Prem at Shanker Garden

Prem a resident of a slum cluster at Shankar Garden for the past 17 years is a brave example of the women, solidarity concept that INDCARE intends to work on. Shankar Garden is a cluster where INDCARE is working in for the past 10 years. It has around 700 households. The land of this area belongs to three Land Owning Agencies namely, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Social Sciences, DDA and Private land.

There are three MCD schools in the nearby area, water is drawn from the main line, has a mobile toilet and people have soak pits for their use. The cluster has constructed the drains and the pathway by collective effort.

INDCARE has an association with the people of the area through Self Help Groups. Its association with Prem has run deeper than that. On 15 January 1997, a bulldozer demolished her home and home of 17 others. She being a construction worker herself reconstructed the house in the night and faced the authorities herself. Since then, her home has been demolished another four times by MCD and once by Police. She is also fighting a case in the Delhi High Court for the Slum Up gradation since then. She wanted that if only she and her neighborhood could get land allocated here itself in Shankar Garden.
But the court has decided otherwise and says that according to the Master Plan of Delhi all the clusters in Delhi are being relocated so will be the case with Shankar Garden.

Prem has been INDCARE's key spokesperson for the issues on land rights. She has been through a lot in these past few years. It is not easy for one to see ones home demolished repeatedly. Over the years, she has learnt a few lessons that she imparts to other women in the community. Nevertheless, in spite of all that, she is still insecure woman regarding her children's future and concerned about her livelihood. The insecurity of being relocated to a new area with little or no facilities as in most of the cases is in her too. Despite of staying in the area for almost two decades and making the place habitable doesn't Prem deserves a chance to stay in the place that she calls her home.To quote her statement 'Hum sabhi ke ghar banate hain par jab hamari bari aati haih to koi hamare bare mein nahin sochta' which means' We make houses for everybody in the world but when it comes to us nobody is ready to think about us.'

INDCARE plans to make leaders out of these women. One needs not one Prem and Shingari but hundreds of them to call it a revolution. This revolution is Called Mahila Chetna.

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INDCARE is also working on a Community based research on "Barriers to Access to, constraint to use of, modern energy in low income urban communities of Delhi" with Gammos UK Ltd.

Advocacy with the Slum Dwellers for safety measures and legal practices of Energy use is being implemented with the support of NDPL and Academy for education Development (AED) ,USAID Washington. It is being carried out in Two slum clusters of the North West District of Delhi.

What women learn at Self Help Groups?

• Identify the issues
• Prioritize the problems
• Organized Problem Solving efforts
• Entrepreneurship skills
• Advocacy
• Better Social negotiation skills for their improving their living standards

What women want?

• More credit for their entrepreneurial development
• Credit at Lower rate of interest
• A just environment free from exploitation of any nature.
• Platform to raise voice against violation of rights.
• Access to their Rights.
• Assets control.
• Equality in all walks of life.

Programme at Ludhiana

"Improve Access of Services to the Urban Poor in the City of Ludhiana
under the Indo-US FIRE Project & through NIUA"

All the settlements of Ludhiana are being mapped by INDCARE at Ludhiana through various tools and techniques of PLA. Twenty Self Help groups shall also emanate from the same. The local NGO is being trained in the area for the same. INDCARE uses the same model of Women Empowerment, as it is successful for thus the model is replicated.

We thank our Supporters for the programmes of Women Empowerment namely Action Aid India, National Foundation for India, Urban Management Programme.