Theme Paper Policy Review Case Studies

SHELTER

ISSN 2347 - 4912

Publication

APRIL 2014Volume 15 No. 1

URBAN GOVERNANCE

Them

e

A major initiative in the direction of good governance was taken in 1992 through the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment which accorded a constitutional status to the urban and rural local bodies. The urban local bodies, which were mostly superseded and had become dysfunctional, got a respite and recognition. Democracy barged into local institutions, and representation of weaker sections, women and backward classes was installed at the helm of civic affairs. These landmark amendments gave recognition to the urban and rural local bodies as the third tier of government along with functional and fiscal autonomy. State Finance Commissions were set-up to facilitate fiscal decentralisation while the Twelfth Schedule was added to the Constitution to recommend functions to be handled by the urban local bodies. The transfer of power to people has just begun by these amendments and many such endeavours are needed for its furtherance.

URBANGOVERNANCE

Theme

INSIDE

The views expressed in this publication are the personal views of authors and do not necessarily reflects the official views and policies of HUDCO/HSMI. Articles or any othe material in the publication may be reproduce so long as credit is given and tear sheets are provided to the editor.

- Yuki Azad Tomar- Neeti Vaid- Gargi Singh

Policy Review

01Critique of The Post Colonial Indian Capital City-State- Nipesh P Narayanan

09 Homelessness in India- Sanjukta Sattar

16 A Scientific Approach to Property Tax Assessment in Urban Areas of Punjab - Dr S S Dhaliwal

Theme Paper

Housing for Urban Poor

Features

Case Studies

21Reorganizing City Centres And Factoring In The Housing Needs Of Poor- Krishne Gowda - P. Mamatha Raj- M. N. Chandrashekar

31 Local Governance for Special Townships in Maharashtra- Rajesh S. Phadke

38 Urban Governance: Challenges and Opportunities - A.K. Jain

48 Rajkot RITE# Project: m-Gover-nance beyond e- Governance- Vijay Anadkat

58

Good Governance through Citizen Engagement: Story of Humara 1031

75 Housing Market and the Poor in Mumbai- Dr Abdul Shaban

66 Good Governance: Processes that ensure services are provided at best value- Pratima Joshi- Ross Plaster

82 Menu Driven Slum Rehabil-itation: A practical design approach - Priyanka Dey- Subrata Chattopadhyay

97 Lessons in Inclusive Governance: Experiences of the SPARC-UDRC Alliance in Urban Odisha- Monalisa Mohanty - Keya Kunte

107 Housing for the war victims in Sri Lanka- Kirtee Shah

114 School-cum-Cyclone Shelters constructed by HUDCO in Odisha: Revisit-ing after a decade- Sukanya Ghosh- Ritabrata Ghosh

IN THE BOX

Hudco Chair Programme 8

Manufacturing Eco-friendly Handbags by HIV+ Women’s SHG 15

General Guidelines for Submissions of Articles 30

Urban Housing Fund 37

Book Review -Right to Toilet:A Roadmap for Total Sanitation 120

Implementation of MIS in Jabalpur Municipal Corporation 121

Housing Project Execution- Monitoring Using GPS Technology in Karnatka 122

Theme Paper Policy Review Case Studies

SHELTER

ISSN 2347 - 4912

Publication

APRIL 2014Volume 15 No. 1

66 hudco - hsmi Publication

Good governance can be defined as ‘the effectiveimplementation of appropriate policy’. Keepingthis in mind, this article describes ShelterAssociates’ method of facilitating developmentsin marginalised communities, and advocates forthe adoption of the principles of ShelterAssociates’ model when implementinggovernment programs and providing municipalservices. Shelter Associates’ model has beenrefined over a 20-year period in urban and peri-urban contexts and has demonstrated itscapacity for enabling the beneficiarycommunity’s ascent out of poverty in a timely,tangible, and permanent fashion.

e article references no external sources anddraws upon the experience gathered fromShelter Associates’ involvement in the process ofslum rehabilitation. As an active participant oras a critic of other projects, Shelter Associateshas advocated for these principles to beinstitutionalised in government policy as it islikely to: (1) ensure the effective expenditure ofthe public sector’s resources (both funds andland), (2) maximize the impact of governmentinterventions aimed at addressing the plight ofIndian citizens living without access to housingor essential services, and most importantly (3)link public funds with the Shelter Associatesmodel to amplify the benefits already achievedusing relatively small private donations.

1.0 INTRODUCTIONis article uses empirical evidencecollected as an active participant inthe process of slum rehabilitationand observations collected bycritiquing other slum rehabilitationprojects such as the Basic Servicesfor the Urban Poor (BSUP) as it hasbeen implemented in Pune andValmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana(VAMBAY) as it was implemented

in Sangli & Miraj. eseexperiences and criticisms areorganised under 4 categories: (1)data, (2) city-wide perspective, (3)community participation, (4)monitoring, and (5) joined-upthinking. Shelter Associates holddata and practical experience inhigh regard as opposed totheoretical concepts andhypothetical projects generatedfrom a remote vantage point.As the phrase good governance canbe subject to interpretation, itshould be stated at the outset thatShelter Associates’ principalconcern in relation to the issue ofgovernance is the effectiveimplementation of appropriatepolicy; the most important words inthat definition being ‘effective’ and‘appropriate’. Processes devised andadopted by Shelter Associates toensure the appropriateness andeffectiveness of its projects aredescribed in the context of twoprojects which the NGO’s areengaged with: (1) ‘From slums tohousing societies’, a city-wide slumhousing project which provideshomes with security of tenure thatis being implemented as part of theIntegrated Housing and SlumDevelopment Program (IHSDP) ofthe Jawaharlal Nehru National

Good Governance: Processes that

ensure services are Provided at

best value

CASE STUDY

Community participation isan important component inthe implementation of policyand the execution of projects,and by extension animportant component ofgood governance, as itensures that there is dialoguebetween the executiveapparatus and thebeneficiaries who they planfor.

Ms. Pratima Joshi (info@shelter-associ-ates.org) is Founder & Executive Direc-tor of Shelter Associates, Pune and Mr.Ross Plaster is an Architect in the sameorganization.

Pratima Joshi

ross Plaster

Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) in Sangli & Miraj,where Shelter Associates are beingsupported by the Sir Dorabji TataTrust and (2) ‘One home, one toilet’,a city-wide slum sanitation projectthat provides individual toilets toindividual families to address thedire state of sanitation in Pune andis being implemented using grantsfrom private and corporate donorsand philanthropy foundations. eprojects differ in their scope, type,objective, and funding structure butthe concepts which have been builtinto them to ensure the effectiveimplementation of appropriateventures are universal andapplicable to policy writers andplanning practitioners all acrossIndia. 2.0 DATAData provide the foundation for allof Shelter Associates projects; slumdata are methodically collected,meticulously organized using GIS,and presented using Google Earth®as a base map. e spatialorganization of slum data is aprerequisite for planningappropriately as it allows anaccurate profile of a surveyed area,whether a city, a neighbourhood, oran individual slum, to be generated.Once an accurate profile has beencreated, the data are analyzed, andconclusions are generated whichformulate the approach of therehabilitation strategies. With anup-to-date and accurate data set,valid theories of cause and effect, orinput and impact, can be composed

where input would be the proposedintervention and impact would bethe desired result, such as providingsecurity of tenure, reducing opendefecation, or increasing a slumfamily’s income.When composing the city-wideslum housing project in Sangli &Miraj in 2009, slum level datawerecollected from all the slumsacross the whole urban area andorganized spatially. Once this cityprofile was created, we saw thatthere was an opportunity to providesecurity of tenure to the families of29 slums with the use of only 7 slumsites. e city profile created usingthe slum level data showed that ofthe 29 slums, 7 were on tenable landand 22 slums were in un-buildablezones (situated on land that wasreserved for other land uses, or onland that flooded, or on land thatwas likely to be affected by roadwidening schemes.) e city profilealso indicated that all the 22 slumson land that could not bedeveloped, were within two-kilometres of one of the 7 sites thatcould be developed. Our planningconcept was simple, to redevelopthe slums on tenable land to ahigher density so that they canbecome receiving sites for one ormore of the slums in theirproximity which are on land that isuntenable. is way all 29 slumscould be included within therehabilitation process and none ofthe slum dwellers currently residingin the non-buildable zones will berelegated to the outskirts of the city.

As part of the Pune city-wide slumindividual sanitation project, slumlevel data are also being collected byShelter Associates for all slums inPune (approximately 300 slums)and verified on site with theassistance of the slum communitiesand the administrative ward offices’engineers. is extensive data setpermits the most vulnerable slumsin each of the 15 administrativewards to be identified and allows forthe efficient application ofresources. e funds awardedprivately to Shelter Associates willbe used over a 3 year period (2013– 2015) to provide 1,500 individualtoilets to 1,500 families livingwithout access to improvedsanitation and in the mostvulnerable settlements across the 15administrative wards of Pune. eidea being that if a pilot project canbe produced in each of the 15administrative wards, and if thedata sets for each administrativeward can be made available to theappropriate administrative wardoffice as part of a comprehensivetoolkit, then the administrativeward officers will be able toprioritise their own sanitationspending and target their ownsanitation interventions.

Just as up-to-date and accurate datasets can allow for the compositionof polices which can catalyseprojects that are appropriate for,and tailored to, the issues of eitherhousing, sanitation, or any otherdevelopment issue, inaccurate orinsufficient data can have the

67April 2014 Volume 15 No. 1 - shelter

CASE STUDY

inverse effect. e dra Pune CitySanitation Plan (CSP) containsheterogeneous data which areinconsistent and ambiguous. edata related to open defecationindicated within the tables of thedocument does not match with theassociated open defecation map,and neither the tables nor the opendefecation map correlate with theactual ground reality. ismisinformation creates confusion,fails to establish a base line andtherefore creates an atmospherewhere it is difficult to generateappropriate projects or monitor theimpact of any intervention.

3.0 CITY-WIDE VISIONA city-wide vision is as important asdata because it affords theopportunity for the impact of a

project to be greater and it allowsfor the efficient use of a valuableand finite city resource, land.e central idea of the city-wideslum housing project in Sangli &Miraj, the relocation of 22 slums onuntenable land to 7 tenable siteswhich are being developed to ahigher density, was only possiblebecause Shelter Associates hadgenerated an accurate profile ofeach slum within the city anddisplayed the information all on oneinterface. is allowed the slums ofthe city to be viewed as a city-wideissue and the GIS soware alloweddata to be interrogated at a city levelto create a series of outputs whichshowed information such as: (1)land ownership, (2) developmentplan reservations, (3) flooding, (4)or any other data which had beencollected. is concept of city-wide

planning and identifying un-tenable and tenable sites was vital toShelter Associates city-wide slumhousing project as it not onlyallowed the maximum number ofpotential beneficiaries who could beincluded with the scheme but alsopermitted them to stay within thesame neighborhood and not movedto an unfamiliar area of theconurbation or expelled to sitesbeyond the edge of the urban areawhere there are very few amenitiesand essential services and limitedaccess to emergency services. Had the isolated slum-by-slumapproach been adopted whereslums are regenerated in-situ, suchas the ‘kutcha’ to ‘pucca’, such as theprojects being implemented inYerwada in Pune as part of theBSUP of the JNNURM, land wouldhave been wasted because only the7 tenable slums would have beenincluded in the scheme and therewould have been no effort toinvestigate increasing the capacityof the site to accommodatevulnerable slum dwellers onuntenable land within theproximity, or as part of a strategy toprovide affordable homes for anincreasing migrant population. etypical slum-by-slum, kutcha topucca, approach is severely limitedas it: (1) is unable to address theneeds of slum dwellers who residein non-buildable zones, (2) providesneither a safe nor a healthyenvironment for its beneficiaries,security of tenure remains lackingand the existing foot print, withnarrow lanes, is made morepermanent by the transformation of

68 hudco - hsmi Publication

CASE STUDY

Shelter Associates and dataShelter Associates have and maintain ‘on-line city profiles’ for Puneand Sangli & Miraj on the Shelter Associates web site. Each city pro-file contains information for all slums within the municipal areas in-cluding: the land ownership, the condition of the residences, thecondition of infrastructure, and the connection to essential services.e information is available on-line and is free for everyone includ-ing the city administration.In addition to the ‘on-line city profiles’, the NGO has developed an‘on-line survey system’ where all collected data can be inputed, and inSeptember 2013 a mobile application was developed which allowsdata to be uploaded to the ‘on-line survey system’ by a surveyor witha smart phone in a slum, ward office, or any other location.Shelter Associates was the first organization in India to create and usedata profiles for planning for the poor and their technology ledmodel for generating appropriate and effective interventions has re-sulted in various awards: (1) the title of ‘Google Earth Hero’ in 2007,(2) a grant for winning a philanthropic organizations due diligenceprocess in 2013, and (3) a grant from Google Giving for being 1 ofthe 10 finalists in the Google Impact Challenge India in 2013.

kutcha houses to pucca structuresso the residents continue to bedenied access to natural light,natural ventilation, and emergencyservices, and (3) can actually beconsidered as detrimental to thecity as it blocks precious land thatcould have been developed to ahigher density.e advocates for a slum-by-slumapproach state that slum dwellersshould be allowed to remain wherethey currently reside and should notbe evicted and use this as a critiqueof a city-wide vision which includesrelocation of slum dwellers. is isa moot point because slum-by-slumadvocates cannot provide a solutionfor slums in areas which flood orare reserved for road widening orare affected by other developmentplan reservations, nor can theyprovide solutions which provide abasic level of access to light,ventilation, and emergencyservices. Slum-by-slum advocatesstate that slum dwellers shouldremain on their existing sites asthey are against evictions; ShelterAssociates are also against evictions;of the three moves which havehappened so far as part of the city-wide slum sanitation project inSangli & Miraj, two have beenpeaceful relocations where the slumfamilies dismantled their homesand moved, and one was mainlypeaceful but did include the arrestof a few slum lords who wereagainst the project as they hadvested interests in keeping the slumas a slum. We have found that whenthe communities are includedwithin the project as stakeholder

and are involved in the design anddecision making process, they aremuch more receptive to therehabilitation venture, which in

turn makes the rehabilitation effortmuch more likely to succeed.4.0. COMMUNITYPARTICIPATIONCommunity participation is animportant component in theimplementation of policy and theexecution of projects, and byextension an important componentof good governance as it ensuresthat there is dialogue between theexecutive apparatus and thebeneficiaries who they plan for. Anauthoritarian approach togovernance, and slumrehabilitation, can result in policiesand projects which areinappropriate for the conditionsand ineffective in terms of thepolicy’s intentions. is not only

discredits the administration but itdisheartens the intendedbeneficiaries and represents a wasteof public spending.

A project which clearly illustratesthe importance of communityparticipation is a slumrehabilitation project which wasimplemented in Sangli & Mirajunder VAMBAY in 2003/2004.‘Shelter Associates’ was not involvedin this project but, due to workingwithin the same context, was awareof the detrimental impact that theproject has had on its beneficiaries.e VAMBAY project in Sangli &Miraj poignantly illustrates theimportance of communityparticipation as the slumcommunities were not involved inany stage of this project, which islargely the reason why the projecthas failed to achieve itsrehabilitation objective.

e VAMBAY project included the

69April 2014 Volume 15 No. 1 - shelter

CASE STUDY

Figure 1: Shelter Associates’ city-wide concept for slum housing project in Sangli & Miraj

construction of over 2,000tenements across 3 sites which wereall built on the outskirts of Sangli &Miraj. Once built, although notcomplete, as the drainageconnections had not been carriedout, the slum communities weremoved from their communitywithin the city to their new homesoutside the conurbation. eproject pushed the slumcommunities, who were relocatedto 1 of the 3 sites, deeper intopoverty as the new homes wereremote from the settlement andpoorly served by public transport;the VAMBAY beneficiaries havebeen moved out of the city and areno longer near any of the facilitieswhich are necessary for theirexistence.

In addition to the lack of publictransport networks, they are also nolonger close to places ofemployment, government,hospitals, emergency services,markets, shops, or schools. usbeing relocated to the outskirts ofthe city has been detrimental toevery aspect of their lives; theremote location has affected: (1)their access to incomeopportunities, (2) their access togovernment offices, (3) their accessto healthcare, (4) their safety, (5)their education and trainingopportunities, and most worryingly(6) their children’s future. is hashad presumably unintended,although unsurprisingconsequences for the beneficiaryfamilies; it has been observed thatmany families with more than onechild have had to prioritize their

spending in favour of the boy childif the family cannot support the,now increased cost of sending boththe children to school. is is ofconcern especially when consideredin relation to the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG’s) whichhighlight the girl child’s educationas one of the main objectives ofaddressing poverty (MDG 2:Achieve universal primary schooleducation and MDG 3: Promotegender equality and empowerwomen) .e VAMBAY project, as executedin Sangli & Miraj, is the opposite ofgood governance because it hasfailed to be either appropriate to itssocio-economic context or enduser, or effective in achieving thedesired outcome. It could beargued that it has even facilitated animpact that is contrary to theobjective implied by the mandate ofa slum rehabilitation project; it has

actively worked against its objective.It is an example of an insensitiveplanning strategy which wasgenerated in isolation from thebeneficiary communities and/as aresult, has pushed the beneficiariesfurther into poverty and worse thanthat, has had a detrimental impacton the beneficiary’s successorgeneration by reducing theeducation opportunities of the girlchild. ese issues are all additionalto the fact that the design of thehouses was worked out without theinput of the community and doesnot suit their requirements andmost of the houses, at the time ofwriting, are still lacking workingtoilets that are connected to either aseptic tank or a municipal drainageline.

Shelter Associates’ city-wide slumhousing project in Sangli & Miraj isan example of appropriate andeffective planning due to its city-

70 hudco - hsmi Publication

CASE STUDY

Figure 2: e city-wide slum housing project in Sangli & Miraj - Shelter Associates and abeneficiary community discussing the design of the residential building.

wide approach (explained above,which allows all beneficiarycommunities to stay within thesame neighbourhood, and withinreach of employment, healthcare,emergency services, markets,institutions, government services,commerce and education), andbecause the design of the: (1)residential buildings, (2) individualapartments, and (3) the communitycentres were all developed in closecollaboration with the slumcommunities and influenced byslum profiles which informed thedesign process. e government,both the administration and theelected members were also includedin the design development as theytoo were important stakeholders.is level of communication andsensitivity was applied to ensure

that the end product would be: (1)customer centric and suit thenuances of the beneficiarycommunity’s culture, the reality oftheir socio-economic situation andtheir aspirations for the future, (2)the municipal corporationsplanning codes and buildingregulations, and (3) the allocatedbudget.

e buildings of our city-wide slumhousing project in Sangli & Mirajcontain 31 residential units in 4stories; there are 8 families per floor,except on the ground floor whereone unit is removed to create anentrance into the internalcourtyard, and an area for two-wheeler parking and they feature anaccessible terrace at the top of thebuilding. e beneficiary

community supported the designall through the implementationprocess, especially the idea of anaccessible terrace as it will providethem with space that can be utilizedfor: (1) social functions, (2)informal gatherings, (3) dryingpapads, (4) drying clothes andcooking utensils and (5) it can beused as a study area for the children;feedback from the beneficiariesduring the design stage indicatedthat the loud slum environment isnot conducive to studying.

e IHSDP residential units are allarranged around an internalcourtyard and are all accessed viasingle-loaded corridors. ismeans that the corridors are sharedby very few families so the spacecan easily be used by the families to:

71April 2014 Volume 15 No. 1 - shelter

CASE STUDY

Figure 3: e city-wide slum housing project in Sangli & Miraj- residential units are organised around a central courtyard

Figure 4: e city-wide slum housing project in Sangli & Miraj-residential units are designed to maximize the use of the 25 m2 of floorarea

(1) store their chappals (sandals),(2) dry and air their clothes, (3)cultivate plants and (4) use as anexternal play area for smallchildren. e internal courtyard inthe building design also enables theapartments to be healthier andcheaper to run as every unit has anexternal wall which faces out of thebuilding and an external wall whichfaces the inner courtyard. isallows windows to be positioned onboth sides of the apartment therebymaximizing the potential fornatural lighting and naturalventilation. is design means thatthe need to artificially light orartificially ventilate the beneficiary

family’s home has been minimized.e plumbing lines andconnections have also beendesigned to be fit on the externalfaces and along the main roads; noservices are laid under buildings orin any other location which isdifficult to access for maintenancepurposes.Designing small homes where spaceis limited takes skill and thelocation of: (1) doors, (2) windowsand (3) the circulation should beconsidered. e entrance into theShelter Associates’ residential unitshas been positioned to minimizethe circulation and to maximize theamount of usable floor area

available to the beneficiary family.e VAMBAY units in Sangli &Miraj are a good example of homeswhere little consideration has goneinto their design; the entrance andthe cooking area are diagonallyopposite to each other in therectangular plan, meaning that themain space is bisected bycirculation, which reduces its usablefloor area and it’s potential. In theShelter Associates’ houses, awindow has been positioneddirectly over the proposed cookingarea to ensure that the cook,typically the wife and/or mother, isclose to a window should she wishto survey the housing society and

72 hudco - hsmi Publication

CASE STUDY

Figure 5: Dattawadi housing project in Pune – beneficiaries have reported increases in their health & safety, economic situation, andemployment, education, and matrimonial options

also to ensure that the cooking areais well ventilated. ere is arequirement for the cooking areasto be well ventilated as the slumprofiles indicated that most womenin the slums of Sangli & Mirajtypically cook using traditionalmethods which create a significantamount of indoor air pollution(IAP) which leads to severerespiratory problems. e slumprofiles also indicated that the samewomen have a tendency to cook onthe floor, this is why no kitchenplatform has been provided in thekitchen layout (although there isspace for one, should the familyadopt a stand-up method ofcooking in the future.) While the IHSDP beneficiaries areyet to occupy their new homes, thesubject of community participationhas been proven to be an importantfactor in the long term impact ofrehabilitation efforts in previousprojects implemented by ShelterAssociates. A slum rehabilitationhousing project called Dattawadi,which was constructed in 1996 –1998 in Pune, placed the sameemphasis on communityparticipation in the design (andconstruction) process, and hasresulted in a project where all theoriginal beneficiaries still residethere and have reported that theirnew houses have had a positiveimpact on their: (1) health, (2)safety, (3) employment options, and(4) matrimonial options. e slumdwellers have been rehabilitatedinto a housing society and haveceased to be identified as ‘slumdwellers’.

It should be stated that the fundssanctioned by the Government ofIndia for the IHSDP in Sangli &Miraj, as with all other governmentprojects, did not include a financialallocation for communityparticipation. All the work carriedout by Shelter Associates in relationto community participation, thevarious meetings to explain theproject, answer questions, addressfears, build support, design thebuildings, residential units,community centres, andcommunicate the variousimplementation issues are beingcarried out with the support of theSir Dorabji Tata Trust. It isimportant therefore to state thatwhile community participation is anecessary component of goodgovernance, it should beinstitutionalised as a formalcomponent of the government’sslum rehabilitation policy, whichshould not only state the

importance and requirement ofcommunity participation as anofficial component of slumrehabilitation policy but also: (1)explain the methodology foractually ensuring that it happensand that it is effective, and (2)ensuring that there is an adequatebudgetary allocation.

5.0 MONITORING

Monitoring is essential to theimplementation of policy as itallows those in positions of powerto ensure the compliance of thegovernment departmentsresponsible for the execution oftheir instructions. Currently there isno rule in India which makesregular monitoring with thestakeholders mandatory at any levelof government. When preparing the road map forthe execution of the city-wide slumhousing project in Sangli & Miraj in

73April 2014 Volume 15 No. 1 - shelter

CASE STUDY

Figure 6: e city-wide slum housing project in Sangli & Miraj – A progress meeting takingplace to ensure that issues of implementation are overcome.

CASE STUDY

hudco - hsmi Publication74

2011, 2-years aer the funds hadbeen sanctioned by theGovernment of India, ShelterAssociates raised this issue with thestate government and insisted onthe inclusion of a clause requiringthe local government, who were,and at the time of writing still are,the implementing agency, toconvene a meeting every week withall stakeholders to discuss theprogress of the project. e clausewas added to the road map andlisted those who should be invitedas project stakeholders, they were:(1) the municipal commissioner, (2)the city engineer, (3) the slumofficer, (4) the NGO/consultant –Shelter Associates, (4) the slumcommunity leaders, (5) alliedgovernment agencies, (6) thecontractor, and (7) the emergencyservices, when required. is feature of the project has beeninstrumental in overcomingproblems of implementation, as themeeting provides a forum for allstakeholders to come together anddiscuss the issues and makedecisions in a transparent andaccountable manner.

6.0 JOINED UP THINKING

Communication and co-ordinationbetween the executive and thepolitical sides of the government aswell as the different departmentswithin the administration,especially between housingdepartments and infrastructure(transport, water, drainage,electricity) departments isimportant for the implementationof effective policy.

e result of un-joined up thinkingis that housing policies are framedin isolation of infrastructurepolicies and do not support eachother, such is the case withVAMBAY house in Sangli & Mirajwhere the new housing has beencompleted and the infrastructure,the public transport networks andthe drainage connections for thetoilets are in the best case laggingbehind, and in the worst case notplanned at all.

7.0 CONCLUSIONSTo conclude, it can be said that‘Shelter Associates’ has developed amethodology of implementingprojects which are: (1) appropriatefor their intended users, and (2) areeffective and sustainable.

It is hoped that our experience andprojects, which are documentedand available on our website, candemonstrate the value ofinstitutionalizing: (1) datacollection, (2) a city-wideconsciousness, (3) communityparticipation, (4) monitoringprocedures and (5) joined-upthinking when composing andimplementing government policy.It is also hoped with equal measurethat governments will be aware ofthe consequences of not applyingthese concepts and learn fromexperiences of the BSUP in Puneand VAMBAY in Sangli & Miraj. Alack of monitoring results inprojects that do not take off, orprogress timely, or are implementedto a substandard quality, and a lackof community participation canresult in damaging projects; such is

the example of VAMBAY house inSangli & Miraj which has pushedmany Indian citizens from povertyinto penury.

e current slum rehabilitationpolicy, Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY),goes some way to realising theintegration of these concepts ofgood governance but unfortunatelythis policy document fails toinstitutionalise the requirement formonitoring and does not explainhow to ensure communityparticipation. Shelter Associatesbelieves that the concepts advocatedin this article, as the standards ofgood governance, should be anintegral part of the training ofgovernment officers and reified intothe next slum rehabilitation policy,or adopted as an associatedstatutory document, to ensure thatthe Government of India, the stategovernments, and the municipalcorporations, all satisfy their dutyassociated with their station andtheir implicit obligation, as resourcemanagers and service facilitators, toIndian citizens living in poverty.

ere is a dire need to create stronglinkages between the central, stateand urban local bodies. Regularreview meetings at all levels must bemade mandatory whereby there isaccountability built into the systemfrom the ULB to the centralgovernment. ese meetings mustmandate participation of allstakeholders including NGO’s andcommunity representatives.