Welcome to Citywatch. This is our newsletter that keeps you updated on the activities of SPARC, NSDF and Mahila Milan. In this October 2001 report, we have the following stories:

HABITAT DAY 
On October 1, 2001, the Government of India celebrated Habitat Day in New Delhi. The Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Mr.Ananth Kumar, the Minister of State, Mr.Bandaru Dattatreya, both the Secretaries in the Ministry, Mr.Chattopadhyay and Mr.Kosal Ram, the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, Dr.Brenda McSweeney and Mr.V.Suresh, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), were among the notables present.

The alliance of SPARC, NSDF and MM had invited 14 slum dwellers (11 women and 3 men) from Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Tirupattur and Pondicherry to participate in the deliberations of the Workshop that followed the inauguration. The CMD of HUDCO brought both Ministers to meet our people even before they went up to the dais. After the inaugural session in which both Ministers spoke of the need for a National Slum Development Policy and the importance of land tenure, the workshop began.

What was most exciting about the workshop was that Mr.Chattopadhyay accepted the suggestion of Sundar Burra, Adviser, SPARC, that the audience hear from the slum dwellers themselves about the conditions of their lives. Sundar felt that instead of like-minded people speaking to like-minded people, it would be both more instructive and more interesting if the voices of the urban poor were directly heard. Alison Barrett, Regional Adviser for South Asia of Cities Alliance, Manjit Singh, Commissioner, Slums, of Delhi and Sundar Burra were members of the panel apart from Ministry officials.

Three women and one man, representing all cities, spoke of their problems of water, sanitation and housing. The woman from Bhubaneshwar spoke in Hindi and the others all spoke in Tamil. The CMD of HUDCO, Mr.V.Suresh, translated for the benefit of the audience. There was a lively interaction between the panelists and the slum dwellers and at least 45 minutes were spent on presentations and questions and answers. In a programme of 90 minutes, that was quite impressive! The slum dwellers themselves handled the function with great aplomb and no-one seemed nervous about speaking to a few hundred people in the audience. A number of people came upto Sundar after the Workshop and said that the slumdwellers' presentations and their
interactions were the most interesting part of the Workshop.

For us in the alliance, the presence and participation of 14 slumdwellers in national function was important because it democratized the discussions. Moreover, the voices of the poor were heard directly and without the intermediation of others. And both presence and participation were substantive rather than token or ritualistic. On the other hand, for the slumdwellers themselves, the event enormously boosted their confidence and one is sure that they will speak of it for days to come with their families, friends and other members of NSDF and MM.

In the afternoon, CMD, HUDCO, invited the group to his office and spent more than an hour explaining and answering questions about HUDCO's role in reaching housing finance to the urban poor.

Mr. Suresh later invited them to a breakfast meeting the next morning. What was special about Mr.Suresh's involvement was his clear and transparent interest in the problems of the urban poor.