Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables and Box
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Claiming Adequate Housing in Urban India: An Introduction
- 2 Indian Democracy: Normative Prescriptions and Everyday Practices
- 3 Governmentality of Housing and the Politics of Access
- 4 Mobilization on Behalf of the Urban Poor
- 5 Mobilizations by the Urban Poor
- 6 Claiming Housing despite Indian Politics and Governance
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Mobilizations by the Urban Poor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables and Box
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Claiming Adequate Housing in Urban India: An Introduction
- 2 Indian Democracy: Normative Prescriptions and Everyday Practices
- 3 Governmentality of Housing and the Politics of Access
- 4 Mobilization on Behalf of the Urban Poor
- 5 Mobilizations by the Urban Poor
- 6 Claiming Housing despite Indian Politics and Governance
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It was a hot day. I was standing at the edge of a deep ditch and gazing at the other side where these matchbox houses – the way it was called – rose from the steep slope. I was at the south-western periphery of the city and seeing the largest instantiation of housing under the Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP).
Mahesh was right, BSUP was just about reproducing the same old patterns of keeping the urban poor and the Dalits out of the city, beyond the deep ditch. Mahesh was one of the leading young activists of the political society organization named Slum Janara Kriya Vedike (SJKV), which means slum people's association. Their activities mainly focused on capacitating the communities to claim land or to formalize land-tenure for their communities. In general, to improve habitat conditions for urban poor communities. The activities ranged from using moderate formal and polite means of interaction with state agencies to radical contentious tactics such as protests and roadblocking. The slum locality in which the SJKV was active in mobilizing and the BSUP constructions were underway was on the city's side of the ditch. This BSUP intervention was the only one to be just a ground-floor housing. Even though densifying low-income settlements was the rationale, the targeted community with the assistance of the SJKV had managed to claim groundfloor housing. Such social housing is known to be beneficial for low-income households, as incremental building becomes possible as the family expands.
In contrast, in one of the denser areas in southern Bangalore, one of the largest BSUP housing projects was coming up in situ with 1,500 dwelling units in a ground plus four storeyed structure. In this locality, several civil society organizations were active; among them was the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI). DPI is an all-India organization that was born in the state of Maharashtra in 1972. It was started by Dalit writers countering the crimes against Dalits and stood for total emancipation and political domination (Shakit 1993, 630). It borrowed its name from the Black Panther Party – a movement that was started in the 1960s by African-Americans in the United States. Within India, there were organizations in several states that were active under the banner of DPI. The group I had the opportunity to interview had consciously come to work under the name of DPI.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Housing and Politics in Urban IndiaOpportunities and Contention, pp. 128 - 153Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020