tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68373249985455744562024-03-25T07:06:15.230-07:00Mahila Housing Trust (MHT)Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-19119282814899851212017-10-07T04:42:00.004-07:002017-10-07T04:42:32.892-07:00Building Home with Home Improvement Loans <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Geeta lives in a one room
house in Savda Gevra, a resettlement colony in Delhi, with her husband Vinod and four children. Her family was resettled
from a makeshift hut in
2006. Geeta completed her masonry training from the Karmika
School for Construction Workers that MHT had opened in Savda Gevra. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Gita's family lived in a kutcha house, unable to afford the cost to rebuild it</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">When Geeta and her family
moved to Savda, they used what little savings they had to construct a small </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">kutcha house. They had a blue
plastic tarp for roof. During the monsoon rains, Geetaben and her </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">four children would huddle
together trying to stay dry. Without a roof or any proper walls, her children
were </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">constantly falling sick.
Like most houses in Savda, they had no water connection at house.
Geetaben would wake up early every morning to lug heavy buckets of water from
an erratic water tank. </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">With no sewage lines built, Geetaben's family was forced to defecate in the open. They worried about the lack of privacy, </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">potential night attackers
and the dismal state of hygiene. After nearly five years,
Geetaben and her husband decided to take a Rs 10,000 loan from MHT to construct
an underground water pump beneath their house. It changed their lives.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Geeta no longer worries about water shortages or carries heavy buckets
of water from the water tank. She feels better about the water quality and
her children's improved health. Not wanting debt on their
record and eager to apply for a housing improvement loan, the family repaid
their loan in less than a year. In May 2012, after becoming a member of SMBT Geetaben
applied for a Rs 60,000 home improvement loan from MHT to build a proper roof, a </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">terrace and stairs leading
to the first floor. MHT assessed Geeta's repayment capacity by evaluating </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">her household income,
assets, savings history, property papers, liens on property and borrowing
track record. </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">In addition, engineers from
Awaas SEWA </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">provided
a cost estimate for Geeta's desired </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">construction. Confident of
their repayment capacity, MHT granted Geeta's family a Rs 60,000 housing </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">improvement loan in June
2012. Trained as masons from the Karmika School for Construction Workers that
is run by MHT in Savda, Geeta and her husband were able to construct the house
themselves in one month without hiring any external laborers. Awaas SEWA engineers also helped Geeta and Vinod in their construction process by assisting with the design and negotiating
the cost of materials with vendors. MHT
disbursed the Rs 60,000 loan in phases according to the pace of
construction, Awaas SEWA was responsible for monitoring the construction quality
and pace and for signaling to MHT that the next loan installment should be
disbursed.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Vinod works in a tube light factory and Geeta works as a mason. Their household income fluctuates between Rs 8,500 to Rs 10,000 a month. While a quarter of <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">their income goes towards household expenses, they made sure to save around Rs 2,000 a month and pay back the loan. </span>An MHT nameplate that read "This house is funded through a home improvement loan given by the Mahila </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Housing SEWA Trust"
hanged on the front of Geeta's house until she repaid her loan.</span></span></span><br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com133tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-46945607387565352152017-10-07T00:04:00.001-07:002017-10-07T00:04:19.691-07:00Urban Poor Learning about Climate Change by Playing Snakes and Ladders<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How many of us grew up playing the Snakes and Ladders game as kids?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The gathering of family around the colorful board, the rush of joy we got when climbing a ladder, and the disappointment when we got bitten by a snake, are memories that we always cherish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, this age-old game is being used by Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) - an NGO that aims to improve the habitat conditions of poor women in the informal sector - to impart messages on climate change, its adverse effects, and building climate resilience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lakshmi hails from a slum settlement in Bhopal called Garib Nagar. A community of 400 households, the area is severely affected by water-logging and vector-borne diseases during monsoons and water scarcity during summers. Uneducated and poor, Lakshmi was oblivious to the concept of climate change, although her community has been suffering through increasingly hot summers and heavy monsoons for years. Even after she was introduced to climate change through the community-level meetings, Lakshmi failed to link it to the water scarcity or frequent diseases that her community had to deal with. It was then that MHT introduced the Snakes and Ladders game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the 10x10 gridded board, the snakes represented consequences of climate change such as high temperatures and reduction in ground water levels that lead to illnesses and water scarcity. And the ladders represented ways to improve their lives by making thoughtful decisions on saving and investing money on availing themselves of water supplies and education. Lakshmi thoroughly enjoyed the game. In addition to that, she also learnt about the importance of saving money, making careful decisions and thinking ahead about the future of her family. Today she understands that, “saving money is important to move forward as the change in climate and unhygienic living conditions can cause life-threatening issues. I also focus on hygiene now and regularly uses water purification tablets to cleanse drinking water.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Urban slum settlements like Lakshmi’s are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. However, the people remain completely unaware of the reasons behind the adversities they face and how they can address them. MHT uses simplified communication methods such as games, demonstrations, one-on-one meetings, videos, wall paintings and street plays to generate an interest in people and introduce the concept of climate change, its impacts and build climate resilience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Introduced in 2016, the Snakes and Ladders game is played during training sessions and community level meetings in 105 slum settlements in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Through the game, around 3,500 women, who otherwise would not have had any knowledge about climate change or its impacts on their day to day lives, have come to understand the true reason behind unbearable summers and monsoons, and appreciate long-term planning, and focus on healthy living.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another community member, Babitha, has also played Snakes and Ladders multiple times. She acknowledges that in addition to keeping her entertained during her free hours, the game has also improved her understanding about her own living conditions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She said: “I have learnt that unpurified water can cause diseases, so we have to boil it before consuming to avoid illnesses. I also learnt how plants can help deal with the rise in temperature. I share everything I learn from the meetings with my husband, and have started planting trees in our yard.”</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-64289008708950333132017-10-06T23:59:00.003-07:002017-10-06T23:59:41.740-07:00Introducing "vulnerability" to vulnerable people<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXAnTq2Kp0Lyha4j-eGUAEV9Babre2oOU1kQJ75ajFmF6E-cCKPd7RmmwNGY7TwKUk4txioROB5U6sfTttL_PqEDroFNoOSycPtPL47GbbMgRcG6Wpcyv3zKWE-s23CjZu7QvxSLlPbiA/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1138" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXAnTq2Kp0Lyha4j-eGUAEV9Babre2oOU1kQJ75ajFmF6E-cCKPd7RmmwNGY7TwKUk4txioROB5U6sfTttL_PqEDroFNoOSycPtPL47GbbMgRcG6Wpcyv3zKWE-s23CjZu7QvxSLlPbiA/s640/Capture.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“We need a cemetery,” came the united voice of residents of Nayi ki Thari, a slum in India’s city of Jaipur, when they were questioned about their top priority needs in meeting climate threats.<br /><br /> The message came as a shock for me, an environment practitioner working on climate change and seeking to extract information on how communities were coping with negative changes in the climate.<br /><br />While climate change and its associated problems are gaining wider attention globally, the concept of vulnerability remains alien to those most at risk: the communities themselves. The most critical challenge is to transfer the science of climate vagaries to those whose resilience is at risk, particularly with limited access to climate information and information about potential risks.<br /><br />What the community in Jaipur perceived to be the greatest climate challenge was not the recent floods in the area – the result of increasingly unpredictable rainfall – but the difficulties in carrying dead bodies to a cremation ground located 15 kilometers away, along unpaved and uneven roads that are ever worse when water-logged.<br /><br />A large drain situated in the marshy soil of the slum often backed up and flooded, submerging the entire locality. Shockingly, children were even drowned during the last monsoon.<br /><br />A number of communities said in focus group discussions they had observed significant changes in the weather patterns over time. However, 90 percent perceived these changes to be “due to grace of God” and had no clue how much human activity had contributed to the problem.<br /><br />While most of the communities recognised that climatic changes would have an impact, none sensed that the problem would impact them, their livelihoods, and their lives the most, even as their contribution to the problem was the least.<br /><br />Change starts with awareness. Working with communities to build adaptation to climate change, in isolation, is inappropriate if the lack of knowledge about climate change and its effects is not addressed alongside.<br /><br />Now that we realize the low awareness levels of communities about climate-induced vulnerability, the need of the hour is to start initiating discussions and to equip them with the knowledge they need.<br /><br />Without that, vulnerability could intensify, with the poor becoming poorer due to increased climate pressures, which the World Bank last year warned could push more than 100 million people into poverty by 2030.<br /><br />The need to provide civic amenities and access to facilities is always a top priority when talking about the urban poor. But we must recognise that informal settlements are already exposed to multiple stresses and barriers. Before addressing climate challenges in the community, communities need to first have a comprehensive understanding of climate risks, before adaptation efforts get started.<br /><br />Designing awareness tools and participatory risk assessment exercises in the form of creative games and shows can be an emphatic way to trigger in communities an awareness of their vulnerability to climate perils.<br /><br />Emergence of this perception among communities has the potential to be a milestone in enabling individuals to cope with climate stresses or shocks and to plan for long-term resilience building.<br /><br />As Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, rightly says , “Conversation often leads to transformations”. Getting communities talking about vulnerability would certainly transform the way they perceive their future challenges – and help them plan for adaptation.</span></div>
Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-68434931720870589162017-08-05T02:47:00.000-07:002017-08-05T03:05:35.383-07:00Changing Lives in Informal Settlements<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sunder Nagri in Delhi is one of the largest resettlement colonies
with 1000s of displaced urban residents. When the 50 or so initial households
moved to Sunder Nagri, it was desolate and wild. Cut off from government
services and infrastructure, residents were forced to wake up at 3:30 am and
walk 2 to 3 kilometers to collect water for their cooking and
washing needs. Diseases were
rampant because of the lack of proper water and sanitation facilities. Many children died from jaundice, malaria and diarrhea and sickness became
a part of their lives. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gdHB2XF4pK86EwpDSDUyAW9xoB3FFLwl5HhYmk6G0oK7eexllZA-nxuzvGwKRNlnQ9WbdZYi0uIqYnXwNDXDvuq2ZJcK4R08izQo-BUy_nDC1HSbtvvlrmjTmPaDGZyw-DekSt1jLcU/s1600/01.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="775" data-original-width="774" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gdHB2XF4pK86EwpDSDUyAW9xoB3FFLwl5HhYmk6G0oK7eexllZA-nxuzvGwKRNlnQ9WbdZYi0uIqYnXwNDXDvuq2ZJcK4R08izQo-BUy_nDC1HSbtvvlrmjTmPaDGZyw-DekSt1jLcU/s400/01.PNG" width="399" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gdHB2XF4pK86EwpDSDUyAW9xoB3FFLwl5HhYmk6G0oK7eexllZA-nxuzvGwKRNlnQ9WbdZYi0uIqYnXwNDXDvuq2ZJcK4R08izQo-BUy_nDC1HSbtvvlrmjTmPaDGZyw-DekSt1jLcU/s1600/01.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was in 2009 that MHT began to organize community meetings
at Sunder Nagri, through which the residents were educated about their rights
to clean water, sanitation and better quality housing, and how they can access
various government schemes for water and sanitation. Many of the women members
were nervous about travelling alone to distant municipal offices, unsure of how
to navigate complicated transport systems and respond to the questions from government officials. In order to solve it effectively, MHT organized a series of training sessions
and arranged trips to local
government offices, until the women gained the
confidence to lead these visits themselves. Additionally, MHT also helped them obtain
ration and identification cards, making them eligible for government
infrastructure and housing schemes.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gdHB2XF4pK86EwpDSDUyAW9xoB3FFLwl5HhYmk6G0oK7eexllZA-nxuzvGwKRNlnQ9WbdZYi0uIqYnXwNDXDvuq2ZJcK4R08izQo-BUy_nDC1HSbtvvlrmjTmPaDGZyw-DekSt1jLcU/s1600/01.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Later on, MHT also worked extensively to improve the water
and sanitation conditions at Sunder Nagri. Recognizing an acute need for water
connections, MHT began to offer loans for underground water pump and individual
hand pumps. MHT also tackled the challenge of open defecation through
disbursing loans for individual toilets. As a result, residents are now
healthier, more productive and confident. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It was the availability of water that changed their lives
significantly. One of the community members says, “We can now shower
and wash our clothes and dishes whenever we want. We finally have free time. We
don’t have to lug heavy buckets anymore or wake up at 3:30 am to fetch water."</span></div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-47347289645011958312017-07-29T04:40:00.001-07:002017-07-29T04:43:51.615-07:00Helping Communities Affected by Ahmedabad Rains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At 5.45 am on the 27<sup>th</sup> of July, Meenaben woke up to
a phone call from a slum settlement in Vrundavan Nagar in Ahmedabad. On the
other end was Radhika, one of the beneficiaries of MHT, informing her that the
entire slum that includes 205 households got flooded in the heavy rain overnight. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meenaben, one of the Vikasini members, has been
working with MHT for the last 17 years. Having been identified as a strong
woman leader, Meenaben helps with MHT's works in 23 slum settlements in Ahmedabad to empower women to develop their habitats and build climate
resilience. Since Meenaben has been working with the people of Vrindavan Nagar
for around 12 years now, she became the first person for Radhika to call during a time of adversity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: large;">Soon after she received the call, Meenaben visited the community to check their condition. She describes the situation as much worse than previous years. Since the area sits at a lower level than the recently built highway, rainwater from surrounding areas were logged in the slum. <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a result, the water had gone inside their households, ruining vegetables and other foods, and people were using buckets to scoop the water out. </span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyHL2XdelhkE6ZQGN_kAnYq5_VZD_FyFvrLreuxpYh8GSXp82YW5MNTwI0OpiTDHLKAAhwNmolFRiRX_w1Ueg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After verifying the situation,
Meenaben called the Ward Councilor and the control room at Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) and requested for help. By noon, a team from AMC had come to
Vrundavan Nagar. They pumped the water out and provided the families with food provisions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meenaben is glad that she is able to efficiently help
the communities she works with. The trainings she received as a beneficiary of MHT continue to
help her in making decisions that reap immediate and positive results. She
stays in touch with the community to make sure their urgent needs are met.</span></div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-24507220116173289292017-07-22T04:12:00.000-07:002017-07-22T04:12:41.565-07:00MHT is Granted Millennium Alliance Award 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Initiatives in promoting sustainable energy consumption
among the poor has won MHT the Millennium Alliance Award 2017. A network of
Indian institutions that aims to promote innovative ideas to overcome
development challenges, <a href="http://www.millenniumalliance.in/">Millennium Alliance</a> organizes yearly award ceremonies
to honor impactful social enterprises in the country. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wxnGvGJY-wm_XbjxCBgJy7tBwEDSLudDAtNpx0HdzRXsEajHLpiP0LqXIRiaFt6SZT3NrIR-3_akmWoBCdpZ_HiuFMgzcz5tgQC9pHi9aLBadtysbqX8lLAndx1GvRwe6oVZhir7454/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1198" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wxnGvGJY-wm_XbjxCBgJy7tBwEDSLudDAtNpx0HdzRXsEajHLpiP0LqXIRiaFt6SZT3NrIR-3_akmWoBCdpZ_HiuFMgzcz5tgQC9pHi9aLBadtysbqX8lLAndx1GvRwe6oVZhir7454/s640/Capture.PNG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MHT receiving the Millennium Alliance Award</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the Round IV Award Ceremony that was held in Delhi this
week, MHT was recognized for works in building climate-resilient communities
with a focus on urban slums. Many slum dwellings in India are constructed with plastic
covers and cement and tin sheets which absorb heat. As a result, these houses
create hot and stuffy living conditions and make the inhabitants vulnerable to
climate change risks. Moreover, the absence of proper light and ventilation
make the families depend significantly on electrical lighting and cooling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In order to
better their living conditions and reduce energy consumption, MHT came up with
the solution to </span></div>
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<li><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">educate families on nuances of energy usage such
as bill calculation, appliance’s wattage consumption, changes in wiring to
reduce energy wastage, and the use of renewable and energy efficient products</span></div>
</li>
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<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">promote customized green energy technologies
such as solar lighting-cooling systems, CFLs, LEDs, stoves and innovative
building technologies such as Roof Ventilation and ModRoofs</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">support end-user financing with tailored loans
and flexible collection, and</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">provide after sale services</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The project
will yield a 10% decrease in household expenditure on fuel consumption.
Reduction in energy costs will allow poor households to increase their spending
on food, health and education. For home-based workers in slums, the improvement
in light, ventilation and insulation will also lead to a 4 hours increase in daily
working hours. With the grant received from Millennium Alliance, MHT aims to
reach 2500 households in Bhopal through this initiative and help climb the
energy ladder and use more efficient and sustainable products and services. </span><br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-191066846385002242017-07-15T04:17:00.000-07:002017-07-15T04:17:59.082-07:00Bhumika Following on the Footsteps of Her Grandmother<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) aims at improving the
habitat conditions of poor women in the informal sector. Since its establishment in 1994, MHT has worked with
over 895 slums, reaching over 3,11,450 households. In an effort to bring up a
generation of young women leaders with a passion to develop their communities, MHT
involves adolescent girls from slum settlements in Ahmedabad to provide
families with basic water and sanitation facilities. Bhumika, a 17-year-old, is one of the first adolescent girls to join the program. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS82cgbqrmIMo2ELRzVCL4Akz2Ckm3HheVufqBcIIP4WA83egL8wEgkethBiYYDM2RyElbL0RlJ0jvqx9wLqVPaqDx1W8hbTWUYKAti7JIW8D3X5r4wdh_4DdecJmjds4nmueHhTy7vOw/s1600/Bhumika+with+her+grandmother+Jiviben+w+caption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1251" data-original-width="1600" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS82cgbqrmIMo2ELRzVCL4Akz2Ckm3HheVufqBcIIP4WA83egL8wEgkethBiYYDM2RyElbL0RlJ0jvqx9wLqVPaqDx1W8hbTWUYKAti7JIW8D3X5r4wdh_4DdecJmjds4nmueHhTy7vOw/s640/Bhumika+with+her+grandmother+Jiviben+w+caption.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkcuVnwAip_GZfKKgnVLfCZB9FzfVe_4LsaPUTacKRMOCmrB77jBjenh8b4Z4UH_GmlWCUW1dtLcVGMYsj_xYIEjj0Cj3AvCiUQvduDy1s8sAe5KEs88kjGX1rZQ2WH0pA7KBV3cg6Ho/s1600/Jiviben+in+her+neighborhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1170" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkcuVnwAip_GZfKKgnVLfCZB9FzfVe_4LsaPUTacKRMOCmrB77jBjenh8b4Z4UH_GmlWCUW1dtLcVGMYsj_xYIEjj0Cj3AvCiUQvduDy1s8sAe5KEs88kjGX1rZQ2WH0pA7KBV3cg6Ho/s400/Jiviben+in+her+neighborhood.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYDqJhVy5yVoefvMaapm3PCve6QGdLoVdAHREyCgUMc1dKwASYxpO9_5Lm54NvondwnSI1Dc7e_Lmw9xKApWhkCWckldfD7qwGGX0bhjGj7KS85KbkamTXc9dfAJ4zCErG3-hYufXPk4/s1600/IMG20170629143647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bhumika was encouraged by her grandmother Jiviben to join
MHT. Jiviben, who has been working with MHT for the last 18 years, helped improve
the living conditions of around 150 households in her neighborhood. She says that it was her decision to be involved with
the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and MHT that positively transformed her life and community. She learnt how
to access government schemes for community development through MHT meetings and
training sessions, and turned her slum, which had no light, water, toilets or pukka
housings, into a neat area of colorful houses with tidily paved paths,
individual toilets and water connections. Now at the age of 60, Jiviben is proud
of the changes that she has brought in her community. She also educated her
children, encouraged her daughters-in-law to study and work, and now supports
her granddaughter in her involvement with MHT. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bhumika started working with MHT before 9 months, when the
program was initiated with the support of Dasra Giving Circle. She helps MHT with gathering women for meetings and conducting surveys. Since her grandmother has ensured that their community has necessary sanitation facilities, Bhumika took the initiative to study their neighboring localities
where people still struggle to access basic necessities. She identified
two slums where people defecated in the open and conducted surveys of 53 households. While conducting these
surveys, she also educated the families about the Swachh Bharat Mission, a government
campaign to keep cities clean and eliminate open defecation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bhumika dreams of becoming a teacher and educating her
students on sanitation and hygiene practices that she has learned through MHT. A
class 11 student, Bhumika is instilling hope for a better future for communities like hers in Ahmedabad. </span></span></span></div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-57065034397323674452017-07-06T03:34:00.003-07:002017-07-22T03:25:28.514-07:00Women’s Actions towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Sow One Seed and Reap a Hundredfold<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">15 years ago, Fakira Tank Na Chapra in Ahmedabad was merely a slum with illiterate residents. Today, however, through the proactive and strenuous works of the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT), the place has transformed into a formal apartment block with empowered women leaders. An Indian NGO that works for the betterment of habitat conditions of poor women living in slums, MHT began their work with Fakira Tank Na Chapra in 2002 by engaging the community through informative meetings about the slum networking project. As a part of the project, some women leaders were identified from the community who were then trained to actively interface with the government to improve their living conditions. In 12 years’ time, these leaders ensured that every family in the community received efficient water and sanitation services, electricity, paved roads, street lighting, and their own apartments. Safe and easier living conditions led to healthy and thoughtful community, where people found more time and opportunities for livelihoods and education. <br /><br />Fakira Tank Na Chapra is one among 895 slum settlements from 7 Indian states that MHT has worked with thus far. MHT ensures that through its programs on Habitat Development, Climate Change Resilience and Participatory Planning and Governance, people in slum settlements have land rights and decent housing, clean water and sanitation, access to affordable energy, and empowered women leaders. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZJt-OwpPb3D6y6fTCuaJwL0irXy6YN3In37vAp5MPJIg_n6kTjGmSoXZoREMyfFTMlT1d-cYvyH8-QEa9aefS-CfKdt4Yvl400eBYLaVWWhkZ-8lHTcIluGJbqapc8Qmq1yrurE-QpSs/s1600/Slide1.JPG"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZJt-OwpPb3D6y6fTCuaJwL0irXy6YN3In37vAp5MPJIg_n6kTjGmSoXZoREMyfFTMlT1d-cYvyH8-QEa9aefS-CfKdt4Yvl400eBYLaVWWhkZ-8lHTcIluGJbqapc8Qmq1yrurE-QpSs/s640/Slide1.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Through a focus on women led habitat development, MHT contributes significantly towards advancing United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted in 2015, the 17 integrated and interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address various development issues ranging from ending poverty and hunger to improving health, education and environment, with a strong emphasis on sustainable urbanization.<br /><br />Since the implementation of the SDGs, MHT helped 562 households to receive access to potable water and 114 households to get electricity, and installed 8,790 toilets and 2,330 sewers. Additionally, MHT also trained 1,825 female construction workers so they could access better work opportunities, counselled 4185 families on effective energy consumption, shared 3,894 energy efficient and renewable energy products with beneficiaries, and directly and indirectly helped 59,549 families to gain access to formal housings. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNkssq9ZN1iy0ty2Of7Q8aL_-vFhrY43TZSWGan-QcezbvZYRRkyU3Xe44BmVo_lME4ZlnNGDb__aFwZ5kijfRoEnAQU7MytGOW5mpNpvJ-Uj8M4ynyv-iWyJDWc7BtyjkVlFO0n9QAs/s1600/Slide2.JPG"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNkssq9ZN1iy0ty2Of7Q8aL_-vFhrY43TZSWGan-QcezbvZYRRkyU3Xe44BmVo_lME4ZlnNGDb__aFwZ5kijfRoEnAQU7MytGOW5mpNpvJ-Uj8M4ynyv-iWyJDWc7BtyjkVlFO0n9QAs/s640/Slide2.JPG" /></a><br /><br />MHT’s works help realize several of the Sustainable Development Goals. They are SDG5: Gender equality, SDG6: Clean water and sanitation, SDG7: Affordable and clean energy, SDG8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG10: Reduced inequalities, SDG11: Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 13: Climate action and SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAuXRTDhPyXnSh_lbu6xZq8crFqftfhcYkTHxEJGhdJudiMMt7X-XwAYlr44za1rLMz9Oag75HMRhVUNBniRmiewq_MdnCfAYGTbM8WtnOZx2ohcwXPbVsnH5qTPi-nkrviGzvzXFEg0/s1600/Slide3.JPG"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAuXRTDhPyXnSh_lbu6xZq8crFqftfhcYkTHxEJGhdJudiMMt7X-XwAYlr44za1rLMz9Oag75HMRhVUNBniRmiewq_MdnCfAYGTbM8WtnOZx2ohcwXPbVsnH5qTPi-nkrviGzvzXFEg0/s640/Slide3.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Access to a sound habitat makes the lives of poor people (especially women), healthier, easier and safer, enabling them to find time and opportunities for better livelihoods. As a result, these immediate results indirectly contribute to other SDGs such as SDG1: No poverty, SDG2: Zero hunger, SDG3: Good health and well-being and SDG4: Quality education. <br /><br />MHT’s programs stand as strong examples of how contributing to one of the SDGs indirectly addresses other issues at hand. By focusing on 8 SDGs, MHT is indirectly contributing to 4 more of the Sustainable Development Goals. </span></div>
Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-14038051717478367772015-09-28T05:13:00.001-07:002015-09-30T00:15:15.741-07:00Mahila Housing SEWA Trust Selected as a Winner of the Global Resilience Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We are
ecstatic to announce that we have been selected as a winning team of the Global
Resilience Challenge!<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #14110c; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Out of nearly 500 applications submitted, the Mahila Housing
SEWA Trust team (with 17 partners) was selected as one of eight winning teams.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Global Resilience
Challenge<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is a multi-stage design
competition designed to surface<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">transformative resilience solutions to problems that threaten the
lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable populations in the Sahel, Horn of
Africa and South and Southeast Asia.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) Team with 17 partners across South Asia will now receive up to $1 million in funding to implement our proposed solution in a way that can be scaled and adopted by others in the future. The solution MHT proposed, focuses on the 4 most pressing climate-related risks faced by the communities; heat waves, flodding, water scarcity and water and vector borne diseases. The proposed solution model would be community-based, women-led, integrated and partnership based, evidence based and will focus on the innovative communication strategies to promote community-level resilience actions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"We are extremely happy to be the winners of the challenge. Through this challenge, we are aiming to build community-based climate resilience with a strong focus on women empowerment" said Bijal Brahmbhatt, Director of MHT.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For more information on this exciting announcement, visit </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/blog/2015/09/27/winning-solutions-unveiled/</span></span></div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-56905043981512794842015-06-18T04:50:00.000-07:002015-06-18T04:50:35.117-07:00It is time to turn the tables…..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">
It is high time to turn the tables and let the people talk. That’s what I
realized when Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) first invited me to talk to some
women leaders from slums in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India) on the issue of Climate
Change. A talk which I thought would be quite easy turned out to be a daunting
task when I realized I was talking to women who had no idea of Global Warming,
Scenario Projections, not even Greenhouse Effect. And yet they were the ones I
knew are to be the most affected by the impact of the changing climate. So I
did what I knew best, asked the women what they were experiencing about the
changing weather conditions. And voilà, the women not only knew what was
happening, but were in their own ways developing mechanisms to cope with
it. It was very individual specific, often based on traditional
knowledge, but it was working for them. This got me thinking, if just
experience could help a group of women to fix so many problems, what could they
not do if they had the requisite scientific knowledge, capacities and
technologies. Can this be a way to develop actionable adaptation plans? To get
solutions which are demonstrated on the ground, and which the world of poor
will be ready to adopt because it would seem so real, so near to them.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">I think the answer
definitely is a YES.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">BUT, and it’s a
big but, how do we actually transfer this scientific knowledge to them. Climate
science, is a very technical subject (or maybe we have made it so) and it felt
very difficult to transfer the science to the lesser literate or often
illiterate women. Again there is the complexity of inter-linkages and
inter-connectedness between various issues, which needs to be understood before
one takes decisions. A simple solution like a pond- which may seem very environment
friendly and helpful in ground water recharge can be actually not so useful if
the region is going to have high heat waves and thereby high evaporation rates
and worst could be disastrous if the water pathways are highly contaminated
especially with sewage and other solid waste as we could end up contaminating
the ground water aquifer. This needs multi-disciplinary approach and so we
needed a multi-disciplinary team to work together with each other and with the
women to help them devise the most useful solutions.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">AND, here came
another challenge. Sectoral experts are often very possessive about their own
subjects and not so open when comes to deviating from their said hypothesis. So
it was important to develop a common framework which they could work on. This
is easier said than done as we did not know how to develop this “COMMON”
framework. That’s where I though the women could take the lead and they did. We
exposed the women to the sectoral thinking, provided them with a few
participatory tools to go back to their communities and understand the nuances
and within a fortnight they were back, talking one-on-one terms with the
experts, getting them on track if they deviated, suggesting localized/cheaper
versions of technical solutions and working towards a common goal of people’s
“LIVELIHOOD”, because that is at stake. As one Meenaben put it, “<i>This is
just about explaining to the community that what we should do now so that we
can continue to live like this (read maintain this lifestyle) in the coming
years also.</i>” Such a simple definition of resilience and now we will be
working jointly towards building capacities for the same.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">So how did this
happen and so soon. Does it provide some lessons for others? It definitely did
for me. Firstly, I think it is important to begin work with communities which
already have a higher social capital, preferably groups which have worked on
governance issues before. They have a perspective and understand the necessary
riggings to pull through such a complex problem. It also helped that the group
we are dealing with has a previous experience of using GPS and mobile
technology in their work. Secondly, women having a larger stake show higher
acceptance of tougher decisions. Our women were talking of water meters and carbon
tax for vehicles- quite radical considering we are talking of slum communities
here. Thirdly, when you talk of adaptation, the solutions are getting designed
from a mitigation perspective also. This surprised me, by the way, but it seems
easier when you are talking of protecting people to get them to protect the
environment. Even though we did not think so the women were talking of
bio-diversity and the need to conserve the same in cities. Also, there are many
solutions already existing on the ground, a lot of traditional (and even
modern) knowledge available which we need to document and invest in for
scaling. The communities have a lot to learn from each other and this becomes
very fruitful when we get people talking who now are facing opposite climate
conditions. So we had women from Jaipur and Ahmedabad (traditionally water
scare areas) teaching water management techniques to women from Ranchi (which
has high rainfall but is now becoming water scarce) while the latter
reciprocated with their traditional knowledge of combating heat stress. And the
last but not the least, there was the benefit of developing localized cheap
coping mechanisms which can have multiple affects. I would end with this simple
solution shared by the women, “</span><i style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cover your roof with wet paddy husk and enjoy
a cooler home. Buy it before the summers and sell it after the first rains and
get most of your money back. It is simple, effective and affordable</i><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">.” There
have been many strong technical suggestions too, our sectoral experts now have
a lot of work on their hands, customizing these for adoption, but they are very
enthusiastic, as they know, this time people will also listen to them, as they
are listening to the people.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;">By Dharmistha
Chauhan, Strategic Advisor to Mahila Housing SEWA Trust. Dharmistha is a
development consultant with 15 years of experience working in India for
promoting Sustainable Livelihoods of women, farmers and informal sector
workers.</span></div>
</div>
Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-37232730630902449482015-04-08T04:34:00.000-07:002015-04-08T22:41:56.925-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Director Speaks</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlCwvkfkbIiJ_bgIkfvwAcZtK67gmkUrhiLxNNFCVmbHVckWLcCCDR4jVbjLHL8iQl2AHkPlpFuluxwifqTR9301ogD6AuaqyJLVqDtiABgXhUxMrKW4Ot30BbLHeZXzYbaXfivtgMNM/s1600/IMG_7654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAlCwvkfkbIiJ_bgIkfvwAcZtK67gmkUrhiLxNNFCVmbHVckWLcCCDR4jVbjLHL8iQl2AHkPlpFuluxwifqTR9301ogD6AuaqyJLVqDtiABgXhUxMrKW4Ot30BbLHeZXzYbaXfivtgMNM/s1600/IMG_7654.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Earlier this year our Director Bijal Brahmbhatt was featured in 'Women of Pure Strength' -second edition of a coffee table book by the Vodafone Foundation. The Book chronicles efforts of 50 dynamic women in their contribution to our diverse socio-economic milieu. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The book was launched by boxing champion MC Mary Kom at an event in Delhi. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoaWnlYzJgSPwaSvTXXQgjlpgNaRMqozzLlmY9a8PrWMRQuS40P8wnw9hgcqGpR6gqZR-KxjQvpCMhqP__Ot3fWVgxNACa3UKkGs7Jr0JlDz9GAUng1ePohYZoTIt8rodFi79MbB3ec8/s1600/111111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoaWnlYzJgSPwaSvTXXQgjlpgNaRMqozzLlmY9a8PrWMRQuS40P8wnw9hgcqGpR6gqZR-KxjQvpCMhqP__Ot3fWVgxNACa3UKkGs7Jr0JlDz9GAUng1ePohYZoTIt8rodFi79MbB3ec8/s1600/111111.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bijal Brahmbhatt's 'Women of Pure Strength' </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Story</span></span></i></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPA3IepEonBV1d8xElwQDWnrZ_g5RnPrBsVe0LWbZpiq4I2MkxHia6l67epvuXrLJjjSuwmW19Umgy-jNBz1leyZ6yI9Iw9LQKFF5K7JkeH4QMcVpUAi6WderVdwdNC-iGzo69Ies1Cs/s1600/555555.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPA3IepEonBV1d8xElwQDWnrZ_g5RnPrBsVe0LWbZpiq4I2MkxHia6l67epvuXrLJjjSuwmW19Umgy-jNBz1leyZ6yI9Iw9LQKFF5K7JkeH4QMcVpUAi6WderVdwdNC-iGzo69Ies1Cs/s1600/555555.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">She has single-handedly brought the Mahila Housing Trust to where we are today. We decided to publish here her full interview. It is, after all, also the story of MHT.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Give us a brief account of your journey; from
where you started to where you have reached today</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In
1992 I graduated as a civil engineer, however like most Indian youngsters, with
no idea of the road map I wanted to follow, for my future career and life. I
spent some time, exploring and experiencing a variety of things, including
teaching prospective engineering students. Those were the days when a woman’s
presence on construction sites was unheard of. I took that up as a challenge,
and just to prove that women engineers could be as competent in execution
onsite, for two years I worked with a private firm, executing projects,
handling the workers and quite often, hearing some very crude personal remarks,
behind my back. My academician father who was also very involved in the
voluntary sector introduced me to Ms. Renana Jhabvala of the Self Employed
Womens’ Association (SEWA) in 1998. She immediately proposed, that I work with
the “Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, (MHT) an autonomous organization promoted by
SEWA, to work on habitat related issues of poor women. Because the SEWA
experience showed that for a poor woman, her house is her workplace, her
storehouse, her godown and her productive asset. MHT was a nascent organization
with only three years into its inception. I get nostalgic when I go down the memory lane, and recollect myself
as an enthusiastic, inexperienced and ordinary engineer, who joined MHT in
1998. The initial experiences made me unlearn all that I had learnt from my
formal education. MHT was working in three slums in Ahmedabad, with two other
staff besides me. We had only one programme- Providing Basic services to the
urban poor, with presence in a single city, Ahmedabad, our headquarter. There
was no blue print to follow. SEWA leadership was extremely busy and habitat was a complex subject, specifically
because it is a huge endeavour in terms of asset building and in urban areas, issues of tenure
are quite complex . The idea was to go completely by the demand of the poor
women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today, MHT has a staff of 72 employees,
with over 3000 grassroots volunteers. Our work has expanded to six states some
of which are very poor, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya
Pradesh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The portfolio of our work has expanded to
seven areas: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Basic Services for Urban poor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Affordable Housing and Land Rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Housing
and Infrastructure Finance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Urban Governance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Energy and Climate Change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Rural Housing, Water and Sanitation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Shelter based livelihoods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So far we have changed the quality of life
of 3,04,545 families, over 15,00,000/ poor individuals across the Nation. MHT is also beginning its work in
South –Asia region, in December 2015. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My relationship with MHT has been symbiotic;
I have had a major role to play in all MHT’s initiatives. Graduating from a
coordinator, to the director of the organization, I have become an expert in
slum upgrading, renewable and efficient energy. Land rights for the poor,
Housing Finance, Development of public –private peoples partnership etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some of the MHT initiatives which have had
received worldwide recognition under my leadership are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Slum Networking Project:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">MHT has assisted the poor women
in forging innovative partnerships, with the urban local bodies to reach
improved housing and basic services including water and sanitation to over
1,94000 individuals. The Government has contributed Rs. 57,852,349/- with a
matching contribution from the communities to the tune of Rs. 316,209,283/-
Biogas and Eco san toilets have been promoted. MHT has been able to master the
art of establishing local partnerships and taking them to a national level
across six states in India. One such partnership in the “SLUM NETWORKING
PROJECT” with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has received the Dubai Best
Practices International Award in the year 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Global showcase for slum electrification:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">MHT has empowered Community Based
Organizations (CBOs) in Ahmedabad, who worked with a private sector company to
get legal electricity for all the slum dwellers of Ahmedabad. A slum
electrification department was established at the company and pro-poor systems were
created and institutionalized. All the poor households at Ahmedabad now are
legally electrified. (Approximately 1, 58,000). This programme has been quoted
as a global showcase by USAID in the energy sector.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">AWAAS SEWA PVT LTD: A poor women’s social enterprise for market
based low income housing<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This social enterprise has been
established as a special purpose vehicle for market based housing. MHT along
with the women has become a pro poor market based developer for low income
housing. The pilot project has been facilitated by Ashoka.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Incremental Housing Finance: </span></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most MFI’s lend less than Rs.
1,00,000 to the poor for housing. The Housing Finance Companies which lend for
low income mortgage beyond Rs. 5,00,000. However, the current need of the poor
is the missing middle category of “Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 3,00,000 lakh”. MHT has
developed an innovative tool “semi formal mortgages” to determine the security
of tenure and give loans to the poor in that category. MHT along with SEWA Bank
and other institutions has facilitated loans to over 50,000 poor women.</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">MHT has
been nominated on the following committees of the Government, where I represent
MHT, </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <i>Appointed as a consulting expert
by the Gujarat Urban Development Authority for Urban Poor Programs</i></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> Member on the expert committee for
the Rajiv Awas Yojana of the Government of Gujarat<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> On the guiding committee of
Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation for implementing JNNURM<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> Task Force Member, Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) task force for Affordable Housing <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> Steering Committee Member,
Affordable Housing and Poverty Alleviation for 12th five year plan, Planning
Commission<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 18.1pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> HUDCO and the National Housing
Bank work very closely with MHT in formulating their pro-poor programs.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 2012
we were recognized by Dasra among the top ten organizations at the national
level doing effective water and sanitation for the poor. In 2014 we received
the Asia Urban Futures award for “Urban Resilience”. In October 2014 the CNN
International in its “Transformation” series showcased the Slum Networking Project
of AMC and MHT. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 2013 I was
felicitated by “Women Change Makers” for my contribution to Women’s Empowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">DBS Private
limited, a builder in the affordable Housing Market has appointed me on their
advisory committee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My work has been
recognized by the SEWA Group of organizations, by appointing me on the Board of
Directors of several organizations, specifically to mention SEWA Grih Rin
Pvt.ltd. (a national level housing finance company) and Awaas Sewa Pvt .ltd. (a
construction company for the building for the poor.) Thus I have grown personally and
professionally with the organization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <i> <b>What are the singular challenges that you have
faced in this journey?</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> The challenge at the Government level is to sensitize it,
change its approach and bring in transparency and accountability. At the lower
levels in the Government, it is difficult to explain that MHT is not a mere
construction contractor. The tremendous effort required to be put in to
translate change from policy level to the grassroots is a real challenge.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Regulatory
restrictions have also been a deterrent for eg. Credit cooperatives are
the best financial entity suited to finance but there are severe restrictions
on its geographic expansion. Thus organizations like MHT are always in a
dilemma whether to have a more pro poor operational structure, or have a
structure (Like a Company), which is not necessarily most appropriate for the
poor, but gives scale.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Financial sustainability is one of the biggest challenges,
along with maintaining the scale that MHT has already achieved. Also managing
the relationships between the diverse natures of staffing at MHT, sensitization
of new staff to maintain the organizational philosophy and ethos, at the same
time delivering the targets to the donors has been a struggle.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Learning to work successfully with the private sector is
a challenge.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> On a personal level, maintaining the balance between
personal and professional life has always been a challenge.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-stretch: normal;"> </span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> <i> </i></span><b><i>Has being a woman helped or hindered your path
to success?</i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Being a woman has been a mixed bag of feelings. I joined a
woman’s organization which was run, owned and managed by the women. Especially
it had the SEWA ethos where feminism was celebrated along with the ethos of mother
hood and woman hood. Children were allowed at work and a favorable environment was created where the women colleagues
irrespective of caste, creed shared their work as well as difficulties and
learnt to celebrate woman hood.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the government level, the functionaries initially underestimated
your abilities hindrances were less due to underestimation, which later on
turned to respect and awe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was however a bit difficult when men and women of your
immediate neighborhood were curiously asking questions, due to odd work hours,
and frequent travel. Safety issues become a concern when you had to travel all
alone to very remote, unknown areas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However overall the journey has been very fruitful and one
which help me shed my own inhibitions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Does a supportive family, spouse, or social
network help in a woman's career? How? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes, a supportive family and spouse definitely helps a
woman’s career. I believe that women are creators. The virtue of patience and
perseverance gives them the ability to nurture growth. The growth could be of any
kind. It could be within the family as well as in her work. She has the ability
to multi task. However, the support of the family, specially spouse and the
social network enhance these abilities
manifolds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A caring spouse, who takes the responsibility of the
children, and is supportive to odd working hours sets her mind at ease. A word
or two of appreciation about her work, makes her all the more determined to face
the challenges of her career and home. A free mind adds to her productivity and
efficiency </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><i><b>Was there a specific incident that helped shape
your career or an incident that inspired you greatly?</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rather than a single event, I should say that, there have
been several occasions and personalities which have shaped my career. During
the course of my work I was in touch with some of the very senior women
leadership at SEWA, who were on the board of MHT. They were leaders who had
very high educational qualifications, in some of the very reputed universities
of the world, including the Harvard and Yale. However, they had dedicated their entire lives to the cause of women’s movement.
Had they led a normal life, their training would have fetched them huge
financial gains. They decided to give
that up and be with the movement, taking only a small honorarium to help them
sustain themselves, being true with the Gandhian Philosophy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They helped me respect a woman’s role in entirety, including
the beauty of being a mother, visa vis the typical picture that I had in my
mind about women’s empowerment , which was created by the corporate sector.
They inculcated a leadership quality in me which believed in creating, rather
than destroying, to go ahead. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The other major source of inspiration have been those
thousands of grassroots leaders, who despite being uneducated and poor, have
strived relentlessly to change their life, thus empowering the movement
and their own life and families. They
helped me understand that leadership was a quality that came from within and
therefore had less to do with education or social background. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <b><i>What according to you is leadership and how is
the definition of leadership changing for women?</i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Leadership according to me is having a mission in life, believing
in it, enabling the masses to believe in the mission and having the vision to
create a path, which leads towards the fulfillment of the mission. Leadership
also should enable a change for the better. A leader leads by example.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For women, the challenge is to create a women’s movement. A
movement where economic enterprises and other organizations are of the women,
for the women and by the women. Enterprises which help women alleviate poverty,
which bring in her voice, increase her bargaining power and visibility, thereby
building her leadership and self reliance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><i><b>Which leadership qualities do you think have
helped shaped your career and distinguished you as a woman leader?</b></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Personally I am a down to earth, honest,
forthright and a loyal individual. I also believe in taking risks. The
environment at MHT has inculcated in me, a spirit of questioning, and
willingness to learn at any age. As a leader, I have understood the changing
trends in the sector, very early on, and molded the organization accordingly. I
have led the organization by example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The intention of taking challenges and
risk has also brought a national scale to our programme. I believe that
innovative thinking supported by effective management systems is the key to
growth. I also very strongly understand that cadres of leadership have to be
built to start and sustain development.
I have been doing so, decentralizing the leadership and building joint
cadres of leadership of grassroots women with professional women, bringing in
sustainable development. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><b><i>How have you balanced your professional and
personal life?</i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I married and started a family, almost at the time I started
my work with the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust. The organization was nascent then,
that gave me some time with my family. I have two children, both of them very
young when I started my career. I used to give more time to them then. Also my
work at the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust was very new and thus not very demanding.
To my husband and his family, the concept of the developmental sector was very
new. The concept of development to them was more welfare oriented, rather than
the empowerment approach at SEWA. My working hours were not the traditional
“office time”, but suited to the needs of the grassroots poor women. Sometimes
I had to go early in the morning, or late in the evenings to hold meetings in
the villages and slums. During riots and disasters like earth quakes, while
most women would prefer to stay at home, we had to work longer hours. Slowly
and patiently I worked on them to make them understand my work and my view
points. My Husband, then brought up, as a typical middleclass Indian male, not
used to take care of the household chores, started supporting me, to the best
of his abilities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The task of balancing my personal and professional life has
been achieved through multiple strategies. Firstly, making my children strong
and independent. Secondly, increasing my own management abilities at work and
at home. Thirdly at the organizational level, building the cadres of leadership
which would support me and to whom I could rely on, to pass the
responsibilities. The work hours, though long were flexible. While my family
slowly learnt to manage itself, I spent quality time with them, always being there
through all the important milestones of their education, and life and during
all the emergencies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><i><b>What gives you the biggest sense of achievement?</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My biggest sense of achievement comes from watching hundreds
of thousands of women, joining the movement of poverty alleviation, the
movement of women’s leadership and self reliance and relentlessly battling the
odds to improve their habitats, their work, and thereby their quality of
life </span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Finally, we sign off this post with our post-event office celebration.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Co-incidentally our Vodafone 'World of Difference' Volunteers were around to celebrate too.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8Db6DbRFFTuApNAqyJkALwA6YjXlqO6RrZjPR-IAK7Iwof-eaC3_s543ALCq-Y8xkgRegCkNf_BYXqQq9TQ9EA-dGGbcws_an3hhREwVZZ1RK__nw2R1Tnh68UKX5-XKJaZh2cPnzYI/s1600/IMG_2751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8Db6DbRFFTuApNAqyJkALwA6YjXlqO6RrZjPR-IAK7Iwof-eaC3_s543ALCq-Y8xkgRegCkNf_BYXqQq9TQ9EA-dGGbcws_an3hhREwVZZ1RK__nw2R1Tnh68UKX5-XKJaZh2cPnzYI/s1600/IMG_2751.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><b>Proudly,</b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><b>Team MHT</b></i></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-70772221797390856302015-03-16T00:20:00.000-07:002015-03-16T00:20:00.300-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">For
2 months, the Mahila Housing Trust hosted Vodafone Foundation - World Of
Difference volunteers Dipika Majumdar from Kolkata and Ankit Jain from Pune. We
invited the corporate to learn about our internal processes and suggest
changes. It was an eventful journey for all of us. Coming from the world of IT
& Communications they helped us share our work in a manner that will make
us more inviting, more interesting..</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: GU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In
the end, it was a transformation, for us all. A fruitful NGO - Corporate
partnership if we may say so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Here's
what they did for us...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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We are extremely grateful to the duo for them.</div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-67224764063899159172015-02-18T01:22:00.001-08:002015-02-18T01:26:26.338-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">On Tuesday, Mahila
Housing SEWA Trust, was notified by the Global Resilience Partnership, an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>initiative spear-headed by The
Rockefeller Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, and
the Swedish International development Cooperation Agency,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>that we have been selected as a
finalist in the Global Resilience Challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">The partnership is
looking to build resilience to acute shocks and chronic stresses in the Sahel,
Horn of Africa, and South and Southeast Asia – complex regions with high
resilience needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">We are excited for
our nomination and look forward to the second-stage of the three-stage grant
competition convening multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral teams to craft
locally-driven, high-impact solutions that build resilience, with the
opportunity<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to qualify for up to
$1 million for implementation and continued innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #14110c; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“A great
achievement for the entire team. " said Bijal
Brahmbhatt, Director, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust. "<u1:p></u1:p>Through
the Global Resilience Challenge, we are looking forward to provide
environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable solutions to the
climate induced risks and build resilience in 7 cities of South
Asia". </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Out of nearly 500
applications submitted, the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust team was selected as one
of the 16 organizations<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to
identify resilience problems and produce transformative solutions in South Asia
region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Mahila Housing SEWA
Trust (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">MHT) proposed to create and
implement resilience plans to address four major climate risks: heat stress,
flash floods, acute water shortages and vector borne diseases through the
project, “</span><b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Devising Local Coping Mechanisms and Adapation
Technologies to Build Climate-Resilience Capacities of the Urban Poor in South
Asia.”</span></b><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><a href="http://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/blog/2015/02/17/grp-teams-announced/">http://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/blog/2015/02/17/grp-teams-announced/</a></span></b></div>
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-15247296069653902062015-01-30T01:33:00.000-08:002015-02-03T03:12:20.104-08:00Workshop:Housing for all<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mahila Housing Trust in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Gmbh & </span>Center<span style="font-family: inherit;"> For Environment Planning & Technology (CEPT) University has conducted a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">National level workshop on "Housing for all: Lessons learnt and way forward" on 14th October 2014 at India Habitat </span>Center <span style="font-family: inherit;">,New Delhi.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj35QHogpOPnoVZ9quCEAqIMzNi2axEdcc1NZRBbyK_a67oFlmiZ9YOf0LLeK7psIO1CtTUtLFM4KtPC-XfW7Q_w8msjb7UWVYu_id8v-A3-TNy3sTyHtyId_iXFTKdXu0ZR4k9A8TQFC0/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj35QHogpOPnoVZ9quCEAqIMzNi2axEdcc1NZRBbyK_a67oFlmiZ9YOf0LLeK7psIO1CtTUtLFM4KtPC-XfW7Q_w8msjb7UWVYu_id8v-A3-TNy3sTyHtyId_iXFTKdXu0ZR4k9A8TQFC0/s1600/11.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Objective of the workshop -</u></b></span></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Both GIZ and MHT have gained considerable knowledge from the ground on in-situ slum upgrading and augmenting housing supply. It has been observed that undertaking such projects at the city level has its own complexities. These start from collection and management of data, formulation of DPRs, getting this sanctioned to actual implementation. There are added complexities of land issues, finance and private sector participation. MHT and GIZ have organized a one day workshop at Delhi on October 14, 2014 to share learning lessons and contribute to the way forward for providing housing for all. The workshop focused on the experiences of various actors and stakeholders across the country on the aspects of -</span></span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Role of Information Technology (IT) – from managing data to building houses.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Process innovation – empowering the Urban Local bodies.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Planning issues – imagining our cities.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">Way ahead – housing for all</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ms. Aparna Das from GIZ welcomed all the participants and informed that the current workshop was a follow up to the workshop organized at Ahmedabad with MHT and CEPT University under the Indo-German Environment Partnership. She also added that the “Inclusive Cities” Programme of the GIZ would be a way forward. Moving forward with the workshop on “Rajiv Awaas Yojana” at Ahmedabad, the current workshop was on the issue of “HOUSING FOR ALL” which the goal of the current Government of India. </span></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Keynote Address: Renana Jhabvala, Managing Trustee, MHT-</span></b></h4>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Smt Renana Jhabvala said that she was wondering whether to speak as an economist or as an experienced grassroots person. However the experiences at the grassroots were very powerful. She said that we talk about the urban areas without figures. Eighty percent of the people in urban areas were self employed and about 30 t0 40 percent were poor and have no space in the city. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Address By: Dr. Regina Dube, Head & Senior Adviser, Sustainable Urban Habitat, GIZ</span></b></h4>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Dr. Dube said that the GIZ is the technical department of the German Government and is supporting India since last sixty years. In India, GIZ initiated working in the urban areas in 2008. She said that GIZ has been supporting the Indian Government, specially the Ministry of housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Ministry of Urban Development on issues of housing, solid waste management, sanitation through institutional capacity building.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b><u>Session I -</u></b></span><span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b><u>Role of Information Technology – from managing data to constructing houses-</u></b></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Presentation by: Dhruv Bhavsar, Research Associate, CEPT University and Bharti Patel, A.C.E., Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation onIntegrating Information Technology in collecting, analysing and managing information base about the urban poor.</span></h4>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Mr. Dhruv Bhavsar, Research Associate from the CEPT University stated that they had jointly done the slum profiles of Ahmedabad with the Municipal Corporation and The Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT).Ahmedabad had undertaken a data collection exercise in 1976 beyond which there was no data collection about slums. Taking the data from the NSSO as the base, mapping of slums was done on a GIS based platform by CEPT, with the validation of data and the community participation in the data being undertaken by MHT in presence of elected representatives. All the data was then directly linked with Google Earth, which made it easy to share and access. Information on service related issues was very easily available. Based on which a slum atlas was also prepared for the ULB. Some key information like the access to toilet, type of land tenure and building typologies was available from the database. The slums redevelopment strategy of Ahmedabad was being prepared on the basis of the mapping.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Shirley Ballaney from EPC presented on several quick methodologies that The EPC had developed using Google base maps to undertake various surveys like the surveys of chawls in Ahmedabad, Mapping of public lands in Ahmedabad. She mentioned that there is no official city map of Ahmedabad available. She mentioned that these quick, easy to use data collection enabled faster implementation. It also enabled some crucial data like categorization of low cost housing, built space per person, public lands in the city. This allowed EPC to get a sense of issues like 48% 0f population could not afford housing in Ahmedabad. More than half of the public land in Ahmedabad was owned by the AMC and the conservative estimates of these lands amounted to approximately 34,000 crores which can be leveraged. She also emphasized that the data and the maps are not included in the developmental plans instead they become only a onetime exercise. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Presentation by: Mr. S. K. Mahajan, Director RAY, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB)</span></h4>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"> Shri Mahajan started his presentation by giving an overview of the Delhi slum clusters. There are 685 Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters in Delhi. Of which 95 JJ clusters have been prioritized by the DUSIB for redevelopment. Shri Mahajan emphasized that they had developed an in house team at the DUSIB which collected all the data on the slums and mapped on a GIS based platform. The data is extremely useful to make a tenability analysis of the slums. Based on which the DUSIB had fixed the policy of insitu slum upgradation under PPP model. Further he mentioned that only 25% of the land belongs to DUSIB and the other clusters were on the DDA, Railway lands. He also emphasized the fact that data was not the only issue which hampered the implementation, but the process of getting the approvals was also very lengthy and cumbersome. He suggested that having single window clearances would be effective for fast track implementation. </span><br />
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<u><b>Session II -</b></u><u><b>Process innovation – empowering the Urban Local Bodies</b></u></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Presentation by: Shri Santosh Gandevikar –D.G.M, Sintex Industries Limited on Mass Concrete technology </span></h4>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Shri Santosh Gandevikar said that building technologies in India could be site based or factory built. The monolithic concrete construction technology was used in building some of the housing under Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) programme. Technology provides durable, fire-proof and pest-proof, storm-resistant construction which is easy to clean and maintain. He mentioned that the concrete is poured into formwork specially built for it. It is a very fast construction technology which is joint-less. And therefore the quality is maintained. It is completely maintenance free. The uniqueness of the technology was in the strength of the construction, the efficient land usage, simplicity in planning and design and the speed of the construction as well as cost effectiveness. A block of 32 houses could be constructed in a month and 20% time could be saved through Mass construction technology. Also the cost effectiveness of the housing technology was 10% more than the conventional technology. The CEPT University is doing a study on the effects of the technology on work environment and environment in general. Besides this, predetermined standards were already available in The Indian Standard Code for this technology. </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Presentation by: Shri Rahul Navalkar, Director, Morficon Systems on Use of Aluminium prefabricated form work for construction</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shri Navalkarji talked about the aluminium formwork as alternative option for building construction. He mentioned that it could be used for any type of building irrespective of the target group. It has a cooling impact in the hot summer days. The main features of the formwork are that it is very versatile and saves a lot of time. Using the formwork, four storeys could be constructed in 16 days. Because of the aluminium the quality and the durability of the housing units are very good and it could go without repairs for years together. It is extremely durable, has seismic resistance with high tensile strength. The form work can be reused again and again. Local production of the formwork can be undertaken. Houses get more carpet area because the thickness of the concrete is six inches versus a nine inch thick brick. Centralized planning ensures standardization and involves better utilization of available technologies. It also helps in imparting training to local workforce's which can give them an added skill set thus enhancing their employment opportunity. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Presentation by: Mukta Naik, Micro home solutions on Community involvement and design innovation in slum redevelopment</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ms. Mukta from Micro Home Solutions presented their innovative community owned design developed in consultation with MHT and the residents of the Sundernagari slum pocket in East Delhi. MHS had adopted the master plan of Delhi, inputs from the community and the RAY guide lines for the preparation of initial building designs. During the interactions with the community they understood that there were a lot of home based workers like shoe repairers, embroidery workers, dairy activities, stitching etc. the community had their apprehensions about relocation as they were using the streets opposite their houses as spaces to work and carry out their daily activities. Based on these interactions, MHS made three designs alternatives which were those of high rise, midrise and low rise apartment buildings. During the consultations, the high rise option was out rightly rejected and the community were ready to move into the mid rise apartments. The main feature of the new design was its modular cluster approach, based on two-level street designs. The two-level street offered the connectivity as well as the neighbourhood interaction space that the community considers essential to the way they live and work. Moreover, the community particularly accepted it because they could easily transport material to their homes and carry finished goods out via strategically located staircases and ramps. Residents were aware that low-income high-rise developments have been unsuccessful in maintaining essential amenities such as elevators. The cluster design ensures light and ventilation in every unit. The scale of development was conducive to current social practices and lifestyle. The modular design was done on a 4m-by-4m grid which gave flexibility and options for unit sizes (18, 32, and 48 square meters) based on family size, capacity to pay and livelihood requirements. The scheme also provides for commercial space, community areas, workshop spaces for those who opt not to work from home in the new development.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Ms. Ballaney presented an innovation on how working on the byelaws to make it more pro poor could reduce the costs of construction by almost 33% by taking the case of a site in Ahmedabad. She mentioned that the public sector delivery of housing was very slow and therefore the private sector also needed to get involved in the low cost housing delivery. The three important factors affecting the costs of construction were land construction costs, development control regulations and profits. Some housing sites at Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority area were studied and due to the rigid regulations full FSI was not consumed which added on the cost. She presented an exercise where the byelaws were relaxed for designing a housing layout which was jointly done on a site by MHT and EPC. The presentation showcased how the crucial aspects of “Density, Fire Safety and Quality of Life” were taken care of by the innovativeness in the relaxation. A comparative analysis of the costs was done and merely by the relaxation of the byelaws, the costs of the project were reduced by 33% which meant that a ten lakh rupee low cost house would cost a mere six lakh plus. She also mentioned that the density of the population should be looked at more holistically, based on an entire area rather than only a pocket.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The closing session had a discussion on the way forward followed by a vote of thanks by Ms. Aparna Das, GIZ.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Some of the high lights of the discussion were:</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Cities should emerge with good project plans; only then fast approval of the projects will come through. Currently, only use of a different technology is recognized as innovations. However innovations in design and processes were viewed as compromises. These went against the principles of in situ upgradation and community participation, which the Government is keen to promote. The strategy for housing for all should contain a mixed bag of approaches, versus only a single strategy which is being adopted by the cities.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><b><u>Vote of Thanks-</u></b></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The Ms. Aparna Das GIZ has expressed that GIZ is committed to keep working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in promoting in-situ up gradation of slums with minimum demolition. She said that the focus would be to emerge with process innovations and technologies which could be sustainable for the poor. She has thanked MHT and CEPT University for the fruitful partnership and all the participants for an active participation in the workshop. </span><br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-39707642992824215432015-01-29T23:49:00.002-08:002015-02-04T00:20:57.478-08:00Smart City Collocution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ms. Bharati Bhonsale, Program Coordinator of MHT was one of the key note speaker at Smart city collocution organised by SAATH on December 30, 2014 in Ahmedabad. Ms. Bharti presented her views on affordable quality housing, cost efficient physical, social and institutional infrastructure such as adequate & quality water supply and access to Sanitation.<br />
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This address by Ms. Bharti was widely appreciated and her ideas got a great round of applause from the attendees.<br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-830104839471350552015-01-29T00:17:00.003-08:002015-02-03T03:19:58.410-08:00MHT won the Urban Resilience Competition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) has won the Urban Resilience Competition hosted by USAID, UNDP, UNHabitat and UNGlobalPulse.It was held at Asia Urban Futures Workshop in Bangkok.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">MHT has won this award for their initiative in Building Capacities of Slum Women to use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for Democratic Urban Planning System. Dharmishta Chauhan,Strategic advisor at MHT was invited to give a presentation and accept the award at Bangkok,Thailand.</span></span><br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6837324998545574456.post-40099151258102176172015-01-26T23:11:00.002-08:002015-02-03T03:25:59.043-08:00Mahila Housing Trust ( MHT )<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mahila
Housing Trust (MHT) is an autonomous organization promoted by Self
Employed Women Association (SEWA).It was formed in 1994 with the overall objective of
improving the housing and infrastructure conditions of poor women in the
informal sector. Within this general framework, MHT facilitates access to
services such as shelter finance, legal advice, technical assistance,
information on the housing market, and shelter-related income opportunities for
poor working women.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MHT believes that all citizens, irrespective of their residential status, have a right of equal access to basic services and that they have a right to be treated uniformly and justfully by the service providers. Towards this, MHT focuses on enhancing civic engagement among citizens particularly slum residents, women and rural poor, through promotion of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and grassroot women’s leadership.</span><br />
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Mahila Housing Trusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12119868925095096534noreply@blogger.com0