Welcome to Citywatch April 2004 - September 2004

Editorial from Sheela Patel

India had its national parliamentary elections in May 2004, and Maharashtra had its elections in October. The alliance has always maintained a clear non-partisan profile, choosing to work with state and city institutions on issues of poverty and equity, constantly seeking to sharpen and deepen the role of people's processes in working centrally in development.

During this national election, most federation meetings were postponed in the months of April and May to allow community leaders to work with the party of their choice and to ensure that it was not perceived as work in the federation's capacity. NSDF takes an especially strong position on the right of communities to have multiple identities. Often we are asked whether belonging to different parties is divisive for the alliance. NSDF wisely claims that all the communities of the poor in cities know that belonging to federations serves their interests.

It is clear that elected representatives have to develop more accountability to their constituency, and this will only be possible when the poor gather the collective strength to demand that accountability. This is, in many ways, the larger backdrop for the work of the alliance, for while the Alliance seeks new ways to design solutions that work for the poor, it simultaneously focuses on building slum dweller's capacities to negotiate with state institutions to actualize these ideas. This ensures that no matter which party is in power, it is the contribution and participation of the poor that will sustain the developmental process.

Congress and its allies have won the May as well as the October elections, and have declared a mandate to address poverty. Ministers claim to be committed to work with civil society and ministers and have announced a target based approach. Time will tell how such well-intended statements translate into practice. Federations will test such possibilities to the extent that opportunities arise.

CAPACITY BUILDING

A focus on Community Policing

An idea finally actualised...

The first time we were introduced to the concept of community policing was when we met Clifford Shearing in South Africa. At the time, he was working with the South African Police department. His discussion helped us explore the trends that were occurring world wide. His message was:

* That policing, or the provision of security to ensure peace, so that day to day activities can be carried out are the fundamental duty of any nation state.

* That world-wide, the business of 'security' was being privatized. And as citizens. we submit more and more to these security arrangements.

* That as this privatization gets more sophisticated, the police will get less involved in working with the poor.

We later invited him to come to Bombay and spend time with the federations. When he saw the savings groups, he felt that this federation method was, in itself, developing security systems.

In their own way, Mahila Milan has been exploring a pro-active and positive relationship with the police for many years. These women have had to regularly deal with police stations which routinely pick up their men on 'loitering' charges. Getting their men out of these situations always left them feeling helpless. However, this situation changed with gradual and increased engagement through Mahila Milan initiated dialogues with Police stations and working as a collective to ensure peace in neighborhoods.

The inauguration of Mumbai's Community Policing Program in June...

For the last decade, most federation innovations occur in Mumbai and get transferred to other cities. In the case of the policing strategy, however, although the initial exploration began when the Mahila Milan at Byculla began to work as a collective with the local police station to bring peace in their neighborhood, it was in the city of Pune that the police formalized this relationship with the women's collectives. In the 2003 September convention of NSDF and Mahila Milan, Commissioner Anami Roy was honored by the federations as a friend of the poor for what he had started in Pune. And, soon after coming to Mumbai, he began exploring the possibilities of setting up similar collaborations with various vulnerable groups. Of these populations, a very large segment was slum dwellers.

The date for the launch of the Community Policing in slums programme was finally set for the 11th of June 2004 and the ceremony was inaugurated by the chief minister of Maharashtra in Kokari Agar, Wadala, where the federation has resettled a number of communities that used to live along the railway tracks. About 10,000 people attended this function and they came from all over Bombay and even as far as Pune and Pimpri. Although Jockin was ill and could not attend this event, the federation came out in full force to show their solidarity and confidence that this idea - conceived by Jockin and Mr. Roy in Pune - would surely also work in Mumbai.

Savita Sonwane from Pune spoke about how successful this programme had been in her city. The Chief Minister then handed out the first 15 sets of community and police officer an ID cards.

And this idea is spreading all across the city...

September 2004, 65 slums in Mumbai had 'slum police panchayats', each made up of ten representatives from the slum - seven women, three men and a local police officer.

Here are some examples of disputes that the police sahayaks have resolved:

* A woman who worked as a domestic came to the police committee after her employer, who had not paid her for six months, refused to pay. When she complained to her employer, her employer called the police and lodged a complaint against her for unruly behaviour. After the local police committee discussed this with the servant, they concluded that she was innocent and that the employer should pay her what she was owed. The police made sure she received her payments. Without the support of the committee she would never have succeeded in this.

* In some slums, police committees have brought pressure on locals who illegally brew and sell alcohol to shit their shops down. This is to contribute to reducing drunkenness and related violence. The local Mahila Milan has supported those who previously made illegal alcohol to develop new livelihoods. Without community volunteers, the police would find it impossible to control this.

So what's the future of Slum Police Panchayats?

*Both the police and NSDF recognize the need for comparable changes in the relationships between slum dwellers and government agencies/municipalities who are responsible for providing water, sanitation and health care.

*Work in underway to see how the police rooms within each slum might also provide a location of doctor's consultation and for more constructive relationships with local utility providers.

*Coverage of slum police panchayats is expanding rapidly in Mumbai, with training sessions for both police and community volunteers as well as frequent reviews of the experience to date, to see what improvements can be made.

And in September, the Police Commissioner comes to Barcelona to the World Urban Forum with us...

We were the only group all at the World Urban Forum 2004 at Barcelona that had their Police Commissioner on their team! And when the Police Commissioner of a city like Mumbai talks, everyone sits up and listens.

During his presentation, Mr.Roy explained how - in both Pune and Mumbai - committees are set up in slums with 7 women and 3 men to work in close coordination with a designated police official. These committees are selected by slum communities themselves and the idea is that disputes should, as far as possible, be resolved at the community level itself through the intervention of these committees.

These committees deal with issues like petty quarrels amongst people standing in a queue for water, alcoholism and the resulting domestic violence and other disputes among slum residents. Mr.Roy gave some examples of how this community intervention prevented small incidents from being blown out of proportion. He drew attention to the time and energy saved by such dispute resolution since the formal legal system of criminal law and courts of justice could be avoided. Another key characteristics of this initiative is that it can be implemented on a very large scale without requiring additional resources from the government, which are difficult to negotiate, and even if successful, take a long time. The slum policing scheme transforms the relationship between the poor and the police. In general, the poor do not trust the police and more often than not, the police look at slums as dens of vice. But, by working together and spending time together, both sets of perceptions are changing.

All the SDI delegates went away with the intention of trying to experiment with similar schemes in their cities. It was very inspiring for everyone to see how the talk fired everyone's imagination.

What we plan to do this year

Making our Annual Plans more strategic...

Last year when Sida asked SPARC to share its overall annual plans as part of the financial support to the alliance. It was a new level of expectaion for SPARC. It was not as though no planning occurred before, but it was part of the oral tradition that the alliance has taken on from the federation practices. It was the first time this kind of formal articulation of our internal monitoring and reviewing process was undertaken in a formal manner.

It forced us to think hard and push ourselves to prioritise, and also to see the breadth of our activity - all across the country. It proved to be a very useful exercise'both internally, because federation leadership saw more clearly which cities and issues needed support and strengthening, and externally, because we were able to articulate our activities more clearly. Tracking our progress against our targets also produced some interesting results - as we saw how one small innovative idea experimented with in one settlement grew to become an inspiration for all the other federations.

Take the example of individual toilets. Pondicherry decided to try this in one of its settlements, and by end of the year 3 cities covering over 150 families were following a similar route. The Pondicherry federation was transformed into regional leaders conducting large workshops and mentoring small scale infrastructure initiatives in the region. This year, we expect that this demand for sanitation will double - and in preparation, we are talking with ICICI bank to open a credit line for infrastructure loans, where SPARC can mediate, but communities will be able to take this sanitation programme to scale.

Sharing some of our Targets...

June was an exciting month at Byculla as key federation leaders set performance targets for member cities for the upcoming year. Two important new initiatives are that there will be regional workshops held every month in different locations for the Southern federations and that each city federation across the country will be expected to complete their slum surveys and then send detailed letters to their municipalities, outlining the issues that emerge and beginning a conversation on these topics. A core group of national leaders will visit each city in the course of the year to review their progress and support them in their discussions with local authorities.

1. Initiating and strengthening newly emerging federations

Latur, Sangli, Kolapur, Tarampuram, Pallani, Bodi, Bidar, Hubli, Dharwar, Tiruppur, Konark and Kona are some of the cities that joined us last year. This year, through exchange programmes, they will be supported to become more familiar with the federation and build their groups within their cities. Moreover, since we have been approached to set state wide sanitation policy in Andhra Pradesh, the federations of Hyderabad will be specially supported to initiate and guide federations in Vijaywada and Vizag, where toilets are being constructed.

2. Strengthening and expanding existing city federations

Also emphasis has been placed on expanding existing federations across the country - for example, moving from 20% to 50% membership within already federated slums - special attention will be given to building the capacities of city level federations in Chennai, Thiruvalluvar, Bangalore and Nasik.

3. House Model Exhibitions

This year the federation will focus on supporting local groups host housing exhibitions in Pondicherry, Maddur and Tiruppur. Each of these cities has been chosen for strategic reasons - Pondicherry has worked extensively with its municipality on sanitation, and forged relationships that will make the land dialogue easier. In Maddur, the city is willing to resettle a small group of families affected by a road widening project. Constructing high quality yet affordable housing here will set the ground to scale this process up to benefit many more slums in the city. And finally, in Tiruppur, the municipality is keen to work with the federation, most immediately on sanitation, so it is opportune to exhibit our housing work as well.

4. Community Toilets

After the national convention of 2003, where city representatives visited the community blocks that had been built across Mumbai, they were all excited to begin working on sanitation in their cities. Many leaders met with their municipalities and some, like Surat, even brought them to visit Mumbai. A variety of strategies, depending on the local situation, is being adopted by federations to convince municipalities about the critical importance of slum sanitation. For example, Pondicherry has decided to take advantage of their smaller successes with working with local authorities to support individual toilet construction, and build upon these relationships to begin the more complex (and expensive!) issue of constructing community toilets. In neighbouring Cuddalore, Trichy, Madurai and Karekal, federations will approach municipalities with the offer of repairing old broken down toilets and training communities in maintenance. Federations in Ahmedabad and Calcutta are regularly meeting with their authorities regarding this issue, while the cities of Raigad, Pimpri, Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar and Kanpur have already managed to convince their municipalities about experimenting with the federation model. And finally, the federations in Bangalore, Tiruppur and Hyderabad will have managed to convince their municipalities to try this model.

5. Housing loans

The Pune housing project where communities will be accessing the central and state governments housing (VAMBAY) subsidies (which cover Rs. 50,000) has inspired federations across the country to work with their municipalities to also draw down this subsidy. Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack and Puri are already meeting with their officials about this issue. This year, Pimpri, Kanpur and Bangalore will also begin looking at how they can benefit.

6. Discussions on Resettlement and Rehabilitation

The federation will focus on supporting the three cities of Pimpri, Ahmedabad and Ahmednagar to strengthen their dialogue on resettlement of communities that are affected by public projects. In all these cities, hundreds of families are faced with eviction threats by municipalities that want to expand public infrastructure. However, none of these cities have any experience in working with communities or planning sustained resettlement, and are typically unsure of the feasibility of such an undertaking. The national federation has proposed that these officials visit Mumbai to examine how resettlement was managed, and that in the meanwhile, local federations will begin their own planning and organizing by completing detailed slum surveys, stepping up savings, and looking for land along with authorities for resettlement.

Cities Watch: What's going on across the country

Delhi: In February 2004, a fire destroyed the entire settlement of Lakshmibai Nagar, where a 140 residents of this slum lived. The alliance had been working for 3 years in this settlement and was quick to send a team to Delhi to provide some immediate relief. Unfortunately, when attempts were made to rebuild temporary shelters, the police came and arrested several community members. Subsequently, a proposal was made to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the main government agency owning land in Delhi, to resettle these families in ground +3 structures. By pooling physically the areas offered to individuals and going upwards, it would be possible to quadruple those areas. The DDA is very interested in this proposal and has asked for a concept note with drawings and costings. This is under preparation and we are very excited because we believe that this pilot project for 140 families has the potential to pave the way for replicating and scaling up the experiment throughout the city. The DDA is committed to the project and this is a very positive sign.

Kanpur : After years of struggling for land rights and negotiating with an ever-changing city and state government for affordable housing, the Kanpur federation had a major breakthrough earlier this year. The city finally gave them a small plot of land to demonstrate the houses they wanted to build. The challenge was excitedly taken up by federations and after a large celebration to inaugurate this project, two house model exhibitions are being developed and constructed.

While the houses are being built, the federation has also been very busy organising meetings with different settlements across the city to inform them this emerging opportunity and to encourage them to start saving for housing. "No less than a hundred women show up every time we call a meeting," said of the Mahila Milan leaders proudly. In fact, this progress on housing has also encouraged the federation to step up its dialogue on community sanitation, and they are confident that they will soon be building toilet models too!

Bangalore : Since early this year, the Alliance has been supporting the Bangalore federation to pick up its efforts to address city-level slum sanitation. When the municipality approached the Alliance to reopen this discussion and to build a federation style toilet that could possibly become a model for the entire city, the area of Gavipuram Guttahalli was chosen for this demonstration project. Over 400 families live in this area, and although an old community toilet did exist, it had fallen to disrepair and disuse because of the lack of a proper management and cleaning system. After a grand inauguration ceremony in March, a temporary toilet was constructed, the old toilet demolished and work began. It is expected that a brand new block will be ready by the end of September.

KGF: Kolar Gold Fields used to a be a mining town, but now almost all its residents travel to neighboring Bangalore for work. In a particularly innovative effort to support small-scale livelihood activities within KGF, the federation initiated the 'agarbatti' (or incense sticks) fund. Although a number of people, particularly women, wanted to get involved in this income generation activity which can be done from home, they were unable to afford the start up capital required to buy the wooden stand that is needed to roll these sticks. The federation came up with another idea - they got the stands made, cheaper, because they used community labour - and then loaned members the money to buy the stands, many more agarbattis will be rolled now!

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad federation has been working doubly hard in the last few months. The government has planned to develop the banks of the Sabarmati river, which flows through the city. The problem with this public project is that hundreds of slum dwellers live along these banks, and there is no talk of alternate resettlement if their homes are to be demolished. The area most deeply affected by such a project is the community at Khariwadi, and it is here that the federation is concentrating its efforts in improving savings, conducing detailed household and settlement level surveys and meeting with local officials about resettlement options. The idea is to inform and involve as many communities as possible in this 'River Project' (as the ASDF calls it) so that the federation can approach the municipalities with a united and strong face, one that represents thousands of families, and with the potential to, by working with the Khariwadi community, set a precedent that can be sustained and adopted by the entire federation and will substantially improve the lives of the urban poor in the entire city.

Kolkatta: A relatively recent federation, Mahila Milans and the federation in West Bengal now spread across 30 slums in the cities of Kolkatta, Kharagpur and Kona.

Although in 2001, the federation held a house model exhibition in the city of Kolkatta, the federations were too young to take up housing in any substantial way. Recently, however, the municipality has approached the Alliance to assist a group of 300 families who have been given alternate land and housing as part of a resettlement project. Although these families are not part of the federation, we see this as an important opportunity to start working in this state, and to build upon the relationships that will be formed to benefit other slum dwellers across the region. The federations here are also keen to work on community sanitation and are in the midst of doing detailed household and settlement surveys of a number of potential areas to build community toilets. As of now, two slums - Shalimar and Kalyani - that are located just on the outskirts of Kolkatta have been identified and land been earmarked for construction. If this initiative is successful, these will be the first federation style community toilets in the state!

Rituals of Community Bonding: Flowers and Haldi...

One of the federations oldest traditions is for Mahila Milan leaders from various communities across the city to visit each other on festival days to share sweets, flowers and stories. Whether its haldi kumkum celebrations - where married women distribute jasmine and eat specially prepared foods - or iftar parties -which are held just after dusk, when Muslim communities eat dinner together after a long day of keeping fast during the holy month of Ramzaan, it is occasions like these that go a long way towards strengthening bonds, appreciating each other's cultures and building trust.

"Haldi kumkum festivals are important because most of our members are women and we celebrate their functions publicly" says Isaac Lopez, a community organizer who has been working with the Panvel and Raigad federations for the last decade. "When women come together for these occasions, they are relaxed, they have fun, but they also talk about all their other problems related to their families and children, and because they can all relate to this, they become closer."

The federation has come a long way. Twenty years ago, when first Mahila Milan group was being formed, the women realized that most people did not even know their neighbours five houses down from them! However they soon realized the importance of working together, whether it was for confronting demolition squads, meeting a municipal official for a ration card, or preventing the outbreak of a riot. Yet this interdependence is only something that is experienced, not taught, and it is rituals like the haldi kumkum and iftar parties that cement bonds and demonstrate to newcomers that it is only in collective action that change is possible.

The Next Generation: Scholarships for bright federation students ..

The Mariwala Trust, in January 2004 gave the Alliance of SPARC-NSDF and Mahila Milan a grant of Rs. 1 lakh.

NSDF and RSDF used this money to give 13 scholarships to young promising students in Dharavi, resettlement communities in Mankhurd and pavement communities in Byculla. This money was awarded to support the primary and higher education, training and learning of these kids in the fields of science, commerce, computer science, accountancy, and engineering.

An important aspect of local capacity-building is supporting young people from slum communities to achieve their academic and professional aspirations. This support is vital to ensure that the Federation process is sustainable in the long run.

SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED IN 2004
* Manisha Sadashiv Kamble: Mohite Patil High School, Class 2
* Sheetal Sadashiv Kamble: Mohite Patil High School, Class 8
* Pratibha Mohan Devkule: N.G. Acharya & D.K Marathe College, SYJC
* Pravin Mohan Devkule:N.G. Acharya & D.K Marathe, TYBCom
* Ashwin Ashok Pagare: K.J Somaiya Junior College, FYJC
* Reshma Dattaram Gore: S.R. Paramhans College, FYJC
* Manish Gawkar: Veermata Jijabhai Technological Institute Pratipada Pandey
* Mahesh Gawkar: Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Technology, First Year
* Shekhar Prabhakaran: Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Technology, First Year
* Sayed Heena Shabab: Manohar Phalke Memorial Foundation's Polytechnic, Third Year
* Rajesh Pingle: Manohar Phalke Memorial Foundation, First Year
* Rizwan Shakoor: Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, First Semester
* Pratipada Pandey: Smt. S.C. Nanavati Women's JR College, FYJC

A focus on Orissa

Orissa MMs talk about their work

When Dr. Srivastava visited Orissa in June to evaluate the Alliance's work, he was visibly impressed by the Mahila Milan leaders and their work. He was also interested in what it meant for women to belong to this large collective.

Naturally, the issue that always comes up when such questions are asked is that of domestic violence. This is a particularly difficult topic to deal with, but MMs talked of the ways in which they try to intervene.

"It's because I am connected to this organization, I have the confidence to deal with the issues within my home," said one women. "If I can come and talk to a big official like you, I naturally also have the confidence to go home and talk back to my husband and mother in law!" said another.

A significant story comes from Rasulgarh, where the Alliance's first housing construction project in Orissa is underway. Nearly all the men in the settlement regularly get drunk, and a large portion of them beat their wives. But when the husband of one of the Mahila Milan leaders stole the group's savings and spent it on alcohol, the women decided that something drastic had to be done.

The next night, when the man returned home, drunk as usual, he was met by a group of very angry women. They gave him a sound beating, and then paraded him throughout the colony, wearing an embarrassing sign around his neck. And they promised that they would publicly humiliate him in this manner each time he returned drunk.

He didn't stop drinking, but he never created a problem again, and it sent a clear message. It's like rice," reflected a MM leader, "when you put it on the fire, it doesn't immediately get cooked. You have to wait a little while before the water starts boiling."

Working with the Municipality in Cuttack...

"When a husband and wife have a child, they are bound together, and it's very difficult to divorce. Savings is like that. Once we all start, we build something together, a collective organisation, and after that it's very difficult to separate," said, Sanju, a MM leader from Cuttack. She was explaining the federation process to two officials from the state's planning commission who had come to meet Mahila Milan and see how to support their housing efforts.

About 100 women attended this meeting. They talked about their history. Although MM had begun in 1999 with members in just 5 slums, today it was spread across 48 slums, and was expecting to expand to 75 by the end of the year. Because of this increasing membership, the Cuttack Development Authority had started approaching MM to lead slum surveys and low-cost housing development. Moreover, after successfully negotiating with the municipality to prevent the eviction of hundreds of families from four different settlements, MM actually managed to secure some land and begin building low-cost housing for one of these communities. This experience is expected to form the basis of many more such city-poor joint ventures.

But there had been many difficulties along the way. In fact, one of the most poignant moments was when a group of MM members from a settlement called Hairanpur talked about the number of times they had been evicted and the promise of resettlement that had been made to them by the municipality. "How will this ever materialise?" they asked. One of the officials was so moved that he promised to take up this issue and follow it through. This declaration was met by a long round of hearty applause!

This meeting marks an important milestone for this Cuttack federation - and comes as a result of a lot of struggle and hard work. To get officials from the planning commission to come to your office and show them the benefits of working with you - of how, by supporting a community process, they can be involved in contributing to the solutions is a skill that Mahila Milans learn to develop through their regular exchanges and guidance with older, more mature federation leaders. And now the Cuttack Mahila Milans are passing on these tips to the newly emerging federations in West Bengal.

Municipal Surveys and High Court Judges - A packed diary

Between meeting with city officials and high court advocates, the last few months have been very busy for Mahila Milan. And, this represents an important evolution in this state's federation because not only are they being recognized as an important development partners by the city, but they now also more confident of their own capacities to initiate all sorts of interesting partnerships. Here's a glimpse of their diary!

In July, the federation was invited by the city of Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack to jointly identify all the slums in the city and list all the families that fall Below the Poverty Line so that they can start accessing state programmes. The federations saw this as a tremendous growth in their relationship with the authorities because it was the first time that the city was acknowledging that it did not have accurate information about the slums and the poor, and that it was only with the help of the federation that such a survey would be comprehensive. In fact, when the federation leaders explained our slum and household survey and mapping strategy, the city was so impressed that the officials decided to use the same method! The information gathered is not only going to be recognized as official but will also be used to identify the first batch of slums to build community toilets, identify which slums need to be relocated and on what priority basis this issue should be addressed and identify which slums should be upgraded right away.

By the end of August, the survey was almost complete, and the federations in Paradeep and Puri were so excited about this process that they decided to embark on a similar count; so that they would be prepared even before their cities eventually approached them.

And a few weeks before that, Mahila Milan leaders invited Mr. Gopinath Mishra, a High Court advocate, to their Cuttack office to understand exactly what legal rights slum dwellers had in terms of their rights to the land. For one, Mr. Gopinath told the leaders, a high court ruling ensures that no slum dweller who can prove that he or she has been living on a particular plot of land for the last twelve years can be evicted without alternate accommodation. Another important issue that came out during this meeting was - you need to have all your documentation in place if you want to prove that you own the land.

In fact, although many slum dwellers in the state legally own the land on which they live, many have lost the land records over the years. This makes them extremely vulnerable to being bought out or, worse, thrown out, by more powerful groups keen to sell off the land. The advocate promised to assist the federation leaders and their communities to organize all their documentation and help them in specific cases as well.

More stories..

Malc from Homeless International and Devika from SPARC visited the cities of Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack and Paradeep for 4 days in August. Most of the time, we spent listening to the federation leaders and their stories. Here's one..

When the MM leader from a slum in Bhubaneshwar went to her local corporator to ask for electricity connections, she was turned away. The politician simply wasn't interested in entertaining this poor illiterate woman who did not seem in the least bit useful to him. But she didn't give up. Together with a group of women from her community, she went straight to the mayor. "You recently went to Mumbai and Pune to look at the housing and toilet projects there, right?" she asked. "And I heard you were really excited." The mayor agreed. "Well, I belong to that same federation and Mahila Milan in Mumbai and we need electricity connections here. Can you help us?" The mayor immediately called the corporator and asked him to fix a meeting.

Surprised that the mayor himself was calling, the corporator told the Mahila Milan leader to come to his house the next evening. She was furious. After all, everyone knows that no woman would leave her home late in the evening and go alone to a strange man's house! So the next morning, together with another 10 women from her slum, she showed up unannounced at the corporator's door. He was shocked, but welcomed them with great respect. "Please sit down and have breakfast with me," he said, "I didn't know you knew the mayor! Why did you need to go to him to ask for electricity? I was going to give it to you!"

The slum got electricity and everyone was grateful to the Mahila Milan leaders. But what such stories reveal is that sometimes individual leaders and individual communities, even if they are organised, cannot access basic resources without the support of large people's movements. But once they are able to leverage and make use of this backup, it is the initiative and power of the strength of the local movement at the grassroots that produces change and success and builds their credibility and relationships with the officials in their area and city. Once this is established, they are able to start negotiating on much more complex issues, such as sanitation and housing.

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

Scaling up across cities and federations

Hello..can you tell me about your microfinance program?

Whether it's ICICI Bank or UTI Bank or ABN AMRO or the State Bank of India, every week now, we get calls from banks across the city, all interested in learning more about Mahila Milan's savings and credit systems and wanting to explore how they can contribute to this process. The first thing we tell them is - WE ARE NOT A MICROCREDIT ORGANISATION. WE DO NOT HAVE 99% CREDIT RECOVERY. Our focus is on building the capacities of our communities and their leaders to organize their collectives and begin working on housing and infrastructure.

The first thing we do is someone from SPARC takes them to Byculla where they can meet with Mahila Milan leaders and hear about how the process started. The leaders insist - if a person cannot pay, we don't punish them. We always try and find out the reason. And if it's a real problem, we will give her another loan to help. After all, if we don't help her, who will? The next day, a Mahila Milan leader takes them for the traditional savings round. Usually most people come back really impressed. But that's when they sit with both the Mahila Milan leaders as well as the administrative staff in Byculla and really start to understand the systems of entry and recording that takes place. And it clearly doesn't match the ideal microfinance model. So then we give the bankers a choice - are you still interested? But our focus is on assisting the poor build their finances, but at their own pace, and only if Mahila Milan is really at the helm of leadership. Are you still willing to work with us? And ICICI and ABN AMRO have responded - yes!

Strengthening our internal systems

This quarter many financial institutional have begun to discuss the possibilities of working with the alliance, and as we spoke to them about some the foundational issues regarding our strategies. Here are some of them below.

Developing a system that assumes 70% repayment per month

The general rhetoric about micro credit management looks at lending which ensured 90-98% repayments. The NSDF Mahila Milan savings and credit program assumes that if 70% can repay then it's a robust portfolio. Many ask why this position. Why not aim for 90% timely repayment? The answer is that the attempt to get the bottom 30% of the slum communities in this process is a vital commitment that federations have when they design systems. So ensuring that systems get designed to acknowledge the fragilities that accompany issues of health, and other crisis coming in the way of their activities is vital. Our goal is to create a process of inclusion.

A step by step guide of how to move grant driven projects into lending activities

The grant activities help communities or individuals to examine a livelihood or infrastructure process. Take the instance of water and hand pumps. Communities need to repair them, they need to go deeper to find water, and they need new hand pumps. For the whole of last year several communities sought to take charge of this activity. They estimated this cost, they looked at what they could pay in cash and labor and asked the federation to make a contribution to cover the rest. When several groups undertake this activity after seeing how the first one works, some standardization of costs inputs and strategy develop. In a review at the end of the year there are now many more who seek this strategy. In a discussion with NSDF and Mahila Milan coordinators, SPARC made a suggestion. If this money which is allocated to governance grants is converted into a loan, it will provide many communities this possibility because we could demonstrate to banks that it is a very good idea. The federations have to get back on that strategy to plan for the next round of projects.

A Central loan committee for the resettlement sites

In July, a team of five Mahila Milan leaders from each of the 48 buildings where communities have been resettled was selected to be responsible for all savings, loans - Mahila Milan as well as RMK - and collections. In turn, they appointed area wise teams of young college girls who get a small stipend to spend a few hours every day visiting each house to collect savings. In the evenings, these girls report to their Mahila Milan leaders, who follow up if there is any problem. The federation has also decided to have one joint account - Shekhar and two women from the overall team will be co-signatories- and all collections will be put into that account on a daily basis.

Mohammed from SPARC coordinates this with the committee

Every month, Mohammed from SPARC, who maintains the database of all alliance savings and loans, will visit the resettlement sites, sit with the Mahila Milan and administrative teams, and go over the loans and savings lists. Since the new loans from banks will be much larger that the loans that we have been giving out so far, Mohammed will initially walk Mahila Milan through the daily repayment collections and interest calculations. Unlike Mahila Milan loans, where principal repayments are calculated first - until the entire principal has been repaid - and only then are interest repayments calculated at 2% a month, when banks give out loans, the interest payments will have to be calculated every month.

For the alliance, this is a very important learning process as poor communities enter the formal financial world and all the complications and problems will need to be sorted out by Mahila Milan from the very beginning. Once they are familiar with these large loans and repayments, they will be able to take loans from more and more banks!

Most banks want to engage federations in micro-credit. Banks are familiar with this and want to lend short term credit to the poor. Although the alliance does take such bulk loans for MM to on lend, THE REAL DEMAND THE ALLIANCE WANTS TO EMPHASIZE IS FOR THE BANKS TO LEND LARGER AMOUNTS OF CREDIT FOR HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE. This, however, remains a new area for collective learning. And what the Alliance does is demonstrate community capacities for managing credit through the existing credit and savings process. It is all about leveraging -- federation style.

Meeting with Banks

ABN AMRO...

Soon after a meeting with Dr. Thorat, the Executive Director of the Reserve Bank in April 2004, two bankers with ABN AMRO came to visit the SPARC. Their bank was already giving loans to rural organizations and they now wanted to work with the urban poor. Initially, the two representatives, Maumita and Srinivas spent time understanding the overall process of how the alliance works. At SPARC, they sat with us to discuss this activity and then spent some time looking at the documentation of various lending activities. Finally they were ready to meet with Mahila Milan at Byculla.

Laxmi and others had a long discussion with them and the next day, they went for a savings round. "It was such an important experience because we really saw how the organization works," said Maumita. They also commented on the manner in which, within half an hour, each collector does the 'rounds' in the settlement, collects savings, loan repayments notes loan requests, and then comes to the Byculla office to record all this. Once they had been on the savings round and they understood our process better, they came back to Byculla and spent time looking at how the loans are collated and tracked.

By June ABN-AMRO had decided to begin with a credit line of Rs. 50 lakhs at 9% and lend to the federation through SPARC. This will begin in Bombay and later extend to other cities.

And also NABARD...

NABARD provides agriculture and non farm loans to rural India. In May 04 MM spent an afternoon with senior bankers explaining how they set up and manage savings and credit.

MM shared how they dialogue for land, design alternative housing and support many other federations to take on savings, manage credit and deal with community processes both financial and non financial. They sought to help bankers see women's groups as vital social capital managers whose skills and capacities in non financial matters made them attractive borrowers. Many argue that since NABARD does not lend to urban areas, this was a waste of time. However for the Alliance, this was an opportunity to take on an exposure process that would hopefully get NABARD to look at rural housing and infrastructure issues in the future.

EXCHANGES AND WORKSHOPS

Consolidating Regional Presence in the South

The National Slum Dwellers Convention in 2003 was a turning point for many community leaders from small cities and towns which had been working on community level issues of water, drainage and small loans and savings, but had not, until that point, thought deeply about how to use their experiences to form the basis of city-wide sanitation or housing. This was especially so for federations of the south, who were slower to initiate dialogues with their local authorities.

In January 2004, the first regional conference of the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka slum dwellers federation was held in Bangalore. Apart from sharing their work, this marked an important reflection for the attending community leaders, who had been members of the federation for over a decade, but felt that they really needed to consolidate their efforts to be able to replicate what they saw in Mumbai. Since January, these leaders have been meeting every month in a different city.

PONDICHERRY: Pondicherry was the proud host of the regional workshop this March. Apart from business as usual, there were two important events to celebrate - the inauguration of the 100th Mahila Milan group in the city and, of course, International Women's Day!

THENI: In April, leaders from 13 cities representing the South Unit (as the federations of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry now call themselves) all gathered in the small community of Pallivasal street, Theni to hold their monthly regional workshop. The meeting began with a lot of dancing and fun as the settlement leaders used this occasion to inaugurate the brand new community centre they had built with the federations help.

BANGALORE: The regional capital of the South Unit of the federation regularly hosts visitors from across the country and world to visit their housing and infrastructure projects. Ever since the decision to hold monthly regional level workshops, the pressure from the national leadership on the Bangalore federation to take a greater leadership role in this process and set an example to the other cities has the Mahila Milan and federation working harder than ever! Daily supervision of the toilet project so that it can become a model for city-wide slum sanitation and regular monitoring of the three housing projects - Sunnuduguddu, Flower Garden and Priyadarshini - to demonstrate affordable community-led housing has become part of the Mahila Milan's regular routine.

Emerging Leaders

When Mohan Sundaram and a team of the Pondicherry Slum Dwellers Federation visited Kanchipuram earlier this year, it was an important milestone for the PSDF. Although Pondicherry has played both host -- because of a particularly successful toilet project they had initiated - and guest -- they had accompanied other regional leaders to see different cities - several times in the past few years, this was the very first time that they were going to a city by themselves and with the explicit purpose of starting to guide the Kanchipuram federation. It revealed the confidence the Tamil Nadu and National federation had in these leaders, and also represented an important evolution in their own growth.

In Maharashtra, Pune and Pimpri have also emerged as important and confident regional leaders, capable of mentoring newer federations. They have regular exchanges with communities from Sangli, Ahmednagar and Nasik to help them in building their Mahila Milans, consolidating and strengthening their savings systems, and slowly introducing them to key federation tools. In fact, this ever expanding cadre of community leaders is one of the cornerstones of the federation process. Older leaders guide and mentor new ones, who in turn, as they gain more confidence, become mentors themselves. This allows for more mature federations to keep expanding their movements, nationally and internationally, while still remaining deeply connected to the local and regional process, and to constantly ensure the entry of young men and women with new ideas, energy and drive into the federation.

Pune MM hosts a Housing Exhibition for Thais

A twenty-one people delegation came from our partner organization, Community Organisation Development Institute (CODI) from Thailand visited us in April. CODI, the organization which had organized the exchange, has a unique program. Over ten years ago, the government of Thailand set up a fund for the urban poor called UCDO. Although these are government funds, they are managed by a non-state person, Samsook Boonyabacha, who reports to a board comprising of NGO, CBO and government officials. CODI is a more recent form of the organization which now combines funds to be given to urban and rural groups. For this exchange, some CODI staff, translators and community leaders all came to explore the work of the Indian alliance. Starting from Mumbai they spent the first few days exchanging views and strategies with households living in transit and relocated sites of MUTP.

They also spent some time with the Police Commissioner of Mumbai Mr. Roy and heard from him how he had started the police community project in Pune and Mumbai. They met with city officials and community leaders of various projects and explored similarities and differences in approaches. Although translations are laborious in such an exchange, with English as the medium between Indian and Thai groups, both sets of communities are comfortable with this process and demonstrate as usual a lot of patience and humour.

In Pune, the Mahila Milan group there organized a house model exhibition to display their work to the Thai visitors. In fact, the house model exhibition served two purposes, it helped Pune Mahila Milan use the presence of the delegation to host an event and invite everyone to see what they have done, and it helped the Thais to see a parallel housing process similar to the one they have in their own country.

Many wonder how the Indian federation copes with so many exchanges and visitors. The secret of this activity lies in the fact that, for the communities, first of all it's a badge of 'graduation' and honor of being a mature federation that is able to host visitors, initially starting from other city federations and gradually expanding to international delegations. Gradually federations get special project allowances to create events that help them achieve a local outcome, e.g. when they take the delegations to meet with municipal officials, they not only use that opportunity to discuss local issues, but also the fact that they are hosting international visitors builds the influence and credibility of the host group in the eyes of the officials.

The feedback they gave us later on

While attending the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights meeting in May in Bangkok, SPARC received some interesting feedback from some of the community members who had visited India the previous month. Some quick feedback:

- Indian meetings like Thai ones are long and go on forever!

- You Indians eat so late!. It's a good thing the Thais always carry food with them.

- The savings process is very strong and it is encouraging for the CODI communities to see the power of daily savings.

- A Thai community which had visited India the previous year have used the Mahila Milan 14 feet height concept and built their houses with a mezzanine.

- People were fascinated to see that savings grew in the sites where relocation was competed. Often that's the time when organizational processes get weak.

- Looking at work in Bombay the Thais felt that the city was so complicated and so tough!

- Why do all your houses look alike even in Pune?

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RESETTLEMENT AND RELOCATION

The latest on the Mumbai Urban Transport Project

Moving from Transit to Permanent

It's an exciting time for the federation as thousands of families that have been living in transit camps for the last four years are about to move into permanent buildings across the city. All these families used to live along the railway tracks and were moved when the Railways initiated the Mumbai Urban Transport Project - to expand the rail networks in the city. It was an enormous undertaking to survey, resettle and thereafter support the thousands families that moved into transit camps, but it's also been an important and useful time to prepare and organize for the changes this permanent shift would bring.

"Many of us came from different areas and so we didn't know each other at all. But living in this transit camp united us and we have formed eight housing societies with over a hundred families in each. Over 70% of us have already saved the Rs 20,000 each which we will put into our cooperative funds towards the increased maintenance costs that this move will bring, and this will also help us to continue to support each other when we do move," said one of the federation members who lives in 138A transit camp in Mankhurd. All the 900 families from this area, plus another 3000 families that live in the neighbouring transit camps - 138B and Turbe Mandala - will move between July and September to their new buildings, which are now complete, but awaiting water and electricity connections.

In Kanjur Marg transit camp, the arrangement is slightly different. Families that live here will be resettled in permanent accommodation which will be built at the same site. At the moment, eight buildings are under construction, and these will house about half the members. Once this shift occurs, their transit houses will be demolished and the remaining eight buildings constructed. "Everyone is really keen to be in the first group to move, so we will have to work hard to create a system that is fair to everyone," said one of the Mahila Milan leaders.

In fact, Kanjur Marg is the first transit camp of the MUTP project - it was an open marshy ground that was given to the federation to resettle the first hundred odd families. "Eighteen men and women would come here every day to level the ground, lay the water pipes and build the houses. At that time, many people in our area didn't believe that we would ever leave the railways. Once they moved here, they said, we'll never live in buildings. Now they are quiet because we can actually see our buildings being constructed before our eyes!"

And in Wadala, the shifting begins as thousands move!

As thousands of residents from Kokari Agar transit camp start moving into their new apartments at Vashi Naka the relocation process moves into high gear! Between August and September alone, over 2306 families alone have shifted. For all the federation leaders in the field, it's a very intense time. They need to check that every household is included in a cooperative society, that they have been assigned a building, floor and room number and that all their documents are in place. On the day assigned for shifting, a team of SPARC, NSDF and MM, together with MMRDA staff, compile documentation for allocation of tenements. 7 Mahila Milan leaders from Kokri Agar help out in the logistics of the allotments. Once the family gets to Vashi Naka, they are met by another team of 8 people from NSDF. This team checks their allotments, and coordinates with the previous team if there are any problems. In fact, a new office has already been set up at the new building and Mahila Milan groups been formed as well.

MMRDA has a policy to give each family Rs. 300 to arrange the transportation for their move. Sometimes, two families pool their money together and book a tempo. NSDF members give the family the advance of Rs 300 per household and after presenting this document to MMRDA gets that money reimbursed. This helps hasten the process and ensure that the NSDF MM teams maintain the momentum of moving households.

Meanwhile, there's another Alliance team that's working in the three transit camps of Mankhurd 138A, 138B and Turbe Mandala - which have a total of about 6000 families. All these families are going to move into their permanent homes which are also conveniently located at Mankhurd by mid November. So everyone's busy getting all their documentation in place.

Managing such large relocations is no easy task. Leaders are negotiating and sorting out complications, delays and misunderstandings on a daily basis. But the very fact that this is a community-led process means that these problems get sorted out immediately and by consensus. Since these conflicts force communities to come together and collectively resolve disputes, their ability to handle the inevitable strains that dislocation brings - even when it is voluntary - is strengthened. This is precisely what is so special about the federation driven process - it places all decision making in the hands of the poor, and then trains and supports people to truly gain from a developmental process. And best of all, through constant exchanges and exposure visits this knowledge is shared across poor communities the world over, so the insights and lessons gained can benefit everyone.

Defending our Data...the World Bank Inspection Panel comes to Mumbai

June was a very busy month for our MUTP team from the alliance. A group of 118 shopkeepers from one of the areas to be resettled complained to the Inspection Panel of the World Bank that the MUTP Project was demanding their relocation which would adversely impact their livelihoods, and by mid month, two members of the World Bank inspection panel arrived in Mumbai to review the complaints.

In fact, the reason that the shopkeepers were upset was because they were being shifted to Mankhurd and they felt that their businesses would be negatively affected. Moreover, the MUTP policy only allowed 225 sq. ft. for shops for free. Since many of them had large shops, this meant that if they wanted additional space, they would have to buy it at commercial rates.

In retrospect, this meeting was a significant milestone for the Alliance: it had brought slum dwellers (the survey team from the federation) and the state (MMRDA) together to collectively defend the data they had produced. Over time there has been a gradual partnership between the state and community leadership as working on public projects such as MUTP (and now MUIP) creates the recognition of mutual dependence and responsibility. This builds trust and produces more joint ventures between the city and the poor.

Although the Inspection Panel of the World Bank came only to ensure that the procedures laid out by the World Bank are carried out properly by their staff, the perception is that they will help the shopkeepers.

But slowly, the shopekeepers start changing their minds...

The Independent panel's judgment inspected how the WB staff undertakes their work. This has deep implications for ongoing project activity because all the documentation required takes a great deal of time, and adversely affects the morale and working of the whole team.

These shopkeepers stated that they did not want to move where they were shown an alternative location, and instead wanted to have a space near the Bandra Kurla Complex which is the new financial centre. They had even taken a Public Interest Litigation to the Mumbai High court which was finally denied by mid September 04. This has a had a temporary cascading impact on other shop keepers and households, now seeking other suitable locations instead of the one assigned and accepted by them.

The NSDF and MM which have been dealing with these households realized that unlike the federated communities of RSDF which have been working together for the longest time, the federations found the SCRL 3000+ households and shop keepers very opportunistic and less trusting at least initially of the federation's commitment to work with them. It reflects the maturity of the leadership of NSDF which continues to dialogue with them despite these unfair accusations

And there is a change in attitude!

From a completely aggressive and threatening attitude, about half the number of shopkeepers that were opposed to any sort of resettlement have now agreed to shift to Lallobhai Compound in Mankhurd to a shopping complex that's been specially designed for them. The other shopkeepers are also beginning to consider various alternate locations albeit informally. This is a significant step forward because previously they were not even prepared to discuss resettlement. However the resolution to this problem is a vital challenge for the alliance and MMRDA.

And now...the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project

What's the MUIP?

The Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) is a road-widening project undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra and which involves the resettlement of some 30,000 families that live along affected roads. In June 2003, the Alliance was given the sole source contract of conducing the survey and resettlement of all these families. Moreover, we also decided to competitively bid for the construction of some of the buildings where these families would be resettled so that we could set standards of construction and design for the MMRDA and other builders throughout the city that were working on this project.

Constructing Tenements..setting the highest of standards.

"It's all one room," said Ravi, the site engineer at Oshiwara, "and it makes no sense because there's no separate living spaces. Ours is a very different community-centered design." He was comparing the 225 sq. foot apartments that a neighbouring private builder had constructed for MUIP affected households to the Alliance's design layout at Oshiwara, where 800 tenements are being constructed as part of MUIP. The Oshiwara project is a particularly important milestone for the Alliance because it is the first time that we have taken up the challenge to complete such a large project within 15 months. And we are well on track - even though the monsoons have hit Mumbai - expecting to hand over 2 buildings in August, 2 in September and the final 2 in October. Each tenement has a separate kitchen, common room, bedroom, toilet and bathroom. The corridors are five feet wide and have been built to allow maximum light and breeze.

Federation leaders regularly accompany project affected people to visit project sites and examine the tenements. Preference of floors is given to people who are not well or elderly and the rest of the floors and flats are assigned based on a lottery system. Although many of these communities were not a part of the federation before this project, almost all have subsequently opened Mahila Milan accounts. One of the reasons that so many people have started saving with Mahila Milan is because, as the Alliance explains,

Name of Sub-project	M	DC	DV	C	RC	RP
Bandra-Jogeshwari	Y	IP	-	-	-	-
Jogeshwari-Kandivali	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Kandivali-Dahisar	Y	Y	-	Y	-	-
Sion-Ghatkopar	Y	Y	IP	Y	Y	IP
Ghatkopar- Mulund Check Naka	Y	Y	IP	Y	Y	IP
Sion-Kanjurmarg	Y	IP	-	-	-	-
Kanjurmarg - Mulund Check Naka	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Bandra-SCruz Depot.	IP	-	-	-	-	-
SCruz - Mulund L Road	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Mulund L Road-Dahisar	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Dahisar-L.T.Road	IP	-	-	-	-	-
L.T.Road - Jogalekar Nala	-	-	-	-	-	-
Jogalekar Nala-Oshiwara Depot.	Y	-	-	-	-	-
W.R.R. - W.E.H.	IP	-	-	-	-	-
W.E.H. - E.E.H.	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	IP
Sion Dharavi Link Road	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Mithi River - WEH	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	IP
E.E.H. - Sakinaka	Y	Y	IP	Y	Y	IP
Sakinaka - Varsova	-	-	-	-	-	-
W.R.R. - W.E.H.	-	-	-	-	-	-
J.J.Hospital-Sion Fly-over	-	-	-	-	-	-
Sahid B.S.Marg - Wadala Terminal Rd.	Y	IP	-	-	-	-
Dr.E.Moses Junction - Mahim	IP	IP	-	-	-	-
.Mahim - Bandra	-	-	-	-	-	-
.Kemps Corner Jn. - Kher Marg Jn.	-	-	-	-	-	-
N.S.C.Bose Marg - East Island Freeway	-	-	-	-	-	-
Jacob Circle-Byculla Bridge	Y	IP	-	-	-	-
Sewri - Worli	IP	-	-	-	-	-
Marol Naka - Juhu Lane	Y	Y	-	Y	IP	-

Key to short forms:

M Mapping
C Data Collection undertaken by the federation
DV Data Verification with communities and state
C Computerization of Data gathered by the alliance
RC Rechecking by all parties of map and data
RP Report Preparation by alliance for MMRDA

And based on the success of Oshiwara 1, the Alliance is constructing another 2000 tenements

Because the Oshiwara district center was envisaged as a commercial district when it was first built, many businesses purchased leases hoping to profit as the land value rose. For many reasons the center never developed and gradually the MMRDA converted that area into a residential zone. It was an area of Mumbai which had 'Tabelas' or sheds for buffalos which along with slums continue to encroach on the area.

Early last year the alliance was approached by Deshmukh Builders to construct 900 homes for those slum dwellers that were being resettled by the city's road widening project - the MUIP. The project costs would be covered by the sale of transferred development rights(TDR), with the land owner getting TDR for land, and alliance for construction. That was the first green field construction project for the alliance. That project was executed by Nirman (SSNS) and financed through bridge funds provided by CLIFF (Community Lead Infrastructure Financing Facility). In many ways it demonstrated the alliance's capacity to undertake such projects and also to benchmark quality and design in slum rehabilitation projects.

As this project developed rapidly, VideoCon a huge business company which is also a big property owner in Mumbai, which had an adjoining property to this development, was also watching what we were doing. In July, the possibility of entering into a partnership with them began in earnest. Only this time, it was for over 2000 households! It is the largest construction project of the alliance in Bombay to date. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in in August and it is expected to be complete within 15 months. There are many challenges as construction proceeds. 400 structures have to be resettled on site, many tabelas continue to be there and have to be moved and there are three printing presses on site negotiating with them to give up their land so that we can construct multistoried buildings where they will get the entire ground floor free of cost and we can sell the remaining flats. If they agree to this, the project will be even more successful. Currently the work for 6 out of a total of 24 buildings is already well underway! Like in our other projects, a certain part of the internal subcontracting will be taken up by community contractors. It's clear that we are definitely setting a trend -- almost all the communities that come to see houses want to book their society in the Nirman (SSNS) project!

And discussions with ICICI bank on funding this project....

Over the last six months, there have been regularly meeting with bankers lead by Anil Kumar and Kartikeya Saboo from ICICI Bank to explore the possibilities of working together. There are 3 kinds of housing loan products that are being examined for bridge funding - for SRA type projects where payments are made at the end of a project which can take between 2 - 4 years, for instance, the Oshiwara type project where regular payments are made as TDR comes in and which is completed within 2 years, for the VAMBAY model where half of the payment is made when the subsidy comes in from the government and the remaining cost of the housing is then transferred as a loan to a housing cooperative of slum dwellers who move into the housing. Also for bridge financing sanitation contracts the alliance gets from municipality and other agencies.

Since our long term vision is to set the institutional basis for appraisal within ICICI, which is not entirely dependent on Mr. Kumar or Kartikeya, and, to set the basis for other banks to eventually take on this kind of lending to NGOS, there is need to develop very robust mechanisms for documentation and appraisal. In this dialogue with ICICI, there is an exploration of using guarantees to help kick start this process. Homeless International's guarantee scheme and usage of capital funds presently with Nirman (SSNS) as a First Loss Deficiency Guarantee and eventually trying to develop a portfolio approach, although each project would have to be individually appraised. Since this is a learning process on both sides, SPARC and ICICI will be walking through the first few project appraisals - Oshiwara 2 and Jolly Board - together, understanding how risk assessment and mitigation systems are analyzed by both parties and how to develop mechanisms that will make our project attractive to other banks.

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Working with the National Housing Bank..Bharat Janata in Dharavi gets a 5 crore loan

May 04, NHB sanctioned a 5 year loan of Rs 5.89 crores for Bharat Janata @ 6.5% interest. SPARC, Mahila Milan and NSDF have begun to work with many communities to take on housing and infrastructure projects. In Mumbai, The BHARAT JANATA Housing Cooperative, located in Dharavi is a very special and tough project that serves as a precedent in many ways. It is a community which has been a member of the Dharavi Vikas Samittee (Dharavi Development committee) for over 10 years. Looking at how the project development strategy of Rajeev Indira evolved and what needed to be done, Bharat Janata Coop took on all the steps to complete the various procedures and documentation needed. This cooperative is special because it represents the real and tough ground realities why developers with commercial interest will never touch such a project. It is right in the middle of the dense Dharavi Township, and although the development plan foresees a road, this may well materialize only in the distant future. The settlement itself is very dense, and the issue of where people will stay when the construction gets started has been a difficult one.

The NHB or the National Housing Bank is a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, and is mandated to widen access to finance for housing. By and large, it provides wholesale funds to the sector. Although it is also mandated to work on housing for the poor, and it has very little experience in lending to the urban poor, both because banks which could get refinance from NHB don't have such projects and the agency itself has very little experience in such lending. However NHB itself took the initiative to approach the SPARC to understand its work, and examine the kinds of projects emerging from its activity with federations. This was in July 03, after which a series of meetings and discussions followed on the basis of which the Chairman of NHB and his staff presented this proposal to the Board. We anticipate that we will spend the next 6 weeks complying with the various requirements and conditionalities that we will have to fulfill, during which time we will use the funds from our bridge funds.

Moving from Pune to Panvel..another 35,000 households to explore VAMBAY subsidies

Although we've been in discussion with MHADA about VAMBAY housing, it's only in July that our plans began to get anywhere. Panvel is a large town which is just outside Mumbai city that falls within the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region. In fact, Mahila Milan and the federation have been quite active in this area for a number of years and have been working in many slums collecting daily savings and providing small loans.

The plan is to redevelop land which will be provided by MHADA and build ground plus two storeyed buildings - similar to the housing we have constructed at Hadapsar in Pune. It's expected that each tenement will cost about Rs 60,000. Already, 2 informal settlements have been identified to be relocated. The federation is already working there, and will soon begin the survey. Contractors interested in working in Panvel have been asked to see the land available, and visit Pune to see the VAMBAY project there.

In Pune, the RCC contract was given at Rs 141 per sq foot to regular contractors while Mahila Milan contractors managed the rest of the construction, supervised the overall project, worked to identify and survey households, shift these households and negotiate with the city. Our success in Pune has shown us that VAMBAY projects like these are an attractive housing option and we need to develop a system by which we can manage these projects at scale. The estimated costs of the project is Rs. 3,48,00,000( Rs. 3.48 crores), Based on the VAMBAY experience we believe we will need about 35 % to start construction. Our plan is to seek this fund first from CLIFF, and then negotiate with a bank for the loan, thereby being able to develop a trend for future projects.

And another housing project in Kanjur Marg...

The Alliance has been asked to build about 112 tenements for families affected by the MUTP project and living in Kanjur Marg. It's a small project but very significant because the families that are affected belong to the very same group of families that demonstrated that the MUTP would be possible. At that time, in 1998, nobody believed that the poor communities living along the railways would ever willingly move. 800 families from the Railway Federation decided to pioneer this process and demolished their homes along the tracks and built their own transit houses at Kanjur Marg. It was based on their strategy that the shifting of another 12,000 households took place. Now, six years later, they are finally going to move into their permanent buildings, on a plot that is adjacent to where they are currently living. The financing of this project is typical to most PAP housing. The land owner, Jolly Board, will get the land TDR and Nirman will get the construction TDR. We will even build a few extra tenements - using our NGO incentive - which we will sell on the open market.

Jeff Sachs from the UN talks to Pavement Dwellers about their housing strategies

Whenever SDI representatives on the MDG task force met with Dr Jeff Sachs, it was always in meeting and conference rooms, to discuss poverty. However when he was in Bombay for two days, he spent an afternoon with the federation leaders of the pavement dwellers at the Byculla center. About 25 men and women met with him. The discussion began with an introduction to the alliance by Sundar Burra and then all the community men and women introduced themselves. They came from different settlements and had migrated from different parts of the country between 20-40 years ago. Almost all women said they were involved in the organizational work to ensure they children got a better life than theirs.

They spoke of their organizational process and how the federation did many things for them which they could never think of being able to do by themselves:

- It has educated them as they learnt how to challenge the state with statistics they gathered which were more accurate than those of the state, and it had taught them to think collectively and seek solutions for their problems rather than waiting for others.
- It had trained them to be strategic, negotiate together with the state and others who had resources that they needed for their development. It had built their capacity to contribute to their organization and to feel as part of a very large and powerful group.
- It had helped them demonstrate to the world that federation process can bring change locally and globally. And they had also been involved in traveling around the country and around the world to help others like themselves organize in a similar manner.

Housing Finance now all in the way in Pondicherry..

In August the federation approved a housing loan of Rs. 6,96,000 or Rs. 24,000 each for 29 members of the Pondicherry Slum Dwellers Federation. These members live in a slum called Swamipillaitotham which is being affected by a road-widening project. Although 134 families live in this slum, the government has agreed to resettle only those families who can prove that they own their structure. Those that rent their home - even if they have been living there for decades - have to pay Rs. 24,000 to purchase land. Fortunately for some, a nearby factory has agreed to loan Rs. 24,000 to its workers who live in this slum and wish to purchase the land.

However, these 29 members of the PSDF neither benefit from the government's plans, because they rent rooms in this slum, nor from the factory, since they do not work there. They have been with the federation for the last 5 years and have collected Rs. 3000 in their housing savings accounts which they are willing to put as a down payment towards this loan. They also maintain Mahila Milan accounts and have saved between Rs. 2500 -Rs. 3000 each.Since it is the 100th anniversary of a local leader, Kamraj, Rs.40,000 is being given by a special fund, Kamraj Yojna, to all those who want to build a home and already have their land pattas. By loaning money to these families, the federation will also be ensuring that these members will have access to this scheme to construct new houses.

Alliance now gives loans to community contractors

The subcontract for the construction at Bharat Janata has been won by a company set up by three community contractors - Muthu, Shanmuganand and Usman. Both Muthu and Shanmuganand have supervised the construction of five buildings at Rajiv Indira and also built several community toilet. Confident that they now have the skills to manage a large project, they applied to the committee of Nirman (SSNS) and Cooperative society of Bharat Janata for this project's construction contract, and got it.

They are now part of a new and expanding breed of community leaders who are taking on construction all over the country. There's a pair of Mahila Milan leaders - Meena Ramani and Lizbeth Naidu, who have built 6 community toilets together all across the city of Mumbai and currently they are building a 40 seater toilet block in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh. Then there's Rehmat Sheikh, a veteran Mahila Milan leader who's become famous throughout the federation for all her construction contracts. She hires older Sadak chaap ( street children's federation) boys as her labourers and has built 5 star toilets all over the city. Right now, she's in the midst of completing the construction of a three storey apartment building in Pune. The first step is to assist on the construction of a community toilet, help them use all the experience gained to single-handedly take on the next toilet contract and then graduate to building large housing projects. At the same time, many of our community contractors need the initial start up capital. Thus the Alliance provides both the experiential and monetary support for community contractors to become financially independent. At the moment, some leaders have taken loans of Rs. 2 lakhs each - payable over 2 years at 9% interest per annum.

The federation seeks to be both strategic and opportunistic. It has to build its internal skills and capacity while demonstrating to the external world of government and finance that its membership can deliver construction outputs and is dependable.

Using grant funds to buy land to begin the second phase of housing construction in Sholapur

We are now about to enter the second phase of a housing project for 2000 bidi (Indian cigarettes) workers at Sholapur! This time, the housing society, the Maa Saheb Bidi Kamgar Griha Nirman Sanstha, is already registered and has 2000 bidi kamgars as members.

Using a grant we got from the IIED Rausing Fund, the Alliance helped this Bidi Workers society pay off a loan which they had taken to buy 70 acres of land for Rs. 1.4 crores. The land has now been transferred in the name of the society and the members have entered into a development agreement with SSNS. Also, a UTI bank account has been opened and plans are being drawn up. Mr. Kulkarni from Sholapur visits Mumbai every month to go over the architectural layouts and plans with Mr. Joshi, and to speak to Jockin about the society and their collections.

Financial details

The fund has been used to help the society to repay a loan that they had taken on which they were paying almost 18% interest. There were 13 people who owned small pieces of land which they pooled together to purchase the whole location. They made an application with documentation, and the committee of SPARC Mahila Milan and NSDF reviewed the documentation with support from legal consultants and the money after sanction was sent to their account from which they paid the loan. The repayment strategy is as follows. The project will comprise of about 2500 houses and some work shed. Each house will get an additional contribution that they will make towards the land cost repayment. This will be about Rs 1000 plus interest and the house contribution will be 20,000 plus interest.

Why did we buy the land: Questions and Answers on our stratefy in Sholapur

What was the strategy to improve land tenure?

In Sholapur, the cost of land is reasonable and each household cost can absorb this when it gets a subsidy, but you can't access the housing subsidy if you don't have land, so in effect the ability to get a loan to purchase land leverages a subsidy.

What's the situation of these workers?

Sholapur is a city in which there are hundreds of thousands of Bidi workers -- almost all of them women -- work in cooperatives that roll bidis for the various brands. Almost all of them live in sub rentals in various parts of the city and dream of a home and workplace for themselves. They get a wage for the bidis they roll, but it's mostly spent on rent. The Alliance is helping them to explore the possibility of owning a home and pay the repayment instead of rent so that they can own the house.

What has been achieved as a result of the project?

In the phase one of the project, 500+ households purchased land, again from a similar process and were assisted to build houses, which will have two thirds of the funds coming from subsidies and one third will be a loan for the women to repay.

How many people have been helped? What have they got?

This phase will assist 2000+ households with groups and collectives having spaces in their homes and also in work sheds to roll the bidis. Each family with the house registered in the name of the women, will get a 225 sq feet residence with water drainage and electricity.

Are there evident non-housing related benefits or even difficulties ?

The projects take between three to five years to complete, and so the data to demonstrate this evidence has yet to be compiled. But clearly without having to research the fact that there is running water, toilets and a clean safe environment will improve health and children's safety.

What has been learnt from this project to assist more people?

When the first phase was undertaken of 500+ houses, other unions began to also start this process. This project provided a bench mark. This particular union now has another 2500 members how also want houses, and they want to undertake it with SPARC and NSDF. This second phase will help us streamline all the mistakes were made last time as it was the first project we had taken. Now the Sholapur municipality is also interested in working so there are chances of further activities.

What is the strategy to disseminate these lessons more widely?

Already there are many exchanges in the districts around Sholapur to see this project, and the labor welfare ministry is also keen to share this with other states. This project is being designed in such a way that CLIFF will bridge the costs of construction and once the subsidy comes in, CLIFF will be repaid. We are documenting this process so that it can be widely disseminated.

Making tough choices on entering housing in Kolkatta

With support from the DAWN team and Orissa Federations, there have been discussions with the state government of West Bengal about the possibility of working together on toilets, housing and expanding Mahila Milan groups across the state. And, as is always is the case, the state asked the alliance to relocate a certain number of households that were not part of the alliance. At first, the strategy of the alliance was to try and make it work.

When the offer was made by government everyone was very excited. But gradually the problems began to creep in. The households that were to be relocated were very poor, it was clear that they would not be able to pay the monthly repayment that was needed. On the other hand, the federations were clear they did not want to build a house less that 225 sq feet. To make things worse, neither party wanted to start with incremental houses.

As the discussion continued it was apparent that unless there was a market subsidy for this project, the finance gap could not be closed, and the Kolkatta Municipal Development Authority did not want to explore this option right away. Within the federation, although some funding to subsidise various precedent setting work does exist, using this money towards the Kolkatta housing project would mean that the federation would be unable to take up any more housing projects in the country.

The discussions within the federations were painful and difficult. The deep sense of commitment to work in West Bengal clashed with the need to make programs we participate in sustainable. Whatever we demonstrate must be scalable.

It does not mean that such activities will not be undertaken in the future, but what it tells us that we need to work more closely and for longer durations to align all the ingredients needed to make a solution that is financially and organizationally viable and scalable. Everyone must remember that it took the alliance ten years to develop something for the pavement dwellers of Mumbai and now even after 20 years the project moves very slowly. But where there is commitment, a solution will surely arise!

The history of our relationship with the govt. of West Bengal

It was in 2001 that Cities Alliance was invited by the government of West Bengal and DFID to have its annual meeting in Kolkotta. Mahila Milan had worked with DAWN (our partners in Orissa) and the Orissa federation had begun to work with pavement dwellers in the city of Kolkatta. As part of that process, the federation set up a house model exhibition and it was inaugurated by the Urban Development Minister Shri Ashok Bhattacharya. Subsequently in 2003, he came to Mumbai and saw the work here and was very keen to explore working with the federations, looking at ways community women could work on micro credit and build toilet and houses. This year, SPARC was invited to come and work with the Kolkatta Municipal Development Authority to build VAMBAY houses, especially for those the city needed to relocate. In the visits made there twice this year, a proposal was made by the government of West Bengal. The proposal was that the federation work with KMDA on a plot of land and relocate households in the Salt Lake City. The government said it would pass on the money from the central government which was subsidy for the houses and SPARC would have to build houses and get communities to repay the loans.

Pushing for a slum free Delhi

Early this year, over a hundred houses in a slum in Delhi were unilaterally demolished. They had been members of the federation and the Alliance was quick to help them. Moreover, in August, Sundar Burra and Gautam Chatterjee made a presentation before a high level committee appointed by the Government of India to look into how to make Delhi 'slum-free'. The idea was to introduce the officials to the idea of SRA and the importance of slum rehabilitation in situ, and to recommend that Lakshmibai Nagar be treated as a pilot project by the Committee. However, there was reluctance to consider in situ rehab as an option and there was talk of shifting the residents to some other location.

When Sameer Vyas, an IAS officer and Managing Director of New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Ltd., (NTADCL), Tamil Nadu, heard of the community sanitation work of the alliance, he immediately got in touch and visited us in April.

Earlier in the year, the city of Tirupur had decided that it wanted to work on urban sanitation. Although it is a successful industrial town which accounts for 75% of the exports of knitwear from India, employing hundreds of thousands of people in its factories, there is hardly any public sanitation in the slums of the town. And this is where Vyas came into the picture. NTADCL had raised funds from the market to develop infrastructure for Tirupur and given a contract to build 2000 seats to L&T, a major professionally managed engineering firm.

But there were a number of problems. First, that although 88 slums had been identified for this work, land had only been secured at 9 locations. And second, that L&T had no experience in constructing community toilets before.

When the Alliance visited Tirupur, we knew that this was an important opportunity for collaboration and to make inroads in the state of Tamil Nadu. We offered to conduct a survey to assess the situation, negotiate for land within the settlements and then take on the responsibility of the entire project. Not only would we be building the toilets, we promised, we would also organize communities and train them in construction and management of the toilet blocks.

It was an offer just too good to refuse. In fact, the NTADCL was so excited, it offered us 1% more than they did L&T and have even agreed to provide an advance payment!

Tirupur marks a very important turning point for the Alliance. Cities are now recognizing that that building toilets is not simply a mechanical or technical construction exercise, but rather, the success of community sanitation programmes rests on strong communities who are organized and trained in maintenance and supervision. As a result, we are now being approached because of our proven track record and unique ability to build at scale while simultaneously mobilizing communities. Finally, this project marks an inroad