CIH President visits India's slums | 8th February 2010 |
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) President, Howard Farrand, has spent a week visiting Mumbai’s slums as part of his Presidential Appeal for Homeless International.
Meeting families living in the city’s slums and pavement dwellings, Mr Farrand was on a journey to see how support from the UK can help housing and sanitation projects in some of the world’s poor communities. Admitting himself that he was at first a little hesitant at the idea of visiting India’s slums, Mr Farrand wrote on his President's Blog: "I had read Slumdog Millionaire and I had seen the film. How close do I really want to get to this?"
In fact, Mr Farrand couldn’t have got much closer. During his visit Mr Farrand met women who are part of the support network, Mahila Milan – or 'Women Together'. Learning how through saving money together the women are able to take out affordable loans to improve their lives, Mr Farrand commented: "It is banking, but not as we know it!"
Mr Farrand also had a memorable lesson in the importance of the kind of sanitation projects that Homeless International helps support. He visited a community-managed toilet block, built by the Mahila Milan network, and compared it to the poorly run Municipal toilet blocks in the area. Mr Farrand writes: "Where the Municipal blocks were always filth, the smell appalling and the caretaking poorly done, the community took responsibility and designed a block with a caretaker’s house on the top of the block. The house goes with the job and the community selects the caretaker. The block is spotless and smells are absent. Now that is neat thinking!"
Above all, Mr Farrand was struck by how, working together in their communities, the women of Mumbai’s slums become empowered, both within society and their own families. Mr Farrand says: "With growing confidence they are now able to engage with government and are now consulted in proposals to remove pavement dwellings and resettlement plans. They are actively involved in the design of their new homes and even manage the priority selection for resettlement."
After a week of getting 'up close and personal', Mr Farrand is now back in the UK to continue with his Presidential duties. But perhaps the biggest lesson of all that Mr Farrand will take with him is that, in a country that is now home to over one billion people, it is the poorest residents who are carving out the future agenda for housing and redevelopment.
Howard Farrand’s Presidential Appeal is supporting Homeless International’s work with slum communities across Africa and Asia. If you would like to support the appeal, please visit the President's JustGiving page.
