Airport Slum Rehabilitation

The Economic Times 11th September 2014 p8 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.

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.

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.

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.

--- By Sheela Patel

ADMINISTRATIVE DELAYS LEADS TO UNOCCUPIED BUILDING by Sharmila

SPARC was involved in the construction of houses and rehabilitation of families living along the railway tracks under the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme, an undertaking of Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority. One of SPARC’s project was the construction of buildings next to the Kanjur Marg railway station in Mumbai. Of the buildings constructed, all but one are occupied by affected families living along the railway lines. The scheme gave incentives to the constructing organization in the form of transfer of development rights and this unoccupied building forms one of them. SPARC has been struggling from the past 5 years to get the necessary sign offs from officers in Railways from the various hierarchies in order to allot the flats to further affected families. 13 officers in various ranks have to grant their approval. With each officer, the staff spends close to half a month negotiating to get his/her approval. No officer agrees to bring the work up to speed unless being adequately compensated, though not ethically.  On several accounts, the officers deny being responsible for approving and shift the accountability to another officer. In the course of 5 years, the unoccupied premises has began to decay due to non use, and is often the center of anti social activities. In dense areas such as Mumbai, where real estate prices are soaring and the Government having ambitious plans of creating slum free cities, it is ironical how the simple work of administrative approvals for already constructed tenements is delayed due to its indifference.

On one hand, the Government wants to prove its commitment towards creating pro-poor solutions, however on the other hand, turns hostile towards the implementer such as NGOs and denies clearing administrative hurdles.

THE URBAN SLUM SHIFT by Vinod

Better job opportunities is one of the reasons why people migrate to metro cities from poor rural areas; jobs allows them to get at least the basic minimum needs of food, clothing and shelter satisfied. Since shelter is one of the most expensive of the basic needs, the relatively cheaper option of a slum house becomes the only option for the poor. As cities grow and become more dense, shelter becomes less and less affordable.  Naturally, the choice of settling down with a house of their own compels people to move towards the outskirts of the city, or adjoining towns that are still connected to the main city. This choice shift has affected the slum concentrations in a similar way. Slums are not built nor do they expand by choice but are the only option the poor have who come to cities to survive. However, the slums have a real estate value and cost of renting or purchasing a hut, however illegal that transaction may be, depends on the area.

Density of cities adds to the complexity offering lesser land spaces for housing. Outskirts of dense cities and the surrounding towns begin to catch up with the pace of urbanization that is swallowing everyone and becoming populous - people wise, infrastructure wise and economy wise. Housing is an integral part of rapidly growing cities and towns;  slums are also a type of “housing”.  While Mumbai has seen a reduction in the number of slum households in the last couple of years due to various slum redevelopment schemes, in the nearby towns and smaller cities the slum population has doubled in the last 10 years. The urban shift with a saturated Mumbai can be best associated to it.

With rapid urbanization, migration cannot be contained. However making cities slum free will mean heavy investments which may be beyond the means of the city or state’s capacity. Given the bitter experiences with the past interventions, estimated costs escalate severely over a period of time due to poor planning and implementation practices. However, a slum being defined as a space that is used for housing however are unfit for human habitation can still be upgraded by providing the basic amenities to the dwellers. Water, electricity and sanitation become the first steps to making the slums habitable. Given the capacity of the poor who in the past have demonstrated an incremental approach to improving their dwellings, creating pro-poor policies that acknowledges and supports their contribution towards improving their own living conditions will be more economically viable in the near term.

LIVELIHOOD SUPPORT in PUNE

SPARC is part of the BSUP R&R project in Warje, Pune.  In August 2013, the SPARC held a meeting to introduce a training program it has organized to assist the youth affected by the BSUP R&R project.  The training program includes the following:

· 4/5 weeks (5 hrs everyday) training after which each person will get guaranteed job in Pune- Bank, Retail shop, Call Center, BPO sector with salary starting from Rs.8000-10000

· Training involves-

Ø  Interview skills

Ø  Basic English speaking

Ø  Skill training- as per the education background

· Training has Enrollment fees Rs. 500, during the course Rs. 2000 and after getting a job each person has to pay Rs. 2500 - total cost of training is Rs. 5000 per person.

As part of post relocation livelihood support to the communities at Warje MM team with Mr. Roy and Skills Academy invited about 25-30 educated youngsters from the slums with a minimum education till the 7^th standard. Mr. A.N. Roy Former Director General of Police, Maharashtra and founder of Vandana Foundation, together with the Skills Academy from Delhi jointly provides livelihood training for poor educated slum boys and girls from the age group of 18-25 yrs.

Mr. Roy informed the participants about the benefits of enrolling and explained that the Vanda foundation together with SPARC has already trained about 100 youngsters in slums of Mumbai; those trained are working in Bank, Retail shop, Call Center, BPO sector. Since the Vabdana Foundation and Skills Academy has a tie up with Banks and retail shops, they can get a guarantee the students a job.

  

25 participants have enrolled for this training program, among them 4 are from A building and the first batch is going to start from 19th August 2013 at Sarhad College  Katraj.

Rehab policy to soothe ruffled feathers of PAPs in Navi Mumbai

Times of India, Mumbai recently reported that City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has drafted a 26 page action plan to pacify the PAPs in Navi Mumbai.  Relocating is an traumatic experience and should be carried forward with a sensitive hand.  If the communities concerns and problems are not dealt with at the forefront, then winning their support is difficult.  The community should be involved in the process and feel comfortable to air their grievances.  Then, and only then, can the process of relocation run smoothly.

MILAN NAGAR: THE MOVE AND AFTER............., JANUARY 2013

The Milan Nagar Cooperative society has been registered and the members have been reconfirmed.  The community has began to manage the functioning of the society. The households continue savings but unlike when they were living on the pavements, savings and funds are being used towards bettering their homes or to contribute to the monthly outgoings along with the savings.

The committee members had to face many challenges such as households throwing things from the window without regard had to be stopped. In addition, the toilets were often chocked because the women stuffed their menstrual cloths in them.  In order to keep the community toilets clean, the committee members created routines for all to follow .

The committee had to deal with managing festivals, keeping corridors clean, and creating spaces for children of different ages to have access to open spaces. Children especially young boys playing with the ball, often broke windows and were stopped from playing cricket for some time. Since Milan Nagar has been a flag ship settlement, the Indian alliance  and other federation members national and international visited the community.

As per each households capacity, the families painted their walls, retiled their floors, bought cupboards, beds, did up the kitchen etc…  The degree to invest depended on the number of members earning in the household, the amount of money saved, and/or the amount of loan that the family has taken.

Compared to the small space of 45sq feet from their old home they now had four fold space, and so many things rushed into their homes.

DOES PROVIDING ONLY HOUSING ALLEVIATE THE POVERTY OF SLUM DWELLERS, JANUARY 2013

Building number 13 in the Lallubhai Compound houses people that have been moved from the huts that were situated very close to the railway track at Mahim. Most dwellers are either rag pickers or make a living by selling wares at traffic signals. While their housing conditions have improved after the rehabilitation to the new SRA building, they still continue to live in poverty and are barely able to make ends meet.

With most of the families, the initial conditions while living in the slum were dismal due to their close proximity to the railway tracks. Several families lost members who came under the wheels, since crossing the tracks by foot was the only way they could access the outside world to get their basic needs satisfied. Full absence of toilets meant 100% open defecation along the tracks, and all problems that would follow with their absence. Low lying areas meant flooding during rains that left them with no option but to salvage whatever possible and live on the railway platforms with the family until the water receded. However this also meant the ensuing damages and therefore expenditure on repairs.

With the movement to the new SRA buildings, all these problems were negated, however some problems did not change, and some are now posed with new problems. There has been no change in the occupation, or income levels of the households, and given the new expenditure of maintenance and other services, their problems are compounded. Several households have defaulted on payment of building maintenance and other utility payments. This increased expenditure has resulted families even resorting to take loans from the savings in order to pay off maintenance debts and other larger expenditures.

Providing housing only provides a little relief to the poorest of the poor in the city that live on daily earnings by doing menial jobs. They live in better conditions, but still cannot come out of the poverty cycle and therefore are at risk of selling their houses and going back into poor living conditions.  The struggle to meet the first basic need of food still continues and therefore triumphs over the need for housing. What is therefore required along with better housing, is an innovative approach that insures that every variable that pushes the vulnerability of the poor is alleviated. This may mean an integrated approach towards housing, livelihood, education in a conscious effort to prevent the poor falling back into the vicious cycle. For some, just providing basic necessities and tenure security and letting them evolve themselves naturally might prove more beneficial.

Disclaimer – Everything expressed here are purely my personal ideas.

MILAN NAGAR: SHIFTING TO MANKHURD, JANUARY 2013

Every household packed their belongings onto trucks, tempos, and/or buses thus starting a procession of vehicles from Byculla to Mankhurd. Banners were put up by the communities associated with NSDF along the roads.

Mahila Milan Byculla and the pavement dwellers federation’s network grew with the number of slum dwellers increasingly benefiting from their insights.  In many ways the Byculla pavement dwellers unknowingly have been the initiators of many of the tools which the federation uses today such as:

1. In 1985 their census for the pavement dwellers stating WE THE INVISIBLE, produced a enumeration protocol that is now an institutional activity of the Indian alliance as well as the SDI.

2. In 1986, they began examining the capacity of the poor with regard to housing.  This was initiated to understand why the poor never get houses.  Eventually the MM and the federation developed a housing design exercise which led to the formation of the house model exhibition which is in use till today.

3. In 1987 the MM along with the federation began daily savings managed by women which is yet another strategy everyone has adapted across the federations.

4. Once the Milan Nagar site in 2000 was allotted, the MM and federation begun design and construction themselves—a system which has been continued throughout the coming years.

5. In 2005, the MAHATMA GANDHI PADAPATH KRANTI YOJANA  was announced.  Its aim to rehabilitate all pavement dwellers in Bombay demonstrated a strategy whose roots began with a small group of women seeking to defend their homes and leading ultimately to all pavement dwellers securing a permanent home.  Others who observed and learnt from the Byculla MM and pavement dwellers federation often got their homes and amenities quicker than those who failed to realize their accomplishments.

The Minister of Housing of South Africa, Dr. L. Sisulu along with the provincial heads of 2 regions from South Africa, representatives from the SDI, local politicians from Mankhurd, and the secretary of housing of the Government of Maharashtra inaugurated the Milan Nagar Housing Cooperative Society  project by lighting the lamp.  Dr. L. Sisulu began interacting with Mahila Milan, NSDF, and SPARC as members of the SDI since she met them in Barcelona at the World Urban Forum. Dr. L. Sisulu  was inspired by the struggle of the pavement dwellers and acknowledged the commonalities it shared with the South African federation.

MILAN NAGAR: MAHILA MILAN INITIATES DESIGN CONCEPTS, JANUARY 2013

From 1990 onwards, Byculla Mahila Milan attended exchanges in India and internationally to share their experience of getting organized, of learning to use their own experience to design a core house for themselves, and of planning a settlement design from it.

Initially, women used boxes and cardboard to develop ideas to visually communicate with each other.  This allowed them to question the practicality of ideas and explore ways to keep experimenting.

The community as a whole usually joined in to air their reflections and often groups would compete to find the best concepts. Nothing was right or wrong, the focus was on what was needed, affordable, and doable.Ultimately, the houses resembled the kuccha houses in which the pavement dwellers lived in.  The vertical design allows the households to accommodate more members and have more space.

                              

MILAN NAGAR THE STORY BEGINS.....JANUARY 2013

The picture on top is of Dimtimkar Road and the one on the bottom is of Sophia Zubair Road. Both these streets have families predominantly from Bihar who came to Mumbai seeking work in textile and weaving, but had to abandon their skill as weavers of fine tussar silk and become scrap collectors.

The women of these communities are amongst the oldest group of women’s collectives engaged in the housing program developed by the Mahila Milan and SPARC.  These Byculla communities were the first group to be relocated to Mankurd since they were both prepared and considered a priority of the city municipality.

In order to set the ground work for the relocation, the alliance was seeking to bring closure to the pavement dwellers rehabilitation policy by supporting the MAHATMA GANDHI PADAPATH YOJANA.  The yojana was announced by the state government in order to improve the road access for smooth running of vehicles by identifying pavement dwellers as persons needing relocation. The committee from Milan Nagar popularized the relocation by putting up a poster stating “ WE ARE MOVING FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT”. 

All of the neighborhood ward officials of the corporation, the local police station and the buildings whose walls the pavement dwellers huts were built on were informed that the obligation to keep the pavements clear was now theirs.

Milan Nagar, a cooperative society of  pavement dwellers, consisting of 536 households was formed in 1986 as a spearhead movement of pavement dwellers seeking to get secure housing away from the pavements. In 1986 they developed a design and a strategy for housing, began to save money, seek land, and also build skills and confidence of other pavement and slum dwellers to encourage them of the path they were exploring. Between 1991 to 2000 there were numerous  policies and projects which led to others in Mumbai and other slum dwellers in Indian, Asia, and Africa to secure tenure and housing options through this federating process. In 2000, Mahila Milan registered a piece of land in Mankurd to Milan Nagar. After overcoming many problems and challenges, in 2005 80 households moved to Mankurd.

MUTP: A RELOCATION AND REHABILITATION SUCCESS STORY, AUGUST 2012

New high-rise buildings constructed by communities at the Mankhurd relocation site in north-eastern Mumbai.

In the 1990s people riding on the Mumbai railway system could reach their fingers out of the rail cars and touch the slums.  Slums encroached on the rail lines all up and down the tracks, with some people making their dwellings just a few feet from the trains whizzing by.  People living on the side of the railway needed to constantly cross the tracks for daily activities like visiting the markets, walking to school, defecating, or gathering water.  Day to day countless people were hit and crushed dead by the trains. Train drivers suffered psychological trauma from killing so many innocent people, even though they drove at only 15 km/hr to avoid as many killings as possible.

One Mahila Milan member, Sulakshana Parab, explained how she lived on a small 6×13 plot on the side of the railway in Tata Nagar, Govandi, with no water, electricity, or toilet access.  She would spend her days in constant fear that trains might kill her husband, children, or neighbors while they were out of the house.

Something had to be done, and the Mumbai Urban Transportation Project (MUTP) was the response.  MUTP required that 10m of space be cleared and protected by high walls on either side of every rail line.  This would enable trains to run safely along the tracks at 45 km/hr, allowing three times as many trains to run through the city each day and one third of the prior commuting time for all those dependent on rail to get to work.  With nobody living along the rail lines, many fewer deaths-by-train would occur and train drivers could do their job without killing innocent civilians.

In order for the MUTP dream to become a reality, the city would have to relocate some 20,000 people away from the railroad track. But where could they move?  The World Bank agreed to fund the project on the condition that the people living on the side of the railways get relocated and rehabilitated to a safe and permanent location.

Even before relocation was announced, some rail-side communities had began forming into federations to protect women in the community who faced danger of rape and assault when were forced to defecate on the rail tracks because of a lack of proper sanitation facilities.  Upon hearing about a possible relocation for all rail-dwellers, federations rallied to organize themselves for the proposed move.  First they made plain table surveys and maps and numbered every house in their neighborhoods.  Then they assigned individuals in the community to represent every block of twenty households, and registered each of these households so that they could prove the existence of their rail-side homes to the governments.  Every Sunday for eight years members of the federation went out to survey lands throughout the city in hopes of finding suitable lands for relocation.

In addition to embarking on these many surveys and enumerations, federations initiated their own savings programs.  At first most families could not scrape together 100 rupees of savings, but after participating in well-structured and reliable savings programs implemented by the federation families reached the point of having 15,000-17,000 rupees each stored away in their individual housing savings: enough to construct a new home.  The savings programs also enabled people to take out loans in emergency situations or to start their own businesses.  With strong savings rail-dwellers became confident that they would be capable of building and funding their own homes if they could acquire a suitable plot of land.  Some communities hosted housing exhibitions with model homes made out of cardboard, saris, or cement and other real construction materials to introduce the community-at-large to the various designs that were being considered for the new homes.

Originally the government had planned to temporarily resettle the rail-dwellers in Mankhurd in northeastern Mumbai.  The government was not sure who owned the land in Mankhurd, but the federations knew that the land was available because of the extensive surveys they had carried out over eight years.  Families began to relocate to Mankhurd, and soon after they settled in there the World Bank adopted a policy that governments undertaking relocation had to provide new shelter for families before their current homes could be demolished.  Because the Indian government had not lived up to this demand, the once-temporary Mankhurd land was ruled to become a permanent relocation site for the rail-dwellers.

In total 20,000 people were relocated away from the rail-side under MUTP, and 17,000 of them were assisted in the relocation and rehabilitation process through the work of SPARC, NSDF, and Mahila Milan.  In the new Mankhurd relocation site, children are safer since they can play outside without the threat of speeding trains.  “Here the kids’ lives and our lives are saved,” Sulakshana Parab remarked.  She was relocated from the rail-side to a new apartment in Mankhurd Building 98 and speaks highly of her new home.

The federation in Mankhurd now takes the form of a “Central Committee” of 17 buildings, each of which has its own leader.  The Central Committee has done much work to clean the sewage connection and ensure that it stays functional, and they also work on improving the general cleanliness and garbage management of the Mankhurd neighborhood.

Families relocated to Mankhurd enjoy the
spaciousness and safety of their new home.

When people lived along the railway tracks the threat of trains was petrifying and nobody wanted their sons or daughters to marry into the rail community out of fear that eventual grandchildren would grow up in unsafe conditions.  Once the families moved to a permanent and safe location, this mentality changed.  Formal buildings made the rail-dwellers formal and acceptable citizens.

When instituted correctly relocation and rehabilitation can be a huge opportunity for families to uplift their living situation, safety, and employment.  The key is that communities themselves must provide the energy and momentum to move the relocation process forward, and they must drive the process from its inception.  The poor know what kind of solutions will actually address and overcome their problems, and they are capable of making these solutions come to life through proper organization and collaboration.

RELOCATION AND REHABILITATION: THE SPARC WAY, JULY 2013

What is Relocation and Rehabilitation (R&R)?

Whenever people are being continuously evicted from their land by the government or some other national or corporate authority, families must relocate.  Often this happens when the government decides to undertake infrastructure expansion projects like road-widening, flyover construction, rail expansion, etc. and these project plans encroach on families living in public places like slums, railways, and power lines.  In these situations the government often tries to uproot these families and move them to remote locations.  This process of shifting communities away from public land in demand is called relocation.  Rehabilitation involves helping to situate and establish communities in their new homes post-relocation.

In this process of relocating and rehabilitating, SPARC and the Alliance help organize communities and encourage them to be active in planning and executing all relocation activities in partnership with the local government. Initiating dialogue with the families, assisting in the shift, helping with registrations and paperwork, and smoothing the social transition from one neighborhood to another are all part of SPARC’s relocation and rehabilitation program.

Concerns Surrounding R&R

While R&R often serves the wider interest of the city, it leads to hardship for the individuals who are forced to move. For this reason SPARC feels that relocation should be minimized to the extent possible, and when R&R is unavoidable the relocation site should be as close to the original communities as possible.  Throughout the R&R process, outside individuals and organizations should be as respectful of the needs and demands of the relocated communities.

SPARC R & R Philosophy and Involvement

SPARC supports communities in the relocation process by giving them the tools to conduct surveys and enumerations in their current settlements and future settlements, establishing savings and credit programs so that families have enough money for the shift, and arranging for inspections of the new locations provided by the government to make sure they have legal utilities available and enough space for all in the new relocation site.  SPARC also assists with rehabilitation activities like transferring ration cards and election ID to the new relocation site, updating tax paperwork, arranging for government BEST buses to make new stops at relocation sites, identifying good schools in the new neighborhoods for the relocated children and fighting for affordable tuition for these children, and seeking employment opportunities close to the relocation site for relocated community members.  In addition to these activities, SPARC also requires that grievance redressal mechanisms exist at the community, federation, and government levels so that people know where they can go to express concerns.

SPARC believes that communities subjected to R&R must be well-organized and deeply involved in the relocation process from the beginning.  Throughout the relocation the state contracting institution and relocating communities must communicate and develop a mutually acceptable arrangement for relocation. SPARC can help facilitate this communication since the organization’s role is respected by both parties.

 SPARC’s History of R & R

In 1995 pavement dwellers were included in the list of people entitled to government R&R and SPARC began helping pavement dwellers throughout India relocate onto freed government lands.  Also in 1995, SPARC helped design the R&R policy for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), which affected slum dwellers along the railway track.  Since then, SPARC has worked with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to relocate these households. In 2000, households from Rafique Nagar along the airport runway were relocated with the Government of Maharashtra’s department of housing facilitating this process. In 2008 SPARC also began working with Tata Power Company to relocate 2,000+ households away from electricity lines so that the company could expand and update its distribution network to provide more reliable power to households throughout Maharashtra.