Right to the City: Participatory approach to poverty reduction
By Anshul Sharma
Anti-poverty programs and schemes have faced various issues in all stages of policy formulation. These are, policy-making, implementation and policy evaluation. One main reason behind this is the linear assumptions made in these policies. Such linear processes fail to account for the different ways in which policy practice fails to understand the urban poor. This article aims to highlight the lack of participation of slum residents with the rest of the city. In this sense, it aims to inform better policy making for urban policies with slums.
Urban Slums of Bengaluru and its residents
Indian cities, in the 21st century have become aspirational hubs. A key part of this aspiration is the notion of a World Class City (Ghertner 2015). However, it has also been identified as a site of deprivation and exclusion. More importantly, it seems to work on deprivation through exclusion. In Bangalore, as in other Indian cities, this happens at multiple levels, from material deprivation that would limit one’s ability to live a healthy and secure life to non-material deprivation that impacts how and in what ways we participate in the social world around us. The latter type of deprivation comes forth explicitly in various forms of institutionalized outcasting that continue to plague Indian cities (Yengde 2019). A key form of this deprivation is a form of puritanism that animates the idea of urban localities in Indian cities (Ghertner 2015). Such puritanism determines what is visible and what remains invisible in the city landscape, a question which is at the heart of Urban slums and how we place them inside our cities. However, invisibility of certain communities from the city’s cultural and economic landscape influences how these communities participate in these realms. Effectively, the cleanliness rhetoric and aversion towards informal settlements discourages engagement of residents from these settlements with the larger city and deprives them of the larger ‘Right to the city’.
Exclusion in the Everyday: Curbing participation
In slum areas of Rajendra Nagar, a slum of Bengaluru, several physical exclusionary forms are apparent. Area-wise, the slum is situated in the inner city. Residents interact with the outside world on a daily basis in the form of work.
During my fieldwork as a researcher in this settlement, I used a number of research tools to understand the spatial sense of the young people in the slum. I noticed a key characteristic among the young people in the slum. They would associate nearby localities as distant. When I told them that I have come from Koramangala, their likely response would be that I have come from ‘a place far away’ despite the fact that Koramangala is just a 20 minute walk from the slum. Such responses point out the differential view of distances that are imbibed by residents in the slum. Even though they stay within the inner city, the ‘right to the city’ has eluded them. An explicit expression of such exclusion was seen in another example when some young students reported that they weren’t allowed to play in the playground outside the slum area. Other examples surfaced from a number of young people in their interactions with the institutions outside the slum. Denied entry to a mall, chased away from the playground, questioned by police on the streets are some examples of how this exclusion happens on a daily basis. It is this practice that has led to the embeddedness of the slum, where more and more young people tend to stay within the slum limits with limited access to the city outside. Such trends are dangerous, as pointed out in context of a different Indian city, the proliferation of a puritan notion that marginalizes specific populations could lead to internalization of this aesthetic (Ghertner 2015). This happens to such an extent that some of the slum dwellers I interviewed themselves felt that they weren’t entitled to using the common spaces of the city.
Economic exclusion in the everyday: Participation will mean many things, foremost being the ability to economically engage with the city. In this regard, the residents can be characterized as ‘citizens without the city’ (Appadurai 2013). Meaning that the main inner city jobs might provide stable jobs to residents are off-limits to them. Indeed, as one moves through the settlements of Rajendra nagar and LR Nagar, we encounter rag pickers, petty vendors, mechanic’s assistants, cart pullers and other similar forms of work constitute the predominant forms of jobs that the slum dwellers occupy. While men are largely involved in this type of work, a substantial part of the labour force is driven by women and children. I met several women who, having been denied formal credit from banks, have used various means to set up their own small businesses.
Empowerment through Self-respect: It must be noted that such processes have given birth to various solidarity practices that address such exclusions.
Swabhimaan, a community led organization, which literally translates into ‘Self-respect’, has addressed some of these concerns in its intervention towards urban poor programs. Founded in 2000, this organization is based in various slums of Bengaluru which include Rajendra nagar, LR nagar, Karidsandra, Banashankari and others. It aims at improving the lives of urban poor in these neighborhoods by empowering them with health, education and finance services. Understanding Swabhimaan is useful in appreciating how grassroots movements have handled the issue of dignity in their welfare programs. A key part of this initiative is its participatory nature, where slum residents themselves come together and address community concerns. There are overarching concerns with youth empowerment and creating robust infrastructure in the slum, initiating almost an unslumming process (Jacobs 1961). The organization is committed to working with the slum dwellers already know and understand, mobilizing resources and providing relief. In this sense, it resonates with the ATD Fourth World’s approach in using people’s self-knowledge as a key resource in poverty alleviation. Another key similarity is the focus on sustainability, Swabhimaan ensures that all forms of resource distribution, mobilization and capacity building happens in a sustainable manner without compromising delivery. ATD’s larger strategic ambitions and Swabhimaan’s rooted practices provide a critical perspective on the current anti-poverty policies that are preoccupied by patrental redistribution (Duflo 2012). It is clear that a more nuanced approach would focus on a more participatory approach to poverty issues where people can participate more fully in their own lives and the world around them. Slums are a part of the city and urban policies must attempt to accommodate them by enhancing participatory practices of the slum dwellers with the larger city. This calls for a major overhaul of the urban governance and how it views the urban slums’ role in the cities. Indeed, social interaction enriches communities and creates solidarity that is beyond the narrow communities in which most slum dwellers are systematically subjected to in the status quo of Bengaluru slums.
References:
Ghertner, D. Asher. Rule by Aesthetics: World-Class City Making in Delhi. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Yengde, Suraj. 2019. Caste Matters. Gurgaon: Penguin Viking.
Appadurai, Arjun, ed. 2013. The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition. London: New York : Verso Books.
Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Esther, Duflo. 2012. Human Values and the design of fight against poverty.
