Newsletter 2: October 2008
Migration and Social Protection

Inclusive Urbanization – Social Protection for the Slum and Pavement Dwellers in India

Project Update

Project activities are in two cities of Gujarat, Surat and Ahmedabad. The former is 2.5 million city and the later is 5 million. City limits of both were expanded in 2006, not for the consideration of better planning or including urban population living on the city periphery in the services networks of the city governments but from the interests of the real estate lobby.

Field work in Surat has started: Secondary data on the city (demographic, planning, housing, economy, etc.), information on the city government’s policies for the slums and low income settlements, implementation of these policies have been collected, and the question of land tenure has been discussed with the city government officials. A number of slum and other low income settlements have been visited to assess the living conditions and the efforts by the local government in improving these conditions. The different types of land tenure status in Surat have been identified. Preliminary recording or settlement formation has been done in the case of select slums. A new low income housing constructed under the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Nation Urban Renewal Mission) was also visited.

NGOs working in the slums and low income settlements in Surat have been identified and a lack of organised effort towards improving tenure security in the slums of the city has been revealed: NGOs are engaged in providing infrastructure to these settlements (e.g. MHT), or formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) of women for savings (savings & credit associations) (e.g. MHT with SEWA Bank, Navsarjan Trust, Lok Vikas Nidhi), livelihood security (Navsarjan Trust), Health and Education (Pratham). Cases of micro finance institution (s) in the settlement leading to improving in shelter security, livelihood security and level of education have been identified, and the process of housing mobility among the migrant population in the city, given that Surat is a city of migrants has been documented.
 
In Ahmedabad, the project activities have been limited to documenting the interventions by the NGOs in the slums and low income settlements.

Future Plans:

A workshop with the stakeholders is planned in Ahmedabad in the first week of October, with participation by the research team from Collective for Social Science Research (CSSR), Karachi. The team will also visit Karachi soon and hopes to establish contact with other NGOs and organisations in Pakistan working on shelter issues.