime rate; 32% of beneficiary members found construction/repair employment
- Beneficiaries save, on average, Rs 10,000 a year, previously spent on repeated house repairs
Named limitations, per the workbook: beneficiaries were reluctant to share their financial status, and some were uncomfortable being interviewed without Swagruha's own community workers present.
A worked example
Figures are the workbook's own SAS 1100 case study numbers.
Of the 1,265 families Swagruha repaired homes for, 23% — roughly 291 families — also received a PMAY subsidy. An assessor applying SAS 1100 needs to separate Swagruha's own contribution from PMAY's: some of those 291 families might have secured the government subsidy even without Swagruha's help, exactly the overlap the Contribution dimension of impact measurement is built to catch.
Meanwhile, the Rs 10,000-a-year saving beneficiaries report, no longer needed for repeated repairs, is a genuine financial outcome an assessor can check against household records — distinct from the 75% improved-toilet-facilities and 83% safe-drinking-water figures, which describe physical conditions rather than money saved.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 8 (Social Impact Assessment - Case Studies), section 8.5, builds its case study around SAS 1100 and Swagruha's Niwas project, with a full logic-model table and quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria. Social Impact Assessment Standards (Chapter 5, Table 5.5) lists SAS 1100 as covering slum development, affordable housing and resilient cities. Expect a question matching "1,265 families" or "Niwas project" to SAS 1100.
Common exam traps
- SAS 1100 covers slum development, affordable housing and resilient cities — not disaster management generally, which is the separate SAS 1200.
- 1,265 families is the direct output (homes repaired); over 11,000 people impacted is the wider population figure.
- 23% of beneficiaries received a PMAY subsidy — a government-scheme linkage, not Swagruha's own repair count.
- For the full sixteen-standard list, see Social Impact Assessment Standards — this page focuses specifically on SAS 1100's own case study.
Check yourself
1.In Section I of the workbook's sample SIA report, the social impact assessor, citing its registration number, confirms the application of the code of conduct issued by:
- a)SEBI
- b)The Social Stock Exchange
- c)The Ministry of Corporate Affairs
- d)The SRO
Show the answer
Answer: (d) The SRO
The report reads: "The Social impact assessor vide registration number (SRO Registration Number: …) confirms the application of the code of conduct issued by SRO". The same SRO registration number appears again in the signature block.
SEBI regulates the Social Stock Exchange framework, and the SSE receives the reports. The MCA issued the national business-responsibility guidelines in Chapter 6. But the sample report ties the assessor's code of conduct to the SRO. The report also confirms that it follows SAS 1100.
2.An assessor is engaged for a project whose sole aim is promoting the welfare of seasonal migrant workers and displaced persons. Which SAS thematic area should she apply?
- a)SAS 1000
- b)SAS 1100
- c)SAS 1200
- d)SAS 1600
Show the answer
Answer: (d) SAS 1600
SAS 1600: Promoting welfare of migrants and displaced persons. The workbook says “the relevant SAS thematic area should be chosen according to the activity (social project) which is being assessed.”
- SAS 1000 is promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor, including small and marginal farmers.
- SAS 1100 is slum area development, affordable housing and resilient cities.
- SAS 1200 is disaster management, including relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series XXIIIRelated terms
- ContributionOne of the five Impact Management Project dimensions: how an enterprise's reported effect compares to what would likely have happened anyway, measured through its depth and duration data categories.
- Pradhan Mantri Awas YojanaThe Government of India's housing subsidy scheme — referenced in the workbook's Niwas Project case study, where a social enterprise helped identify slum-dwelling beneficiaries eligible for it.
- Direct beneficiariesThe people directly reached by a programme's activities — such as villagers, farmers and local business owners — as distinct from indirect beneficiaries who benefit at one remove.
- Social Impact Assessment StandardsICAI's sixteen thematic standards, SAS 100 to SAS 1600, mirroring the SSE's eligible activities; compliance is mandatory for social impact assessments of social enterprises listed on an SSE.
- Material departureA significant failure to follow the Social Impact Assessment Standards, which the assessor must draw attention to in the report rather than leave unsaid.
- Investment efficiency KPIThe cost-per-unit-of-outcome measure in a project's KPI set — in the workbook's housing case study, total project cost divided by the number of families benefited.