Visitors to SPARC in 2013

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.

Seminar with UMEA University of Sweden at SPARC

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.

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.

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.

One of the students questioned the slum dwellers reluctance to relocation to which Sheela 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.

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.

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.

HEATHER McGRAY AND AYESHA DINSHAW MEET SPARC - APRIL 13

World Resource Institute (WRI) is trying to establishing itself in the urban areas as it has established itself in the rural areas.  WRI are meeting with different actors in the urban sector to understand how climate change affects urban cities as they are aware of the impact in the rural poor. WRI focuses on the intersection of the environment and socio-economic development. In this context WRI met with the SPARC team to understand more of our work in the urban areas, what kind of communities we work with, and how does climate change affect the communities. A couple of questions were raised by WRI - how does SPARC view success, how would slums look like 5 or 10 years, which are the trickiest services to get to the slums. 

The main points discussed between SPARC and WRI were:

1. Brief about work of  SPARC

2. Explaining different federations and how they are formed

3. Talking about the  study on poverty and vulnerability and climate change

4. How services are provided to the urban poor

The poverty and vulnerability study, sanitation project and paper on climate change in Cuttack were shared with WRI following which they had few more questions. Once the WRI understands the situation of the urban poor, they will be in a better position to think of which aspect to take on and will then send a proposal to SPARC. One of the main questions they had was, if they were to do something about the effect of climate change in urban cities what would be the most important issue to which we suggested sanitation, since inadequate sanitation facilities effect the environment.

 

NANCY MEAN, WITH HUSBAND & SON, EXPLORE HER LOVE AFFAIR WITH MUMBAI APRIL 13

Nancy Mean is one of the executive deputies of Professor Karl Swab from the Swaub Foundation and the founder of the World Economic Forum. She wrote to SPARC saying she would be in Mumbai and would love to spend a day with us bringing her husband and son to visit. She first came to the Khetwadi office of SPARC on 3rd April 13 and explained that she was using her Easter break to explore Mumbai and reconfirm for her self she really enjoyed connecting to the city. Her husband, who is a dentist, and her youngest son were completely involved in Nancy’s daily hectic schedule of visiting us and other social networks, eating at local food joints, and meeting and interacting with communities of the poor in cities.

They spent time understanding what the alliance does and its role as facilitating the dialogue between the city and the informal and urban poor living in slums.  They spent the afternoon with families residing in Mankurd, the first households who designed and undertook their relocation from the railway site.

Nancy is a Canadian living in Geneva for many years now and finds an amazing energy in Mumbai which is clearly something special and unique.

ACUMEN VISITS BANGALORE TO MEET FEDERATION, OCTOBER 2012

As a follow up to the meeting in August where the Acumen team met with the SPARC team at the Khetwadi office,, the alliance shared data about loans given, cities and towns where it was given and also how the repayment has been scheduled. The discussion led to the team from Acumen visiting Bangalore and a date was finalized and Thomas from the federation facilitated the visit and meetings with households who had taken loans.

The visit:

The team first visited the Federation office at Bangalore, where Thomas explained them about the loan portfolio. They discussed on the number of loans given, the reasons for which families sought the loans and the overall management of the loan structure. Chinnamma who works with the families directly with the loans and savings, showed them around to meet some of the families that took the incremental loans for housing and upgrades. The Acumen team talked to Ragini from the L.R. Nagar settlement who had taken a loan to do housing repairs. They had a chat with Silvy Mary whose house had to be reconstructed following destruction with floods, since her house was situated on a low lying area. She had taken a loan therefore to perform major repairs to her broken house. Likewise, they also met a few more families and women who had taken loans to perform incremental upgrades to their houses and got an enlightening experience of how by upgrading the houses incrementally by using small loans helps communities to improve housing conditions

The team further plans to talk to John and know more about the incremental loan structure.

DAN CHEN FROM FORD FOUNDATION WITH SPARC, AUGUST 2012

The Ford Foundation has been one of the major supporters of SPARC NSDF and Mahila Milan in India and Dan Chen who is from the office in New York visited Bombay and he spent 7th August in Bombay with us. The day began with a visit to Mankhurd Building No 98 where RSDF ( Railway Slum Dwellers federation and Shekhar from NSDF and Pavement dwellers from Mahila Milan spoke of the creation of a strategy for relocation due to which the transportation ( especially of Trains) investments to upgrade public transport were possible. Also the paradox of how pavement dwellers were the ones who designed the initial relocation strategy for themselves but RSDF got benefits long before the pavement dwellers got it. Most fascinating has been the formal acknowledgement of the survey by slum dwellers as forming the foundation of the strategy that was driven by communities themselves.

Discussions at Mankurd

Mahila Milan members from pavement Slums spoke about how they began their association with SPARC and NSDF and their journey which began in 1986 has led to a policy by the state government to relocate pavement dwellers in 2005, and present ongoing relocation which has relocated one third of the households.They also spoke of their role in the network of savings groups that form the foundation of SDI and how they have travelled to so many countries to share this knowledge.

Discussions in Dharavi

In the afternoon, starting with Lunch in Dharavi, Jockin spoke of the challenges to communities believing they can make the difference in improving cities, and participating in finding solutions for challenges that the poor face.

Many Mahila Milan women who are now contractors for the sanitation and other construction projects were also present and spoke of their journey as part of various federations, initiating savings groups being relocated and now working as contractors and negotiating with various authorities.

DAN CHEN FROM FORD FOUNDATION WITH SPARC, AUGUST 2012

The Ford Foundation has been one of the major supporters of SPARC NSDF and Mahila Milan in India and Dan Chen who is from the office in New York visited Bombay and he spent 7th August in Bombay with us. The day began with a visit to Mankhurd Building No 98 where RSDF ( Railway Slum Dwellers federation and Shekhar from NSDF and Pavement dwellers from Mahila Milan spoke of the creation of a strategy for relocation due to which the transportation ( especially of Trains) investments to upgrade public transport were possible. Also the paradox of how pavement dwellers were the ones who designed the initial relocation strategy for themselves but RSDF got benefits long before the pavement dwellers got it. Most fascinating has been the formal acknowledgement of the survey by slum dwellers as forming the foundation of the strategy that was driven by communities themselves.

Discussions at Mankurd

Mahila Milan members from pavement Slums spoke about how they began their association with SPARC and NSDF and their journey which began in 1986 has led to a policy by the state government to relocate pavement dwellers in 2005, and present ongoing relocation which has relocated one third of the households. They also spoke of their role in the network of savings groups that form the foundation of SDI and how they have travelled to so many countries to share this knowledge.

Discussions in Dharavi

In the afternoon, starting with Lunch in Dharavi, Jockin spoke of the challenges to communities believing they can make the difference in improving cities, and participating in finding solutions for challenges that the poor face.Many Mahila Milan women who are now contractors for the sanitation and other construction projects were also present and spoke of their journey as part of various federations, initiating savings groups being relocated and now working as contractors and negotiating with various authorities.

ACUMEN AND DELL FOUNDATION VISIT SPARC, AUGUST 2012

Sid Tata and his colleague Karuna Jain met Sheela Vinod and David at Khetwadi to further discuss the development of a strategy to provide loans to slum dwellers who were members of NSDF and Mahila Milan for incremental upgrading of their homes. They brought with them Rahil Rangwala from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to meet with SPARC as well. Most of the time went in acquainting each other about the organizations since Dell Foundation and SPARC were meeting each other the firs time.

The project:

The SPARC NSDF Mahila Milan and SSNS know that the largest number of households of the poor in cities build their own homes, and they build it bit by bit. This inquiry of SPARC is to explore ways to produce a loan and a large scale over time to households to upgrade their homes incre- mentally, using the Mahila Milan groups to administer and manage the loans.

Based on the modest experience so far the households can borrow up to 20,000 and repay it in 10-15 months. The loans are reviewed by the federation in the city which send these recommen- dations to SSNS. The present explorations are to examine the issues to systematize and scale up these loans and to develop the financial model to make them sustainable.

Elements to do with policy advocacy, with design and materials issues will be taken parallel once this demonstrates its feasibility.