Caravansary Charity

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Howrah Pilot Project

By V. Ramaswamy

In 1997, as an independent follow-up to CEMSAP towards long-term redress in Howrah, one of the most blighted cities in the world, I established the Howrah Pilot Project (HPP). The goal was community, slum and city renewal beginning from the poorest and most socially and environmentally degraded slum localities.

Through the efforts of HPP, on International Women’s Day 1998, Idara Ittehad-ul-Khawateen (IIK) which means the Organisation of Women’s Unity, was formed under the spirited leadership of a group of young women volunteers from Priya Manna Basti in Howrah. This is a century-old jute workers’ settlement of about 50,000 people, mainly laboring, Urdu-speaking Muslims.

About 10 % of the households in Priya Manna Basti are in the poorest category. Typically the bread-winning male would be a daily wage earner performing manual labour, petty vending, rickshaw-pulling etc to earn Rs 50 - 100 per day ($ 1-2). Family size is large, with at least 5 children being the norm, and in some cases more than 10. Shelter consists of a single (rented) room of about 100 sq ft. The physical environment is degraded, with a high degree of overcrowding, inadequate drinking water, very poor sanitation, drainage and waste-disposal. Health conditions are poor, with high infant mortality and morbidity. Primary education is rarely availed of, and children begin working from as early as the age of 5, within the household or outside. Lacking vocational skills, livelihood options for youth, and especially girls, are extremely limited. A range of piece-work production activities take place, with very low remuneration. Girls get married by the age of 16, and continue to raise children in the same manner. Illiteracy is almost universal in this poorest class.

Such an environment also breeds and hosts petty crime and anti-social activities as well as major, violent crime. Political parties have a powerful presence in such an environments, mediating civic improvements and community conflicts and stifling independent community action. They are also often closely linked to criminal elements.

The life of the poorest households revolves around daily survival in the margins of society. There is a conservative attitude regarding female education and movement outside the house among the uneducated sections of the Muslim community.

Idara Ittehad-ul-Khawateen has initiated and managed through its squad of young women volunteers a range of community development efforts in and around this slum, targeted at women and children from the poorest households. This includes literacy and social and health awareness for women, a non-formal school for poor and working children, a vocational training program for girls, a thrift-and-credit program, linkages to health services and livelihood enhancement efforts.

IIK works as a vehicle for community awareness and development, for the betterment of the quality of life of women and children in the poorest slum households, and to build communal amity. In the process, a grassroots organization is being built and its capabilities developed so that it can work effectively and in a sustained manner for its objectives.

V Ramaswamy is a Calcutta-based business executive, public policy consultant, community development worker and teacher. He has been associated with a number of social and people’s organizations, campaigns and movements. He is Chairman of Howrah Pilot Project and Secretary of the Metropolitan Assembly for Social Development, Calcutta. He is also a Public Policy Associate at the Jerusalem Institute of Urban Environment, a visiting Master at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, and Guest Faculty in the Department of Architecture at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Click here to e-mail.

You can read further on Calcutta Urban Slums here