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Mumbai, April 25, 2006:
South African Housing Minister Lindiwe N. Sisulu
handed over on Tuesday the keys of houses to
pavement-dwellers at a simple function in suburban
Mankhurd. Dr. Sisulu, who visited the families
living on the pavement in South Mumbai earlier in
the day, told the large gathering that she was
particularly touched while handing over the keys to
the pavement dwellers and it was symbolic for her to
join the festivities of people who have waited for
so long for their homes. (More)
"What touched me most was the courage and
perseverance on the faces of people who had waited
for 20 years to get their houses and what I saw was
hope personified. It gave me hope that we will be
able to produce the kind of people you have in your
country," she said. South Africa and India have a
lot in common specially as far as urban poor are
considered and since 1992, there have been a lot of
exchange of ideas and visits between the communities
in the two nations.
Eighty-three houses were allotted to pavement
families living on three streets of South Mumbai but
there is a 20-year history of struggle behind it,
according to Shehnaz of Mahila Milan, a women's
collective. There are over a lakh (100,000) people
living on the pavement in Mumbai and for women like
Khatija Ansari, who received the keys to her new
house, today is a red-letter day. "We have been
living on the pavement since the last 32 years,"
said Khatija who hails from Bihar. She has a
10-member family.
The Maharashtra Government provided land for the
housing while construction was facilitated by the
Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC),
an NGO. Mahila Milan, the collective which was
formed in 1986, by women from pavement families,
actually played a role in designing the 225 sq.ft
flats and its members contributed up to Rs 20,000 a
family from their own savings towards maintenance of
the houses.
For the first time in the city, pavement dwellers
were given houses and it is now the policy of the
State Government to resettle all the pavement
families in two years, according to Principal
Secretary, Housing, N. Rama Rao. Terming it as a
revolutionary step, Mr. Rao said the Chief Minister
made a statement recently in the Assembly that all
pavement-dwellers would be rehabilitated. He said
that the families lived in rooms as small as 9 sq.ft
and often 10 to 12 persons were crowded into that
small space.
The government had built 50,000 houses for
slum-dwellers in the last 10 years and shortly it
would come out with a scheme to rehabilitate all
those who were entitled to houses and who were
living in Mumbai on or before January 1, 1995.
Maharashtra Minister for Social Justice, Chandrakant
Handore, said the Government was willing to make
available maximum land to NGOs such as SPARC and to
the National Slum Dwellers' Federation for
re-housing slum-dwellers. A. Jockin, president, NSDF,
which also played a role in re-housing
pavement-dwellers, said that the houses were in the
names of the women. No one wanted free housing, he
said and poor people were willing to contribute to
their own homes, if the Government made land
available.
Source:
The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/04/26/stories/2006042603771400.htm)
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