Miles to go before we sleep

Miles to go before we sleep

Slum women’s courage in an “illegal” slum in India

Emergence of a new settlement considered “illegal”

The notion of illegality is frequently associated with slums particularly newly established informal settlements. This supposed illegality presents challenges to the residents of such new settlements, adding to their struggle of finding livelihood and trying to settle down in a new city or urban area. 

Out of bounds in the northern eastern peri-urban part of city of Indore a settlement of impoverished migrant population has developed in 2014. A fairly small strip of land and one brick kiln, it  earlier served as a site for open defecation for the residents of the nearby slums. It was only when the land was purchased by a real estate broker who bulldozed it to make it concrete, the place started gaining attention of the new migrants from different parts owing to the possibility of livelihood work in nearby factories and construction sites.

Migrant came from villages of other Districts of Madhya Pradesh mainly Rewa and Khargon including some from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Livelihood options as laborers in nearby factories and construction sites and low housing cost (as compared to other slums of Indore) in this area adjacent to Urban Health Resource Centre’s existing programme area contributed  to the migrants settling here.

Living Challenges:  The migrants started settling down amidst challenges of unpaved pathways, lack of electricity and no water supply. Unpaved streets hampered the movement of people and risk the children injuring themselves while playing on pathway, the lack of electricity and water made the lives difficult such as the struggle to fetch water from a distance and living in the challenging situation of no fan and lighting.

Community organising and encouraging requests and petitions

UHRC fosters social cohesion and promotes action: Nandan bagh, New Jagdish Nagar and Jairaj Nagar, the neighboring slums had several active and experienced women’s groups. UHRC’s social facilitators, who visit the area to facilitate improvement efforts learnt from the older women’s groups of the newly evolving basti (slum) listened to their challenges. UHRC ‘s women’s group members, who function as volunteers in the slums as part of UHRC’s democracy and governance improvement programme undertook regular visits to the new settlement held discussion to think and determine if forming a group would be helpful for the community.

Sakhi Saheli Mahila Samooh (meaning Friends and Sisters Women’s group) and Nai Kiran Mahila Samooh (meaning New Light women’s group) were formed in the end of 2014. Each group has 12-15 women members. 

                         Above: Interactions with slum women and formation of women's group

Solutions to challenges being tried

The processes that form the core of this AXA Outlook Award supported project attempted in this “illegal” settlement are community organizing and collective action, periodic community assessment, motivation, capacity building, and gentle negotiation with local authorities.  

   Above:Group members participating in AXA Outlook Community Risk Assessment and Action initiative

UHRC attempted the approach of training these newly formed groups of a new settlement in writing collective community petitions for paving of streets and submitting them to the ward councillor. The members of the older women’s groups in the adjacent neighborhood helped these new women’s groups overcome their hesitation in approaching the ward councillor, submit and pursue petitions. The first community petition was submitted in Jan Sunwayi (Public Hearing) on 24^th April 2015. The officer remarked that the basti (slum) for which the women are submitting this request for paving the lanes is “illegal”. With the support of leaders of older women’s groups, the newly formed women’s groups gently asserted their rights as citizens and the value of their votes in elections to the ward councillor. This helped overcome the supposed barrier of illegality associated with the slums.      

                        Above: Women's groups members make an in-person representation to Ward Councillor    

The women sustained their courage since they had learnt through training (from UHRC facilitators) that such statements can come anytime from officers. Women’s group members made a representation in person to the elected Ward Councillor and subsequently submitted a reminder petition at the district public hearing in May 2015. 

    Above: Women's group leader requesting officer at Public Hearing after submitting petition for paving street

      

The AXA Outlook Award project “Knowledge and Action Bridge towards Community Risk Assessment and Resilience Building is implementing actionable solutions to slum level challenges by bringing community wisdom to the fore. As part of this initiative, UHRC social facilitators further motivated women of the new settlement to continue preserve through written community applications to city authorities and personal representations to elected ward councillors.        

Initial successes in the new informal settlement and ongoing efforts

Perseverant negotiation by the women led municipal authorities to send workers to begin paving the streets of the new settlement on August 31 2016. About one-third of the lane in one part of the new settlement was paved till October 2016. 
                         

Efforts through community petitions and gentle requests to the elected ward representative are ongoing. A recent reminder for paving the remaining 3/4^th part of the street, for a second bore-well and paving streets in the part of the slum that has no government water supply and has unpaved pathways have been submitted to the District Magistrate’s office during Public Hearing in June 2017. 
                     

The second success is of the bore-well being installed on 27th June 2017 which will start functioning soon. As a temporary measure, the community has connected it informally to an electricity source and access water. 

Several visits by women’s group members and UHRC’s social facilitators were made to the elected Ward Councillor, community requests with the signatures of 15-20 persons and gentle reminders were submitted to the authorities. During all these negotiation efforts the protagonists remain gentle, collaborative (willing to and support the functionaries of the Municipal Corporation) and non-confrontational.     ‘

Interim arrangements for services: For addressing the lack of access to water supply, in the interim, the residents were motivated to negotiate with the private bore-well owners in the adjacent older slums had access water at a monthly amount of INR 100. Simultaneously the submission of community petitions requesting water supply were also made. To address the challenge of lack of electricity, UHRC facilitators and women supported the residents to erect long poles and access electric supply from the nearby slum where electricity supply had been installed about 4 years ago.

What is UHRC learning?

This approach has helped UHRC to reinforce the need to “listen” and motivate the less advantaged groups to collectively come together and address their challenges with affirmative action. The approach of listening also helps in producing solutions which arise from the minds of those who lead the lives amidst the challenges 24x7. Soft skills such as tact and the conscious effort to avoid confronting the authorities helped in learning as to how to deal with the notion of illegality.

The experience has also taught that more older and established groups in the neighbouring community are able to motivate and facilitate the formation of collective power in the new informal settlement. Continuous perseverant efforts and action yielding in small victories further nourish the capacity of women as they gradually develop negotiation skills, thereby learning to “pull” services from the Municipal Corporation benefitting the population of 1575.

Siddharth Agarwal, Shabnam Verma, Neeraj Verma, Kanupriya Kothiwal (Team members and volunteer of Urban Health Resource Centre)