India

Pavement dwellers always live in the shadow of eviction. In Bombay, women are moving their families out to new sites and new homes — and learning a range of skills as they reconstruct their communities.

In many of the world's big cities, by night, you'll find bodies asleep on the pavement, some in neat rows, others sprawled on the ground around their few possessions. Whole families live like this in Bombay. It is hard to create a home out of nothing — as the women know well.

One group of pavement dwellers got worried when they heard about the forcible eviction of hundreds of families to a site 40 kilometres away at Dindoshi. Would they be next? Must relocation happen only in this abrupt manner, with their having no say in the matter?

What struck them most was that Dindoshi was too far from where they now worked and did not offer much alternative employment nearby. As people talked about this, ideas of what they required from houses and locations became clearer. Supported by the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centre in Bombay, the women began to plan a strategy.

First, a core group of women pavement dwellers was sent out to scout vacant sites in the city to see which were suitable. All visits were made by public transport so that times and costs could be taken into account. They were also keen to examine the terrain, the distance from their original place of work as well as the chances of finding jobs as rag pickers, traders, labourers and domestic staff at the new site.

There was no opposition from the men when the women came out to see the sites. Since they were busy at their daily wage labour, it suited them to allow the women to take part. It was a tremendous experience for the women, many of whom were stepping out of their immediate pavement environment for the first time. The process was more than just viewing sites: it was the beginning of the women joining up for collective action.

They needed to know how much land to ask for so a census was arranged. But before physically counting the huts a meeting was held where a simple map of the present pavement housing cluster was sketched. The map was important because it graphically depicted an area they were familiar with, and it helped demystify what a map was. When counting the houses, most women could only count up to ten, so the map had another use: land-marks were drawn on the map and each woman located her house within ten houses of each mark.

In planning and counting, people had to consider how to allocate space. Huts were of varying sizes. Would a larger one be counted as two? Should a widow living in one site renting out another space be allocated only one house and deprived of an income? For the first time, the women tussled with such decisions affecting the whole community. For instance, they now realised that literacy was not essential for them to participate in community decisions.

They worked out how much land they needed and most people wanted to buy their patch to ensure tenure. Including services such as water and toilets, the basic cost per hut was Rs 250 ($25). The women then opened negotiations with the authorities about the acquisition of land.

Next came thinking about the houses themselves. Why didn't the women try their hand at designing them? After the initial shock, for traditionally it is the men who put up the structure, the women took to the idea. After all, they are responsible for the home inside — where to sleep, where to wash, where to cook and so on. And in planning their houses the women learnt about units of measurement, another concept formerly shrouded in mystery. Various other items worn by the women — the sari for instance — were turned into units of measurement. If a 9x18 feet house is the required size, then the standard six yard sari is an ideal measure for 18 feet. One length would be the length of the house.

Understanding what is going on has helped the women feel sufficiently confident to meet with officials. Training programmes are planned to allow the women to build four models of houses using sand, mud, wood, clay-wood and plastic. Then others from the community can be invited to view and discuss the models and select an appropriate design for themselves.

The work is not yet over, but a start has been made. And because they have been involved in every stage the women have become more assertive, more sure of what they want and clearer about how to go about achieving it.

Adapted from 'On Survival' in Lokayan Bulletin, Vol. 4 No. 5, 1986.