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HOW THEIR WORK BEGAN |
| METHODOLOGY |
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ARTICLES |
| RELATED LINKS |
SPARC is a registered NGO/NonProfit Organisation set up in 1984 by social workers, researchers, students, doctors and other professionals who wished to participate in the creation of an institution to create new and innovative partnerships with communities of the poor and professionals who wish to work with them on issues of social justice and equity.
SPARC wanted to create a process of NGO's working hand in
hand with poor communities in cities: to create equity in the oasis of
resources,create mechanisms by which those who migrate to cities have
organisational networks to fall back upon in times of crisis or when they
sought to fulfull their aspirations.
The poor must be organized, and in order to sustain this,
it is they who need to develop skills. Hence it becomes essential to
create a physical, emotional and social space for people to pool their
human resources and facilitate learning an Area Resource
Centre (or ARC )is the term coined by sparc,it defines ..... Â
SPARC developed
four objectives for its work:
| To support organisations of the poor both
by creating and strengthening community based organisations of the
poor, and by advocacy and lobbying for their rights, with and for them;
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| To undertake training to strengthen the
collective leadership capabilities of the organisations of the urban
poor |
| To ensure that women have equal rights
to participate in decision-making;Â |
| To create an information base, through
participatory research, on the poor and their problems, so that this
information base (created by the poor themselves) can become the basis
for dialogue, planning and action for change. |
In Bombay, the plight of pavement dwellers is most obvious
and yet least acknowledged.
for the first six months of 1985,four workers mapped out
E ward,the area where they wanted to establish the first area resource
centre. they sat with women on the pavement & chatted about where they
came from,how many dwellings were there,where they obtained water,in
short,all the information needed to build a picture of their lives.
the work continued until july when a crisis hit the pavement
dwellers.
the government of maharashtra & the municiplal corrporation
of bombay decided that the pavement dwellers houses were a hazard to
the city,the safety of the pedestrians,and unhygenic;they declared that
they were illegal,and adopted a policy of picking up people residing
in settlements,packing them in vans & trucks,and driving them outside
the city limits .
civil liberties groups took the matter to the high court.the
out come was that the case went to the supreme court & a stay was
granted to the pavement dwellers.it was under these circumstances that
sparc began to interact with women who live on the pavements to elicit
information on their problems & what they wanted to do.
The women from pavement settlements stated categorically that
secure shelter was their main priority.
 Neither they nor we understood this issue well
In july 1985 Supreme Court of India Judgement decreed
that the Bombay Municipal Corporation could evict pavement dwellers
and demolish their houses. In the period 1985- 86 it became evident
that there was no ready made solution. That, to prepare a solution,
the communities, the city and state would all have to create a viable
strategy that addressed the problems of all.This was the watershed
which helped SPARC formulate its role, functions and strategy. [source:environment
& urbanization vol 2,number 1,april1990]
1) locate the central features of
the crisis as identified by the community facing it.
listen to people ,then use what they say as an information
base offering a legitimacy to the people's staements.this methodology
is important for the process of mobilization .-it isn't possible to
mobilize people in a vaccum.talking to people is a way of identifying
issues which can then be used as a basis for analysis and action.
it has become evident that local people,who had previously
been viewed as passive subjects,clients or beneficiaries ,had much to
contribute to the research and development process .
2)understand how the state perceives
the crisis
3) share this insight with
the community and debate the formulations of elements necessary for a
solution.
4)create an information base
for participatory research.
5)initiate professionals to take part in formulating alternatives with the communites.
6)initiate a campaign for change: through
Â
sparc decided to build an information base which could serve
as a basis for mobilization.
in october 1985,a press conference launched we the invisible this
attempted to demonstrate that it was possible to COUNT pavement dwellers.
It also sought to systematically bring to the attention of the city
and its decision makers the real facts about who pavement dwellers in
the city of Mumbai were.
on 4th march ,1984 sparc received the news of the pavement dwellers being transported to a resettlement area 25-30 km from where they presently lived.this was the start of sparc's involvement with what was termed "resettlement colonies".[C.ELDOC.6009457]
SPARC works closely with two other
organisations, Mahila
Milan,
Since 1984, SPARC has successfully followed a multi-pronged approach : Working with the homeless and slum dwellers and forging partnerships with other organisations so that the urban poor can participate directly in how their city is managed.[C.ELDOC.6009297]
| ALSO
CHECK:Frame- work for collecting information on housing and
land rights to send the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural rights.[C.ELDOC.6006719] |
Housing
& slums : related government interventions:Shelter
is the basic human requirement that needs to be met on priority basis.
Housing policies and programmes, while accepting that housing is essentially
a private activity, has to recognise that state intervention is necessary
to meet the housing requirements of the vulnerable sections and to create
an enabling environment in achieving the goal of \"shelter for all\"
on self-sustainable basis.[C.ELDOC.1071995] |