In continuation to the last article, I am writing about Mahila Milan Nagar- one of the first projects of SPARC. Mahila Milan Nagar is a cooperative housing society located at Mankhurd, Mumbai. The colony was constructed by pavement dwellers in association with SPARC.
SPARC
started associating with them in 1984. Sheela Patel, SPARC founder used to
teach the under privileged kids and this
association later continued when she founded SPARC. One of the first
things SPARC did was to make the pavement dwellers visible in the city by
getting ration cards. Over time the women of one pavement community learnt how
to obtain these cards and demonstrated to other women. Supreme court’s 1985 judgment that Bombay Municipal Corporation could evict pavement dwellers and
demolish their houses left these pavement dwellers with not knowing what to do
next. People from the pavement started associating
with Sheela Patel for a solution. Slowly many people started approaching her
and a total from 9 pavements comprising
of over 1500 families started grouping.
Initially ration cards were made for
all. Then bank accounts were opened for
all in the joint name of wife and husband for each family.
Another
main task was to inculcate the habit of saving in the pavement dwellers. Till
now whatever they earned, they used to finish in a day. People were encouraged
to save whatever money was left every
day which used to be in tune of 50
paise, 1 Rs, 2 Rs etc. Once all the families
started contributing, the amount started increasing. The dwellers were also given
training on how to talk to government officials, how to get things done, what
are the alternatives etc. SPARC encouraged women in the slums to associate
themselves to form a collective called Mahila Milan. Women were given the
confidence that they could also do things which they thought only men does. This
motivated them to stand for their rights to get a legal house. In Mahila Milan, for 15 houses, 1 leader was
selected and thus a group of 35 was formed in the beginning.
Around
this time, a notice was issued to
pavement dwellers that they will be evicted the next day. Before the
court judgment, almost all days, policemen
used to come and destroy their houses, leaving their utensils broken, clothes
torn and pretty nothing much left. But
this time they decided to resist the police as a group. For 2 days the Municipality could not do anything,
but people themselves dismantled their houses and collected their belongings and
thus could save whatever was theirs. This was a big realization for them that if they stand together something could happen.
Next they
started looking for an alternative land and approached BMC. BMC denied their
demands telling there is no vacant land. So Mahila Milan started identifying vacant
lands in Mumbai and its ownership. Finally they decided on Mankhurd which had only
one train connectivity that time. The land was owned by MHADA and it took 15
years for the slum dwellers to get the land. The house design was based on dwellers
demand and was exhibited for people’s voting. All stages of design and
construction was monitored, implemented and designed by the dwellers
themselves.
Mahila
Milan also started giving loans for the dwellers. Earlier if they take a loan of Rs 100 from a
private lender, an interest of RS 10 was to be paid every month. Mahila Milan
started giving loans at an interest of Rs 1 per month and women of the house
were made accountable. Mahila Milan has its branches in over 21 Indian cities.
They empower women by training, helping them in budgeting, organizing etc. They
have started mapping slums, doing socioeconomic surveys, getting ration cards
and Adhaar cards etc for slum rehabilitation projects. They have also started
their groups in 12 others countries like
South America, South Korea, Bangkok, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc.
Mahila
Milan is a good example to show what women empowerment could bring to a society.
Strengthening, Encouraging and Removing their fears could work miracles at the
face of adversity. Its sad to see no such initiative in the SMART city
project. Rather than making people smart, focus is on technology! I wonder why
there are no slum development or upgradation projects in making the city
SMART ?? Are these people still INVISIBLE?......
Anu Kuncheria
anukuncheria@gmail.com
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