To make the urban poor more visible, Rajeev is creating a detailed digital map of all squatter settlements as well as fighting for pro-poor planning policies for the revised city master plans throughout the country. Through these tools and forums, he is getting slum dwellers involved in the planning process and giving them a say in shaping their future. Rajeev carries out his work on urban planning primarily through two organizations: Deenbandhu, which focuses on integrated development processes and campaigns for habitational justice in and around Indore, Madhya Pradesh; and the National Forum for Housing Rights, which is involved in housing rights campaigns throughout the country.
The digital mapping of the city is the first pilot project of Deenbandu. Using GIS technology, Rajeev and his team make detailed maps of the squatter settlements, collecting and analyzing vital information on these areas such as drainage facilities, electricity, water, road access, places of worship, and land ownership. Unlike government surveys, Rajeev’s inventory takes into account temporary as well as permanent settlements. GIS technology is equipped with multilingual support so that using the system is easy for all. The location of each settlement is clearly printed on maps showing the size of the slums, and resettlements zones from the city’s official master plan are highlighted in the information system, making it easy to see future housing options. Once they are complete, these digital maps and databases become a powerful tool for organizations and community-based leaders working for urban reform, allowing them to approach the urban local government body with their requirements in a more informed and confident manner. To ensure the tool is used to its full potential by all interested parties, Rajeev provides intensive database training, including data collection and uploading.
Currently, the master plans of every city are being revised and framed afresh for the next 20 to 25 years. To avoid more housing shortages in the future, Rajeev is pushing hard to have the needs of urban poor addressed in the new plans and has so far carried out this strategy successfully in Indore, Hyderabad, and Lucknow. Rajeev prefers to operate within the legal system of the country, thereby helping reverse what he feels has been an increasingly hostile attitude of the courts towards the urban poor. Recently, for example, in conjunction with Human Rights Law Network (Ashoka Fellow Colin Gonsalves’s organization), Rajeev has used Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to file for an alternate arrangement for tuberculosis patients when the Indian Institute of Management took over their land, forcing them to close the sanabrium. The case went to the Supreme Court, which passed a judgement favoring the PIL. Today an alternative tuberculosis sanatorium is being built. Besides these legal actions, Rajeev has also held workshops in these various cities to train and inspire local organizations and community leaders to engage in pro-poor master plan interventions and become active participants in planning their future.
On the national level, Rajeev is using his position as the Convener of the National Forum for Housing Rights (NFHR) to spread his community-based digital information and mapping model. In the near future, he plans to bring this strategy to the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Pondicherry , and Kerala. He is also using a number of other strategies to disseminate his model nationally and internationally. For example, he invites social work and architecture students from across the country to come to his organization for fieldwork and internships, and he is working to include habitational crisis in the curriculum of schools of architecture, journalism, mass communication, social work, and engineering. Most importantly, Rajeev is documenting his work and preparing a handbook to facilitate easy replication in other urban areas with acute problems in adequately housing the poor. He is also involved in a number of other forums and projects to help the urban poor. Most of his initiatives are managed by slum dwellers themselves, with Rajeev serving as facilitator and guide.
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