tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24903600661387422972024-03-14T11:08:30.063+05:30Citywatch IndiaA SPARC, NSDF, Mahila Milan PublicationSPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-55219602585718593222018-10-15T15:51:00.000+05:302018-10-15T15:51:43.356+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Mu2gnQdxJY/W8RkmLGncxI/AAAAAAAAAz8/M2YhYczILlEz1uMGXIuPrAZZANSBiYEJwCLcBGAs/s1600/jockin3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="537" height="186" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Mu2gnQdxJY/W8RkmLGncxI/AAAAAAAAAz8/M2YhYczILlEz1uMGXIuPrAZZANSBiYEJwCLcBGAs/s320/jockin3.jpg" width="320" /></a><b>Jockin Arputham</b> (15 August 1947 - October 13, 2018) has worked for more than 40 years in <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slums" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Slums">slums</a> and <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanty_towns" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Shanty towns">shanty towns</a>, building representative organizations into powerful partners with governments and international agencies for the betterment of urban living. Arputham is the president of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Slum_Dwellers_Federation" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="National Slum Dwellers Federation">National Slum Dwellers Federation</a> which he founded in the 70s and of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum_Dwellers_International" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Slum Dwellers International">Slum Dwellers International</a> which networks slum and shack dweller organizations and federations from over twenty countries across the world. The National Slum Dwellers Federation works closely with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahila_Milan" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Mahila Milan">Mahila Milan</a>, a collective of savings groups formed by homeless women and women living in slums across India, and with <a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Society_for_the_Promotion_of_Area_Resource_Centers&action=edit&redlink=1" style="background: none; color: #a55858; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (page does not exist)">SPARC</a>, a Mumbai-based NGO, and together they have been instrumental is supporting tens of thousands of the urban poor access housing and sanitation. He has also worked with the police to set up 'police panchayats' in many of the informal settlements in Mumbai. Here, for the first time, police are assigned to work in these settlements and are supported by a committee of ten residents from the community (three men seven women).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">
Jockin realized that slum dweller organizations had to change their strategy. They had to make governments see them as legitimate citizens with knowledge and capacities to implement solutions. So they sought to work in partnership with government to address their housing problems – and other problems. He has often said that how can you reduce urban poverty if you do not listen to and work with the urban poor.He has built more than 20,000 (toilet) seats in Mumbai alone.He insisted on new standards on redeveloped housing, an increased floor-space-index. Over the years, Arputham has built 30,000 houses in India, and 1,00,000 houses abroad.Funding for his work comes from many sources. Thanks to his work, he has met both Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">
He has visited many other countries to encourage and support slum or shack dwellers to organize and to encourage them to take their own initiatives to show government what they are capable of. He is currently residing in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Mumbai">Mumbai</a>; his office is in Dharavi. He was the winner of the 2000 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Magsaysay_Award" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ramon Magsaysay Award">Ramon Magsaysay Award</a> for Peace and International Understanding and an honorary Ph.D. from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, in 2009. <span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">In 2011, the Government of India bestowed on him its fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri award. </span><span style="text-align: left;">He is well known for his charisma and excellent public speaking.</span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-62505650479050966342017-09-19T12:34:00.000+05:302017-09-19T12:35:14.005+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sheela Patel, founding member and current chair of Slum/Shack Dwellers International, speaks about, “Confronting the Urban Housing Crisis in the Global South: Adequate, Secure and Affordable Housing,” the latest working paper in the World Resources Report, “Toward a More Equal City.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Take a look at the video and the link to the videos are here as well-</span></h1>
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Sheela Patel on the Urban Housing Crisis #1: The Existing Gap Is Huge-</span></h1>
<div>
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5awO0tBfF9k" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5awO0tBfF9k</a></span></h1>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5awO0tBfF9k/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5awO0tBfF9k?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
</h1>
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn0kpwlYdpg" target="_blank">Sheela Patel on the Urban Housing Crisis #2: There Are a Range of Solutions</a></span></h1>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">https://youtu.be/gn0kpwlYdpg</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gn0kpwlYdpg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gn0kpwlYdpg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: var(--yt-primary-text-color); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L3mQ4C-SmY" target="_blank">Sheela Patel on the Urban Housing Crisis #3: “The City Is Like a Body”</a></span></h1>
</div>
<div>
https://youtu.be/4L3mQ4C-SmY</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4L3mQ4C-SmY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4L3mQ4C-SmY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-3818418735226446032017-02-17T14:54:00.002+05:302017-02-17T14:54:23.110+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: bold;">The
story of the port trust beginning to explore the usage of 3.11 of SRA </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: bold;">
</span></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">Like
other informal settlements in Mumbai those households living on Mumbai Port
trust lands always thought they would never get alternatives</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">. </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">
</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgHMfawKGy8/WKa_gcGPfcI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/D954gZGjsok6crScYAQzHzGzTQg-zDDMwCLcB/s1600/Picture3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgHMfawKGy8/WKa_gcGPfcI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/D954gZGjsok6crScYAQzHzGzTQg-zDDMwCLcB/s400/Picture3.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
In the mid 1990s they
joined NSDF and <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mahila</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Milan to explore if the strategies of enumeration
could assist them to document their settlements and explore alternatives. </span><br />
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Indian alliance
suggested that a particular slum located where the railway and Port joint
venture wanted to use land commercially, let to </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">MbPT</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> finally agreeing to relocate and re-house slum dwellers on
their land for the first time using the 3.11 section of SRA .</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">MbPT</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> has always ensured
that its lands were never part of the DP reservations. They have also only
recently conceded to open space for the non toll</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> road from </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Chembur</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> to
VT, and then to consider opening up the eastern sea front to the Mumbai
citizens. </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-53159214481583155232017-02-17T14:44:00.001+05:302017-02-17T14:45:05.483+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-weight: bold;">In
the surrounding areas of </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-weight: bold;">Oshiwara</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-weight: bold;"> station there will be over 5-8000 slum
dwellers relocated due to various projects. Finally by chance more than
planning poor households will be within walking distance from the relocation
site they were moved to</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1iJxNPBWm0k/WKa-Q7dtAeI/AAAAAAAAAtE/rzFB_2JOTF8gKNt4-imnXjmSCAGSBJ2nwCLcB/s1600/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1iJxNPBWm0k/WKa-Q7dtAeI/AAAAAAAAAtE/rzFB_2JOTF8gKNt4-imnXjmSCAGSBJ2nwCLcB/s400/Picture2.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Oshiwara</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> business district fifteen years ago was full of </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">tabelas</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> full of buffalos and was finally converted into a relocation site for re-housing slum dwellers, living on land needed for public infrastructure projects. The land use was changed giving land owners who gave land and housing to MMRDA an FSI of 1 for the land </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-4624664373180020672017-02-17T14:40:00.000+05:302017-02-17T14:40:03.658+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 36pt; font-weight: bold;">Wonder
why the lease renewal did not happen? </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 36pt; font-weight: bold;">
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8sUllv74srY/WKa86Ri30UI/AAAAAAAAAs4/Xb8tI-7sUdwacoUn1DyklNTKcYCe6CPkgCLcB/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8sUllv74srY/WKa86Ri30UI/AAAAAAAAAs4/Xb8tI-7sUdwacoUn1DyklNTKcYCe6CPkgCLcB/s400/Picture1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">A very large part of Mumbai suburbs and extended suburbs are state lands leased to industry. We know that all textile mills factories and other such lands were leased as were salt pans.</span></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some ( all textile mills) are now huge gated commercials and residential areas. </span></span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How come this was not done on time? And what will happen in the H</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">igh</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> court where the petition is now being made by the company?</span></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-2053482608198518432016-06-10T14:36:00.001+05:302016-06-10T14:36:46.198+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">German
Habitat Forum, Berlin – Designing Sustainable Solutions for Cities In The
Future, 1<sup>st</sup> June, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Theme-
People, Politics and Practice<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C9e2Pbc6bSo/V1pTa7CxSwI/AAAAAAAAApU/GSkLi55G4VckSYkVfgNqPcsfHQnN3wwagCKgB/s1600/IMG_3360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C9e2Pbc6bSo/V1pTa7CxSwI/AAAAAAAAApU/GSkLi55G4VckSYkVfgNqPcsfHQnN3wwagCKgB/s320/IMG_3360.jpg" width="320" /></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Sheela
Patel</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> spoke at the conference as a representative of communities who live and
work informally in cities, and who in her estimation represent a majority of
people in the cities. This is a transcript of her speech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“The
city development, as you see it today, excludes with or without purpose the
challenges that poor people who live in cities either recently or over the last
eight decades have been facing, they remain invisible, and their participation I
believe is a very important ingredient in discussions about People, Politics
and Practice. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">If we
don’t start exploring solutions that will make us feel good 50 years from now,
we will never begin; because in today’s cities there is inequality, there are
huge differences in incomes, in opportunities that have political and many
other reasons for not being explored but which will only exaggerate in the
future, but we don’t want to wait any more to solve those problems because we can’t
solve those problems if we don’t solve them today.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">This
is a decade of aggregators and organizations like ours, Shack Dwellers
International, ACHR; we are all aggregators of urban informality, of men and women
living and working in very difficult conditions to reach out to the other
players in the city, to find scalable citywide solutions that both picks from what’s
outside and take the unique characteristics of the city that is there. So it
requires a new disruptive partnership strategy in order for this transformation
to occur. Business as usual is not going to work, so do we have the courage, do
we have the guts and do we have the capacity to explore these unusual and
disruptive solutions?. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In the
end a lot of what happens in cities is around land. The politics of who owns
land, what its used for, what mechanisms produce inclusion or exclusion forms
the basis of how cities evolve and grow and whether they have a chance for
sustainable equitable options or not. Politics is at the centre of this, there’s
no shortage of technical solutions. Do we have the courage to do that, do we
have the capacity to explore new solutions? Because in the end, the
sustainability that we are challenged with today (which we start with the meetings
we will have for Habitat III, that we’ve come with all our challenges of
climate) of our sustainable growth will happen in the geography of cities which
will have to deal with a multiplication of challenges and we are far away from
that. We should be extremely dissatisfied with what is happening because we
don’t have the courage to explore unusual relationships and partnerships. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As the
representatives of the networks of the urban poor, we want to explore possible
relationships and partnerships, new ways of doing business with whoever has the
courage to come and work with us. We are looking for ways by which we transform
the future that we prepare for the youth of tomorrow into one which is safe,
which turns that into the advantage rather than the violence that we predict
that will take place if their aspirations and expectations are not fulfilled by
our generation. If we have the courage to explore change, we explore new ways
of doing business and of sharing and supporting each other through this process;
I think we can see a glimmer of success.”<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-67566361261544189132015-08-07T23:05:00.000+05:302015-08-07T23:05:38.352+05:30How Community Mobilization Influences the Political Environment: Reflections on Pune<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
Yerwada was an in-situ upgrading project aiming to build permanent ground, ground floor +1 and ground floor+2 houses. The cost of each constructed house was Rs 300,000 rupees, with 90% of the costs funded by the different branches of government (local, state and national). The remaining 10%, Rs 30,000, was provided by each household. In total, the project built 1125 houses in 8 different wards.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qIVMBGIuA4/VcTnqbXeCJI/AAAAAAAAAlE/uFh1-GbUycc/s1600/pune%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2qIVMBGIuA4/VcTnqbXeCJI/AAAAAAAAAlE/uFh1-GbUycc/s200/pune%2B2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mahila Milan in Pune</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
There are a few elements that made the Yerwada project a success. First, the involvement of the community in all the stages of the project, from design to implementation, guaranteed that the needs and expectations of the households were satisfied. What particularly characterises this case is the key role played by groups of women, who assumed the leadership positions throughout the whole process. Second, by upgrading households and services in-situ rather than relocating them, the government managed to maintain the cohesiveness of the community and improve their conditions faster, as in-situ upgrading is generally deemed to be the most socially and economically desirable strategy for low-income housing. Third, this project created job opportunities for the local community throughout its implementation phase, thus fostering a true sense of community participation in the project and sense of ownership of the households.</div>
<div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
Nevertheless, the element that captured our attention the most was how crucial of a role the political environment actually played in allowing the development of this project. The political environment is key in order to enable communities to influence the process of agenda setting. The policy process is a complex interaction of problems, proposals (solutions) and politics (political environment). In order to move a cause higher in the hierarchy of the political agenda, these elements need to come together. When this happens, we are in the presence of a “window of opportunity”. For advocates of a cause, the success of their proposals is determined by how well they can influence, create and identify this window. This means that if the political environment is not ready to focus on a particular problem or to receive a particular solution, the window will be closed for the champions of the cause, and their proposal would not make it to the “short list”. This is why developing a proposal is not enough in the policy game, and advocating, coalition-building and policy-learning are all necessary to influence the conditions that will prepare the political environment to implement any solution.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
In the case of Yerwada, SPARC, Mahila Milan and NSDF had been gradually creating the conditions to engage with authority for decades through their enumerations, precedent setting, exhibitions, and other successful projects in line with the general SDI model. These activities slowly built linkages of trust and camaraderie between different members while simultaneously strengthening them as a community. As such, it is important to understand the process by which the women of Mahila Milan empowered themselves politically in their formative stages to truly grasp why the subsequent Yerwada project was a success. </div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
In Pune, when the women of Mahila Milan first assembled themselves in 1993-1995, their initial socioeconomic surveys identified sanitation to be the most pressing issue. After doing so, with the help of NSDF, they set up various meetings with local politicians that resulted in improved sanitation, not only for the slums but also for the entire city. One important thing to note about this project is that a proposal put forward by the women of Mahila Milan Pune, when received in an enabling political environment, turned into a full-fledged project involving 8 organizations working in over 500 neighborhoods.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
Confident by the launch of their sanitation project in 1999, they moved on to secure land for relocation of slum neighborhoods that they had surveyed and that were affected by the recurrence of floods in 1997. Although they had identified a specific piece of land in Hadapsar for their members, a road widening project that was happening simultaneously in Patil Estate led them to alter their plans. 98 houses were to be demolished, and those residents sought the support of Mahila Milan to convince city officials to relocate them rather than face eviction. Mahila Milan chose to offer the land in Hadapsar to the former Patil Estate residents instead of the original members that MM sought to relocate. This project was crucial in legitimizing the actions of Mahila Milan in the eyes of local government because they approached government with an alternate solution to eviction that was feasible and easy to implement. Once again,<span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>the political environment along with their community efforts converged into the perfect opportunity window to advance their needs and materialize them, with the commissioner incorporating additional neighborhoods to their plans. The negotiations that were partaken by Mahila Milan turned into a bigger project with three NGOS contracted to contribute on a fixed price basis.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>In doing so, they emerged as equal partners with the local government in the planning, design, and implementation of these projects. </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o0zuyXed2m8/VcTn8dGBMBI/AAAAAAAAAlM/zrSH8zBAlSo/s1600/pune%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o0zuyXed2m8/VcTn8dGBMBI/AAAAAAAAAlM/zrSH8zBAlSo/s320/pune%2B1.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Upgraded lane in Yerwada</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
Around 2008, when JNNURM was launched, Mahila Milan tried to work on upgrading in two slums: Ram Tekdi and Yerwada. Yet, after facing opposition in the former, they requested from the Municipal commissioner that additional subsidies be allocated to the in-situ upgrading project in Yerwada.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>Their first efforts to upgrade this site consisted of pressing the government for cluster housing for people with less than 100 square feet per household. Cluster housing grouped people together to form groups of land that met the 270 sq. foot requirement to take advantage of the BSUP program. They included more floors in their design to increase the space per household, but grouped households together horizontally so that they met the requirement. Their other task was convincing the residents that BSUP was in their interest. As Savita recalled, when BSUP was to be implemented in Pune, people were skeptical at first due to the failure of earlier government programs and it took them almost 2 years to convince the community to be on board. Mahila Milan finally achieved community agreement and participation with a spatial demonstration of model homes using bamboo and cloth to showcase to the local population that such projects would indeed improve their livelihoods. With the political clout that they had garnered from their previous projects, they were also able to pressure local government to be more transparent with the people. They also had lower-ranked politicians accompany them to better inform residents about their work and convince them that it was in their favor. </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
It is interesting to draw a contrast between these successful projects and the experience of Mahila Milan in Ram Tekdi where the political environment obstructed their progress in that area. Even though they tried to implement the same strategy, they did not receive the support of local politicians. Instead, the local politicians initiated a campaign to convince the community that they shouldn’t respond to SPARC surveys and that an alternate SRA project conducted by a private builder was in their best interest. As a result, the population demanded the SRA project over the SPARC one-house-per-household proposition as they thought they could get more than one unit per household. Since SPARC and MM act based on the interests of the community, they pulled out of that area and failed to move past the negotiation phase.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';">
</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
The work of Mahila Milan Pune showcases the need to have a groundswell of organized people utilizing local assets and resources for collective and participatory problem solving, yet what ultimately determined their success was the existence of an enabling political environment that reverberated their requests on a wider scale and implemented them at a broader urban level. As such, the contrasting experiences of Mahila Milan Pune highlight the importance of the policy environment in materializing their projects. In Ram Tekdi, MM implemented the same strategies, yet the difference in the receptivity and endorsement of the local politicians obstructed their progress. In Yerwada, problems, proposals and politics came together and proved that when all the parts are involved and their interests align, solutions are easier to implement and their impacts are deeper and longer lasting.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: center;">
<b>Jehane Akiki and Dafne Regenhardt,</b></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; text-align: center;">
<b>The New School, Graduate Program in International Affairs</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-41288818937143587832015-08-06T12:38:00.002+05:302015-08-06T12:38:54.419+05:30Exhibition at Indian Oil by New School Interns <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">In June and July 2015, we conducted an oral history project to document the lived experiences of women leaders in Mahila Milan. As Mahila Milan inevitably faces change in its leadership, we focused, in particular, on the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. Our project is, in a sense, its own transfer of knowledge; it aims to capture and pass on Mahila Milan’s legacy. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jo94fEaoJ1s/VcMFWxRTpWI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/uD-9EIMwzBk/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jo94fEaoJ1s/VcMFWxRTpWI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/uD-9EIMwzBk/s200/Picture1.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;"><i>Jahyshree Mane excited to show </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;"><i>Malti Ambre her photograph.</i></span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> </span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">Throughout the years, international agencies, academic institutions, and NGOs have come to Mumbai to learn from these women and to hear their stories. This, however, often results in a unilinear exchange of knowledge, in which the women contribute their professional experience and personal histories, but receive little in return. With that in mind, we decided to celebrate these women with a genuine, albeit small, tribute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">On Saturday, July 26, 2015, we held the “soft opening” of an exhibition, at which a few Indian Oil Nagar leaders were present. The exhibition consisted of portraits of women we interviewed and accompanying quotes that highlighted major themes, trends, and accomplishments in Mahila Milan’s trajectory. While we thought we had done a good job representing the women with their portraits and quotes, the response was more than what we could have envisioned. The smiles and excitement of the women finding their pictures were priceless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">What happened next was true to the ethos of the organization: as we unpacked the photos, women gathered and began to pass around and discuss the pieces. One unforeseen hiccup was insufficient wall space in the Mahila Milan office to hang the portraits, so we arranged the photos on the floor around the office along with the corresponding quotes. The women immediately voiced their thoughts on where each of the pieces should hang -- there was talk of each woman taking the ones that were more relevant to her story. To us, the excitement in those first few moments replaced any plan we had for how the exhibition should be displayed. It was then decided that we should hold another exhibition in the Dharavi office to enable women from all communities to attend the exhibition in a central location.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Meena Ramani explained that “both experience and education are necessary. They [the photographs and quotes] will show the current younger generation. This is how we have continued from generation to generation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kKcKQS0yyJQ/VcMFbz4sNjI/AAAAAAAAAko/Hf0xPJXC8Yk/s1600/Picture2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kKcKQS0yyJQ/VcMFbz4sNjI/AAAAAAAAAko/Hf0xPJXC8Yk/s200/Picture2.png" width="200" /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Malti Ambre summed up the exhibit by saying, “A lot of people come to us and learn from us, we also go and teach others … There is always an exchange of knowledge going on. Many people call us, that this is the training center where we come and train ourselves. What you did, actually they also think that they got to learn how their generation is going ahead, how they are moving. That is also because of your exhibition that they came to know and they will want to continue this later in the future.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">This exhibition showcases the wisdom of key leaders we spoke with in Mahila Milan. This exhibition is intended as a genuine tribute to the personal sacrifice, perseverance, and dedication of Mahila Milan and the Federation’s women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XCQ1hGGSxTU/VcMFbfT1cfI/AAAAAAAAAkc/RnPFEgTrdp0/s1600/Picture4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XCQ1hGGSxTU/VcMFbfT1cfI/AAAAAAAAAkc/RnPFEgTrdp0/s640/Picture4.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;"><b>By Christopher Green, Chiara Passerini, Kate Segal, and Tanya Welsh </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-word; text-justify: inter-word;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-30027640400487923182015-07-09T13:17:00.002+05:302015-07-09T13:33:12.568+05:30The learning curve: Multilayered knowledge transfers in the Federation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 83%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td width="59%"><div align="justify">
<strong><em>By Christopher Green, Chiara Passerini, Kate Segal, and Tanya Welsh</em></strong></div>
</td>
<td width="9%"></td>
<td align="center" rowspan="7" valign="top" width="32%"><div align="justify">
<img src="http://www.sparcindia.org/images/blogimg.jpg" height="446" width="272" /><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1.The group of students who visited Pune, India</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Savita Sona- wane who leads Pune Mahila Milan</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3 Savita shows how they read maps to Shibani/ Photo credits: Chiara Shibani and kate</span></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div align="justify">
Eight eager foreign students from the New School arrived in Pune, wide-eyed yet uncertain about what we were there to see. The decision to take the trip to Pune, came after a week of site visits with slum communities in Mumbai who work with the National Slum Dwellers Federation (the Federation) on sav- ings, sanitation, and relocation. While meeting with Jockin Ar- putham, he emphatically told us that “everything began in Pune; you cannot start your work here until you see Pune.”<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
The four of us are documenting the informal mechanisms by which knowledge is transferred from current Federation com- munity leaders in Mumbai to younger generations. Our goal in Pune, aside from understanding its importance within the Fed- eration, was to sneak in a couple of questions about knowledge transfer during our whirlwind36-hour stay.</div>
<div align="justify">
The organization’s process of knowledge transfer has many layers. The leaders formulate the enumeration survey ques- tions by spending time in communities and reflecting on their own experiences: “We live in slums; these are the questions we come across in our daily lives.” They work alongside slum- dwellers in Pune throughout the process of relocation and in situ upgrading, building the capacity of community members – most of whom are women – as leaders. Communities from other cities in India, such as Bhopal, Nanded, Delhi, and Ban- galore have come to Pune to absorb their processes and try to replicate them in their own communities; in the same vein, Pune Mahila Milan has traveled to cities across the Global South to share their knowledge with communities facing simi- lar issues. Knowledge is also transferred upwards from Mahila Milan to local politicians, commissioners, urban planners, aca- demics, and the like.<br />
<br /></div>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div align="justify">
Our “a-ha!” moment dawned on us after we had asked our pre-planned questions, when we were wrapping up to leave. Savita Sonawane, president of Mahila Milan in Pune, remarked that in the last 20 years, many foreigners have visited them but have rarely asked about how future generations can continue this important work so that it is not lost or forgotten. The realization that while studying the processes of knowledge transfer we too are part of this knowledge transfer had not occurred to us until that moment. We were invited to ask questions after visiting the projects Pune Mahila Milan had spearheaded and continue to be involved with; what we did not expect was that the members also gained insights from answering our questions. The exchange that had taken place was not one-directional; rather, it elucidates the collective and collaborative process that is integral to the Federation’s work.</div>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /></td><td><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-30760661401004956752015-06-25T15:54:00.000+05:302015-06-25T16:06:38.616+05:30Learn - Participatory Enumeration and Mapping (10 weeks online course)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The course is for </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Community organisers, students of urban planning and development, social workers, municipal officials, NGO staff, local service providing agencies, field staff of banks and financial institutions, professional urban planners and consultants, and young boys and girls from the urban slums and poor communities.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">For more details visit- </span></span></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.pria.org/participatory_enummeration_mapping.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.pria.org/<wbr></wbr>participatory_enummeration_<wbr></wbr>mapping.htm</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">SPARC has developed these 3 video to show how the communities conduct settlement and household survey. Thus showcase how knowledge helps the communities for negotiation and empowerment.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqxaLgRcg1z93iRPW9IGjTsL4wbAo3FOc</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ffL5E7fBTIc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ffL5E7fBTIc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tlWUxdJ9o-k/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tlWUxdJ9o-k?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-VOsmFEEKmY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-VOsmFEEKmY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span></div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-557451513450985562015-01-02T13:57:00.002+05:302015-01-02T13:57:47.535+05:30Solar Power Push<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Install solar panels on plot size 500 Sq yards + made mandatory by Haryana government.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vP1ir5cXdn4/VKZVdt2URlI/AAAAAAAAAeU/_BBU_jjg8OM/s1600/solar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vP1ir5cXdn4/VKZVdt2URlI/AAAAAAAAAeU/_BBU_jjg8OM/s1600/solar.jpg" height="400" width="385" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-48864801182147201852014-11-28T15:55:00.001+05:302014-12-18T16:11:50.971+05:30Without power: Mumbai’s pavement dwellers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>If you can read this, you’re
not affected. For most urban dwellers electricity is available at the flick of
a switch, to power our numerous appliances from our coffee machines to our
computers and TVs, but not for all: many of the urban poor still have no access
to electricity although the power cables are literally just two meters above
their heads.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vwTCb7s78Ic/VH7EuyjljxI/AAAAAAAAAdA/dvUdrDXlPvg/s1600/goregav-pavement-dwellers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vwTCb7s78Ic/VH7EuyjljxI/AAAAAAAAAdA/dvUdrDXlPvg/s1600/goregav-pavement-dwellers.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>
<i><span style="color: #741b47; font-size: x-small;">Pavement Dwellers at Goregaon Western Express HIghway</span></i></h3>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the new Energy Justice program of SPARC we have
just recently started a survey in order to better understand the needs and
problems of the urban poor related to energy. Last week we have been at a
settlement of pavement dwellers next to the Western Express Highway in
Goregaon, Mumbai</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">who live there for at least the last 10 years.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Although all of the households do not have access to
electricity at all, they have energy expenditures between 300 and 750 Rupees
per month just to be able to illuminate their homes in the evening with some candles
and to charge their cell phones at the next kiosk. This costs them every day
between 10-15 Rupees. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qooEsiicG-s/VHhGtx-fh5I/AAAAAAAAAbc/0PyXFLbAq_0/s1600/SAM_0087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="fdsfa" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qooEsiicG-s/VHhGtx-fh5I/AAAAAAAAAbc/0PyXFLbAq_0/s1600/SAM_0087.JPG" height="300" title="5454" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.39px; text-align: justify;">Most of the children go to school, but in the evenings </span></i></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.39px; text-align: justify;">they</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.39px; text-align: justify;"></span></i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.39px; text-align: justify;"> have to study under the</span> <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.39px; text-align: justify;">street light.</span></i></span></h3>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 18.3999996185303px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It was hard to believe for us but most of the
households have to manage a living in Mumbai with less than a Dollar per day
per capita, some of them even with half a dollar. It’s no wonder then that
these households seek to avoid spending any money where it is not absolutely
necessary and therefore cook their meals on traditional three-stone-stoves.
Because most of the men work as casual laborers and are out of the house, it is
the task of the women to collect the wood which lasts between 1 and 2 hours
every day. Cooking with open fire or on three stones is not only time intensive
but also health threatening because of the smoke and causes respiratory
diseases. And this is not done with a cough – the Worlds Health Organization
(WHO) estimates that annually more than <b>4
million </b>people<b> </b>die because of
cooking with solid fuels of which 50% are children below the age of 5. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="DE" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(<a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/">http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have started our new Energy Justice program in
order to develop jointly with the urban poor solutions that will provide them
with a better access to modern energy and also reduces the costs for them. We
will keep you updated here about the further development of this project.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i><span style="color: #666666;">Author : Vincent Moeller is working for SPARC as an advisor on
Renewable Energy and Climate Change since June 2014. </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-85243564334678662592014-09-13T12:55:00.000+05:302014-12-03T13:25:59.492+05:30Centre prepares concept note on smart cities.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Reference :</b> Live Mint & The Wall Street Journal<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Centre prepares concept note on smart cities.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw85Xyzxo" style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">http://google.com/newsstand/s/<wbr></wbr>CBIw85Xyzxo</a></span></i></b></span></span><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The new initiative of the new government of 100 smart cities is a smart move to create opportunities for city governments to scale up basic infrastructure. For once the definition of smart cities is becoming clear and a city that provides efficient basic services such as water, sanitation, roads, and citizen services is considered smart. The mix of cities is also interesting, as it prioritizes state capitals, followed by 2 tier cities and tourist cities.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To a large extent, it sounds like the JnNURM redefined. The goal of improving city governance, infrastructure development all seem to be on the same lines, however without looking at the drafted concept notes, one can only speculate. While the definition of smart cities is emerging, the definition of smartness of the implementation instruments and infrastructure remains unclear. Though the current government may not want to acknowledge the work done under JnNURM, hopefully the learning from those are considered for the smart city plans, failing which we will only be forced to accept what is done as another initiative producing piecemeal solutions which sound great for current conditions, but do not account for the futuristic needs of the city.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>-- By Vinodkumar Rao </b></span></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-91137052227582972292014-09-12T17:32:00.000+05:302014-12-03T13:25:39.564+05:30ASIA NGO EXHIBITION- THE EXPERIENCE!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DM4NcMS0dzA/VBLgC_43MGI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/wTVZEero9_A/s1600/ngoexpo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DM4NcMS0dzA/VBLgC_43MGI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/wTVZEero9_A/s1600/ngoexpo.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For the first time, on 27-28 August 2014 SPARC
participated in Asia NGO exhibition organized by “Live week Business” at World
Trade Center, Mumbai. It gave NGOs and corporate a platform to engage with an
objective to take NGO mandate and work with large body of corporate and establish
tie-ups with them.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">SPARC showcased its work in developing community
capacity through area resource centers, surveys and enumerations, saving groups
and housing and infrastructural projects. The focus was on Sanitation with the theme
‘STOP OPEN DEFECATION’ thus showcasing new designs prepared by Architect Rahul Mehrotra
and team (RMA) towards building more efficient community toilet blocks. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">About 65 NGOs
and 6 to 8 Large Corporate industries participated in this exhibition. During the exhibition there was also a conference
where speakers from Large Corporate and Foundation like MAX India Foundation,
Swades Foundation, Sum Foundation, Jindal Steel and Power ltd. TERI etc. spoke on different themes such as integrated
community development into business model, corporate community investment, CSR
and sustainable development .There was also a panel discussion on Business and
Stakeholder Engagement towards shared value and Social Investments. The conference was mainly for Corporate and didn’t
find any representation from grass root organizations in any of the panels or
discussions. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">About 60 to 80 individuals visited SPARC’s
booth.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">MEMORABLE
</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US">FEEDBACK FROM VISITORS<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">Dr.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">D C Huz,</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;">Wockhardt
“Super Work” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Asma Kathiwalla, Thomson Reuters Foundation</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"> “Great Work Hope to work with you soon”</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ankita Yadav “Doing good work
and helping people to meet their basic needs” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Susaana Chenar, Gunj “Hope to
work together” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shalini Suhalka, BOSCH “All the best for your Work” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>--By Monali Waghmare</b></span></span></div>
<br /></div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-65807980162219480162014-09-12T17:13:00.006+05:302014-12-15T11:49:05.824+05:30Airport Slum Rehabilitation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TCJWhX0qpR8/VBLbTJvxGGI/AAAAAAAAAZI/IYOsbMLue5c/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TCJWhX0qpR8/VBLbTJvxGGI/AAAAAAAAAZI/IYOsbMLue5c/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" height="302" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The Economic Times 11th September 2014 p8</b> has an article on the latest developments on the Mumbai airport. Those who know the NSDF and Mahila Milan in India will know that the airport slums federation is a member of the Mumbai slum dwellers federation and has been working since the 1990s to convince the national Airport Authority of India, the State Government of Maharashtra to address the issue of slums long before the redevelopment and privatisation of the airport began.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A decade before, the federations presented to the NAAI and urban development department of Maharashtra with a powerful presentation of how a slum abutting the runaway was both dangerous to the residents as well cost huge additional fuel with planes having to queue and go around the slum. Over 1200 households were enumerated, the National Airport Authority purchased SRA built tenements from the govt of Maharashtra and households moved.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After the airport was privatised, the open letter by Jockin Arputham requested the state to dialogue with the organised communities of slum dwellers. The federated leaders position was and continues to be that they are willing to give the airport all the land they need for infrastructure and they would build houses for the slum dwellers in the remaining space. For many years this position was not accepted. Government appointed developers to find land to relocate households but the residents have resisted this and government enumerators have not been allowed to do surveys in slums.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This announcement reflects a change of position, and one that is a way forward. Dialogue negotiations between the state and communities has to be the centre for developing solutions. The poor was reasonable solutions that work for them. They are always amendable to what works for the city and for them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<b>--- By Sheela Patel</b></div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-47752557398093147862014-08-19T13:27:00.000+05:302014-12-15T11:43:15.588+05:30Community Based Organizations interact with Ward -- Maria Lobo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MsVU3Lcn-PE/U_MSt2VxePI/AAAAAAAAAYY/oDa-ZbVnY3c/s1600/survey-statistics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MsVU3Lcn-PE/U_MSt2VxePI/AAAAAAAAAYY/oDa-ZbVnY3c/s1600/survey-statistics.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; text-align: justify;">On 13th August, 2014 a ward level meeting was organized in the ward of G-North, Mumbai to set a platform for Community based organizations (CBOs) to start interacting with the ward to discuss and sort out technical issues related to community toilets in slums. G-North was one of the wards where the Alliance has constructed toilets under the Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project and as part of the Project Management Services was contracted to survey 22 toilet blocks. Apart from surveying, an analysis of these toilets was also done with regards to how many toilets have municipal water, electricity, garbage disposal in the settlement, toilets needing repairs, toilets where CBO restructuring or reformation needs to be taken up etc.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">The above dashboard gives a summary of the toilets surveyed in G-North. In the meeting the CBOs were introduced to the ward office and the technical team with whom they could work to resolve issues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">The process of assessing these toilets were—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-font-family: Symbol; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: bullet; mso-level-size: 10.0pt; mso-level-text: ·; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">·</span><span style="width: 23.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Pilot study and preparation of questionnaire—to test out the questionnaire and further modify it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-font-family: Symbol; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: bullet; mso-level-size: 10.0pt; mso-level-text: ·; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">·</span><span style="width: 23.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Conducting physical survey of the toilet and CBO— to know about the issues and status of the toilets ever since they have been constructed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-font-family: Symbol; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: bullet; mso-level-size: 10.0pt; mso-level-text: ·; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">·</span><span style="width: 23.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Data entry and evaluation— keep a computerized record of the data collected<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-font-family: Symbol; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: bullet; mso-level-size: 10.0pt; mso-level-text: ·; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-indent: -28.3463pt; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">·</span><span style="width: 23.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Observations and solutions—interventions to be done and solutions that can be realistic to all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Ever since these toilets have been constructed and handed over to the CBOs for maintenance, there has never been a back-to-back follow up as to how these toilets are doing, if or not the CBO still exists, are seats enough of if there is an overload on the toilet etc. Therefore this was a starting point to get all the actors involved in this—the CBO, ward, MSDP and NGO to come together and sort out issues as well talk about what good has happened or toilets that are functioning well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Issues discussed and decisions taken in the meeting -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PAayhEe7LN4/U_MTyaaa_RI/AAAAAAAAAYg/7rCC0hKk1AE/s1600/GNORTH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PAayhEe7LN4/U_MTyaaa_RI/AAAAAAAAAYg/7rCC0hKk1AE/s1600/GNORTH.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><b>ISSUE</b></td>
<td><b>DECISION</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Irregularity in paying pass money—CBOs complain of families not paying pass money on time and at times they even refuse to follow such systems
</td>
<td>Display boards to be put up stating the no. of families using the toilet, monthly amount that they have to pay and that strict action will be taken against families that do no pay
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Repairs—toilets that are more than 10 years old need repairs and show leakages, doors are broken, pans need to be replaced etc.
</td>
<td>Ward taken the responsibility of fixing repairs as per circulars of repairs
Ward also suggested assessing the performance of these toilets on a regular basis post –repair
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cleaning of septic tank / Sewerage choking—although there are 2-3 toilets having septic tank, they have never been cleaned by the ward. Even toilets connected to the sewer line face choking due to various reasons which need to be corrected
</td>
<td>Letters need to be given by CBO and ward will clean the septic tank on a regular basis along with clearing choke ups.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Solid waste management—careless disposal of garbage around the toilets and within the settlement was observed
</td>
<td>Ward officer suggested connecting Dattak Vasti Yojana to CBO for getting the garbage cleared
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0BMC G/North Ward Office, JK Sawant Marg, Dadar West, Matunga, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400028, India19.0232007 72.84332689999996519.0081897 72.823156899999972 19.0382117 72.863496899999959tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-46192200029804781352014-08-19T12:58:00.002+05:302014-12-03T13:29:33.102+05:30Setting Precedents in smaller towns of Maharashtra -- Maria Lobo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TKn0zefjOjs/U_L9bJgOT9I/AAAAAAAAAXg/w879hXG6rS4/s1600/Sanitation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TKn0zefjOjs/U_L9bJgOT9I/AAAAAAAAAXg/w879hXG6rS4/s1600/Sanitation.jpg" /></a><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">The Alliance has been working on sanitation since its involvement with the Mahila Milan and Federation. Though most of the work in sanitation be it providing community toilets or individual toilets; has been done in Mumbai, Pune, Vizag efforts are being made to increase and improve sanitation facilities in smaller towns and cities of Maharashtra. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">In 2013, SPARC conducted a survey of 150 community toilets constructed since 2000 under Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Projects launched in 1995 by the World Bank and the Mumbai Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The survey form covered sections on Settlement information, Physical assessment of the toilets, CBO information, Structural issues, Health and hygiene, the idea of this was to come out with interventions post survey some of which can be taken up jointly by the NGO and the city, few that can solely the responsibility of either the CBO or the concerned ward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">Also in 2013, a citywide settlement profile was conducted in cities of Maharashtra where the Federation is active. Laying stress on sanitation, the analysis of these were that though on one hand there is acute shortage of community sanitation facilities on the other hand the existing sanitation facilities are overlooked and are just left abandoned in absence of no one taking the charge of maintaining those facilities. Having utilities like community toilet blocks in slums and not maintaining the same is also one of the main reasons for increasing open defecation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-align: justify; text-justify: newspaper; text-justify: newspaper; text-kashida-space: 50%; text-kashida-space: 50%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">In order to replicate and set precedents of initiatives being taken in Mumbai, in a meeting held in August 2014 with six cities of Maharashtra (Bhadgaon, Jalgaon, Ahmed Nagar, Pimpri, Nashik and Malegaon), the cities decided to do a similar survey of toilets constructed by the city municipality in slums. This survey will be undertaken in slums where the Federation and MM have an active presence. To start off with, two types of interventions will be done<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: arabic; mso-level-text: "%1\."; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: -28.3463pt;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">1.</span><span style="width: 20.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">one toilet in each city will be either reconstructed or repaired or newly constructed as a demonstration to the city <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 28.3463pt; mso-level-indent: 28.3463pt; mso-level-number-format: arabic; mso-level-text: "%1\."; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: -28.3463pt;">
<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">2.</span><span style="width: 20.5pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-currency-font-family: Calibri; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Calibri; mso-default-font-family: Calibri; mso-greek-font-family: Calibri; mso-hebrew-font-family: Calibri; mso-latin-font-family: Calibri; mso-latinext-font-family: Calibri;">The analysis from the survey will be presented to all the municipalities to begin a discussion on who does what and how it can further extended at a citywide level. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span lang="en-US"><span style="height: 364px; left: 125px; mso-ignore: vglayout; position: absolute; top: 180px; width: 544px; z-index: 1;"></span></span><span lang="en-US"><span style="height: 364px; left: 125px; mso-ignore: vglayout; position: absolute; top: 180px; width: 544px; z-index: 1;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="en-US"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:rect id="_x0000_s1027" style='position:absolute;
left:94.34pt;top:136.06pt;width:406.59pt;height:271.06pt;z-index:1;
mso-wrap-distance-left:2.88pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:2.88pt;
mso-wrap-distance-right:2.88pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:2.88pt'
o:preferrelative="t" filled="f" fillcolor="white [7]" strokecolor="black [0]"
insetpen="t" o:cliptowrap="t">
<v:fill color2="white [7]"/>
<v:stroke color2="white [7]">
<o:left v:ext="view" color="black [0]" color2="white [7]"/>
<o:top v:ext="view" color="black [0]" color2="white [7]"/>
<o:right v:ext="view" color="black [0]" color2="white [7]"/>
<o:bottom v:ext="view" color="black [0]" color2="white [7]"/>
<o:column v:ext="view" color="black [0]" color2="white [7]"/>
</v:stroke>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\SPARC\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="DSC_0021"/>
<v:shadow color="#ccc [4]"/>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
<![if pub]><b:otyEscherText type="OplPo" oty="1" oh="286">
<b:FUserChangedFmt priv="200">True</b:FUserChangedFmt>
<b:FMoved priv="300">True</b:FMoved>
<b:Oid priv="C05">(```````````</b:Oid>
<b:OidAssociated priv="D05">(```````````</b:OidAssociated>
<b:Qtf priv="3404">0</b:Qtf>
<b:Ohlinfo priv="3A0E">287</b:Ohlinfo>
<b:DxlMax priv="AA04">6120000</b:DxlMax>
<b:DylMax priv="AB04">3442500</b:DylMax>
</b:otyEscherText>
<b:Filename type="OplFileName" oty="102" oh="287">
<b:SzFileName priv="318">DSC_0021.JPG</b:SzFileName>
</b:Filename>
<![endif]>
</v:rect><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span style="height: 364px; left: 125px; mso-ignore: vglayout; position: absolute; top: 180px; width: 544px; z-index: 1;"><br /></span><span style="height: 364px; left: 125px; mso-ignore: vglayout; position: absolute; top: 180px; width: 544px; z-index: 1;"><br /></span><!--[endif]--></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-3454035250842936392014-01-28T12:05:00.001+05:302014-12-03T13:30:13.537+05:30Mumbai: Housing for the poor and its constant change of usage By, Sheela Patel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-85UZ3S13JPM/UudPCg7TMVI/AAAAAAAAAVg/BIo53oHtuuM/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-85UZ3S13JPM/UudPCg7TMVI/AAAAAAAAAVg/BIo53oHtuuM/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="400" width="223" /></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Whenever the state government of Maharashtra
has taken up new and interesting possibilities to address the challenges of
housing the poor, it gets side tracked by a paradoxical impact of poor
supervision of governance architecture needed to ensure it reaches the people
it was meant for. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Housing possibilities
remain in a constant state of crisis because any empty space gets used up for
alternative uses; and because the construction industry which explores
construction opportunities in the name of the poor fails to address solutions
for the bottom 40% in the city.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Corbel\,BoldItalic"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Six years ago, the Government of Maharashtra took a bold decision to
build small tenements which would be given to the poor for rent. The rental
housing scheme would be taken up by the private sector and they would get a
good TDR return for tenements which in turn they would give back to the
government. MMRDA would then hand these tenements over to organizations to
manage according to a governance framework to be developed alongside the
construction. A total of 500,000 units
were to be constructed. The initial tenements were constructed but when a new
leadership took office, the MMRDA preferred to sell rather than rent the houses.
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">The 500,000 houses were never built. But
the ones that were built remained empty since the MMRDA did not develop the
management strategy and framework for supervision. When buildings collapsed
these were the only tenements that were available and thus were used as transits
accommodation. Transit accommodation generally
knows several generations until the time when residents forget where their
grandparents were moved out from and build their lives around these localities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-25254959793434782432014-01-24T13:11:00.001+05:302014-12-03T13:29:48.902+05:30Visitors to SPARC in 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In 2013 SPARC met with various interesting visitors from
both national and international agencies.
Following is a list of few of the visitors that piqued our interest:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">Nancy
Mean from the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland visited SPARC in March
– Nancy wanted to learn more about what the Alliance does and how it functions.
She visited Mankhurd to talk to the families which shifted there from along the
railway tracks.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ameya
A. from IITB visited SPARC in April – Ameya visited Manhkhurd sites with mobile
workshop team (2 logistic people) with Keya and Sharmila for planning of HOLCIM
visit on 12th April 2013.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Yogesh
Shetye of YES bank visited SPARC in April – Mr. Yogesh visited SPARC's project
sites at Mankhurd (Milan Nagar, Bldg 98) and Ekta Hind Community toilet with
Mr. Joshi, Aseena, and Keya.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Heather
McGray & Ayesha Dinshaw from World Resources Institute visited SPARC in
April - to learn what the Alliance does and how it functions. The purpose of
their visit was to discuss climate change in context to urban areas.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ministry
of State for Housing, Uganda visited SPARC in May - 6 delegates from the
Ugandan Ministry came to India; before visiting SPARC they visited the Pune
BSUP sites/ Sanitation projects/ Mankhurd relocation site with Jockin and
federation. One of the delegates wanted to know the different instructional
structure associated with all of the above projects and he wanted additional
reports and documents to learn more.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mr.
Ramon J Gray,the Managing Director of Polycare Research Technology, UK visited
SPARC in May - Polycare Research Technology UK has invented a new way of making
resin based concrete that allows practically any locally available aggregate to
be used as the main (87%) filler component. It was in this regard that Mr Gray
visited SPARC to discuss the possible opportunities for his company in the
Indian Market. He was further taken on a field visit to Milan Nagar.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">P.V.
Viswanath, the Director of Global Portfolio Analysis Centre & Professor of
Finance, Lubin School of Business, Pace University,New York visited SPARC in
June - Professor Viswanath visited SPARC to learn about the work of the
Alliance specifically about savings and credit. Prof. Viswanath teaches micro
finance and wants to bring a group of students for an exposure visit to India;
this was also one of the reasons for his visit to SPARC.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Diana
Mitlin, Gayatri Menon from Manchester University & Tom from DFID visited
Pune MM in August – they talked to the Mahila Milan of Pune regarding BSUP,
other housing projects, taking their opinion on how far has the municipality
been able to provide them with the services and what more can it do. Visited
some houses constructed as well as under construction under the BSUP project
and also spoke to some community members.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Students
and Professors from UMEA University Sweden visited SPARC in October – During
their visit, Sheela spoke about SPARC and its work and Keya talked about
incremental study.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-74355599205665013002014-01-24T13:08:00.000+05:302014-01-24T13:08:06.777+05:30Mumbai: Planning for 58% with Inaccurate Data by, Sheela Patel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cFHkVXI_xcg/UuIXqArITbI/AAAAAAAAAVM/oSq5Hw3oVk8/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cFHkVXI_xcg/UuIXqArITbI/AAAAAAAAAVM/oSq5Hw3oVk8/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The aspirations for the slum dwellers that came with setting up SPARC
in the 1980's </span>didn't<span style="font-size: small;"> materialize because the limitations of the municipality or
government because of the DP (Development Plan). Carefully study of the plans indicated
that there were spaces available to house the slum dwellers; in reality however
the space or land was always used for different purposes and thus occupied. In
frustration, SPARC raised this issue with the then Chief Secretary of Maharashtra
who had also been the municipal commissioner of Mumbai. His comment on the development plan was (with
a benignly smile) that the DP is a manifestation of what we envision, but
reality is very different. In layman terms it translates to the urban poor can’t
ask the city for land for housing because all the land that they have earmarked
for the poor is already occupied.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
The DP which is being prepared today is haunted by incorrectness of the
past: lack of accurate data and unclear and contradictory data sets. When
challenges to plan are not accommodated and addressed in each plan, they clearly
produce unregulated response. The poor squat if they can’t find a space to stay
near work; the elite equally ignore the rules. Both pay bribes for the regulatory
process to ignore their presence and turn a blind eye, and the unregulated
growth increases exponentially.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Manipulating the data is a routine strategy of the government agencies.
The state and city institutions are known to inflate and deflate the data on
poverty slums based on whom the report is being prepared for. The data used for preparing the Mumbai DP states
that there is a 18% dip in slums; the information is quite vague is you
consider the following facts: How do we link this to the fact that the census
definition requires a slum cluster to have more than a certain number of
dwelling to be counted under the census connect with this factor? What do we do
when even lower level government data collection refuses to count the
households who live as renters in the mezzanines of huts?<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-83574745992937259542014-01-24T13:02:00.002+05:302014-12-15T11:49:35.603+05:30Ongoing Saga of the Slums Along the Airport by, Sheela Patel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h01Ps2owHJc/UuIWmDDytvI/AAAAAAAAAVE/Ex0IlyJuKoA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h01Ps2owHJc/UuIWmDDytvI/AAAAAAAAAVE/Ex0IlyJuKoA/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="400" width="157" /></a><span style="font-family: "Corbel","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">The slum
along the Mumbai airport contains over 98,000 structures and to date remains a
crucially unsolved challenge for the development of the airport. The resident’s
networks, that are part of NSDF city federation, have promised to willingly
concede land that the airport wants for its infrastructure if the remaining
land not needed for the development will be made available to them. The residents wish to live in SRA ground plus
5 buildings. For many years the contract to build alternative housing for slums
along the airport was given to a construction firm HDIL. 276 acres of encroached land was to be
“cleared” as households would move to sites nearby. The unusual act of getting
transferred development rights for the 7000 structures in which no one has
moved yet has been noted by the CAG in his report. There are numerous other
challenges that have also impeded this process.
For example:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The state
cannot undertake surveys until it clears eligibility norms, which should be
structure for structure; the High court says the year 2000 cut off is
acceptable. Thus only a very small percentage is eligible.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Residents
what to be assured that the whole community get houses which are nearby; only
7000 are nearby so the residents have refused to move.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The deal
for GVK and HDIL does not become profitable unless the land use for commercial
purpose is accepted; this has resulted to a standoff.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Corbel,Bold","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Corbel\,Bold";"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Corbel,Bold","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Corbel\,Bold";">In the meanwhile the new terminal with huge array of art work
is to be opened on Feb 14.</span></b></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-36800087844105613512014-01-09T13:09:00.000+05:302014-01-09T13:09:39.694+05:30James Westcott from OMA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">James
Westcott, from OMA in Rotterdam, is researching material for his book called
“Elements of Architecture,” for which he is researching the history and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">current
status of elements like the floor, the door, the wall, the ceiling, the roof,
and of course the toilet. The book is part of the Venice Architecture Biennale
this June, directed by Rem Koolhaas.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">James is </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">focusing on Dharavi as a
demonstration of how the western model of flush toilet + sewage system isn’t
achievable or sustainable in most parts of the world. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">He has
asked SPARC for assistance and for the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">map </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">that SPARC is</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> making
of the toilets built by SPARC. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-70155098257250228212014-01-09T12:34:00.000+05:302014-01-09T12:34:22.556+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Down Memory Lane: the inception of CLIFF</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KD7pmkQv4oc/Us5IBNiajPI/AAAAAAAAAT8/z_ifQE2HVBg/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KD7pmkQv4oc/Us5IBNiajPI/AAAAAAAAAT8/z_ifQE2HVBg/s1600/Picture1.jpg" height="125" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6_ohK6hkA5U/Us5II3qq3NI/AAAAAAAAAUU/GND_g6tGJsc/s1600/Picture4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6_ohK6hkA5U/Us5II3qq3NI/AAAAAAAAAUU/GND_g6tGJsc/s1600/Picture4.jpg" height="138" width="200" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
A DFID financed research commissioned to Homeless International
(HI) adhered to the experience of the Indian alliance and other SDI affiliates
to demonstrate the fact that organised communities of the urban poor were
capable of producing projects to house themselves. The challenge was to develop financing strategies
that would accommodate the urban poor to improve the quality of their lives with
the solutions and strategies that they developed. Ruth Macleod and the HI team
worked with Sheela Patel and the Indian Alliance as well as the many affiliates
of SDI to document evidence that communities could drive such processes. It was
ostensibly a research project, but DFID actually agreed with the proposition
and Community Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) was born; the first
project financed through the facility was the Rajeev Indira Housing Cooperative
society.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3TWx7wPFqNU/Us5IGTeeoOI/AAAAAAAAAUM/VeocFYH2_BQ/s1600/Picture3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3TWx7wPFqNU/Us5IGTeeoOI/AAAAAAAAAUM/VeocFYH2_BQ/s1600/Picture3.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gYO4aWJYA8Y/Us5IDGXBlXI/AAAAAAAAAUE/afHcRGVefRA/s1600/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><br /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the 24<sup>th</sup> of February 2002, the Rajeev Indira
Cooperative society was inaugurated. The project brought the entire state
government machinery of Maharashtra from its Chief secretary, its Housing
department and city officials to
inaugurate the first self managed slum redevelop project in the city. Mahila
Milan and NSDF leaders from all over the country attended the inauguration also. </div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-8304854898234967132013-10-25T12:21:00.000+05:302013-10-25T12:21:02.469+05:30Asian Coalition for Housing Rights brings 10 Asian country groups to Mumbai for an exchange<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Georgia\,Bold"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">40
people from 10 countries i.e. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Japan,
Thailand, Bangladesh attended an exchange program in Mumbai from 24th September
to 29th September</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: FranklinGothicHeavy;"> which was organized by the Asian Coalition for Housing
Rights (ACHR)</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">. The focus was to understand the strategy of
NSDF and Mahila Milan to design and execute solutions for the communities by
the community while working with government as well. Each team comprised of 2-4 people with at
least one person who could translate from English to the national language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">ACHR has been running the ACCA program for
several years and every year there are meetings to visit a new learning site,
review ongoing projects and also look at new proposals for the next round of
projects financed by ACCA. For this
event, two and a half days were planned with the alliance and one day for
project reporting and review of new proposals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Slum/Shack Dwellers International and ACHR
jointly funded this event. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">The schedule:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Georgia\,Bold";">Afternoon of 25th</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">: at Byculla center Orientation
about the alliance and its work with pavement dwellers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Georgia\,Bold";">Day of the 26th</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">: field visits to housing
projects, relocation projects, and sanitation projects were organized. NSDF and
Mahila Milan took them to various sites in Mumbai; the initial plan to have
them visit Pune was cancelled due to the shortage of time. Instead Pune Mahila
Milan was invited to Mumbai to present their work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Georgia\,Bold";">Day of the 27</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">: The whole day was spent
at Byculla where the whole group spent the morning with questions about what
they had seen and later presenting what they were doing. Pune Mahila Milan
presented their work at the end of the session.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Georgia\,Bold";">Day of 28th</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">: A whole day review was
taken up at the hotel hall about ACCA projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490360066138742297.post-76352889139670939222013-10-24T12:15:00.000+05:302013-10-25T12:17:33.954+05:30Seminar with UMEA University of Sweden at SPARC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8V9LVLpaSA/UmoTfMxlKBI/AAAAAAAAASQ/iBOndHDeoC4/s1600/2013-10-24+12.37.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8V9LVLpaSA/UmoTfMxlKBI/AAAAAAAAASQ/iBOndHDeoC4/s1600/2013-10-24+12.37.48.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">SPARC hosted 55 architecture students
from the UMEA University of Sweden in which the director of SPARC, Ms. Sheela Patel
and SPARC staff member, Ms. Keya gave a presentation on SPARC’s slum
redevelopment endeavors and working closely with the community for development.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In her opening, Sheela explained why
it was necessary to work in partnership with the community regardless of your
field of profession; it is necessary to share knowledge that will help the
community understand and then use the knowledge in their own capacity. As an example, Sheela explained that 85% of
housing is built by the people in a way they understand; SPARC supports them by
working with policy makers and other professionals to provide the urban poor
with knowledge, material, and other support needed for their development.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Housing involves a series of processes
which SPARC is required to undertake; some of the things it involves is data
collection, designing solutions, among others. SPARC produces information and
documentation to help the urban poor to acquire proper housing and public
benefits. In this endeavor, SPARC
focuses to produce a strategy that helps in good governance and recognition of
city members. On this note Sheela added that the poor are should be treated
with respect and not as garbage and that they should have a place safe to stay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">One of the
students questioned the slum dwellers reluctance to relocation to which Sheela </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">citied Dharavi’s example;
the slums are not only residential areas but more like “towns” within which the
lives of the poor rotate; it is also the place for their businesses and thus
their source of living. Therefore, people resist to protect their small
companies, jobs that generates them income and they resist to protect their
homes. Relocation sites only provide
residential rooms but fail at providing means to procure an income. In addition, the maintenance cost is higher
at the relocation sites.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sheela also explained the necessity
of proper identification documentation to identify the true beneficiaries and
also to provide security to the urban poor.
Incremental housing is carried out by urban poor on various scales. This gives the urban poor a strong sense of
ownership. Thus, a lack of identification
security and a desire to resist safeguarding what belongs to them also makes
the urban poor wary of relocation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the end note, Sheela said that SPARC’s
role is to challenge professional behavior to work with their knowledge to help
develop the poor communities. On a challenging note, she added that in her
perspective therefore, as a professional, it is your role to put a mirror or
reflect to show how others perceive things and show your case how you perceive
the situation and how and the rest differ. In that way, one can be able to
create new ideas to change rather than doing the same thing over and over
again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
SPARChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14051735719119299904noreply@blogger.com0