The GO-code

For years, the alliance has been promoting the need to map each individual household in a slum settlement. To complement this practice and to technically advance this practice, the alliance is been approached by an organization called “Addressing the Unaddressed”. The organization strives to provide each slum dweller with a unique code called the GO-code. This process is simple, a regular marking of the household, using a code generator software to generate a unique code, first roughly marking the house with this code and then making permanent metal boards that sport this number. These plates look like the license plates that are mandatory for each vehicle on the street. The plates being affixed on the door frames are permanent and being unique, will give a sense of identity to each household. These codes are marked on the map and therefore each household gets marked on the map. The unaddressed dwellers therefore become addressed, allowing them to get legal identification documents, ration cards, bank formalities etc.  This will also support the community when the settlement needs to be surveyed under the pretext of development schemes such as redevelopment.

After a successful pilot mapping a settlement in Kolkata, the organization wants to pilot this process in Mumbai in collaboration with the alliance.