Who Wants to be a “Slumdog Millionaire”?
Empowering the Powerless with the Aid of Social Cohesion Following the success of the Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” everyone has turned their attention on India, its slums, and the broader question of a huge part of its society living in conditions of deprivation. As the film very well captures, slums in India reflect social inequality, poor education, inexistent sanitation, and limited opportunity. According to figures taken from a 2005 World Bank study, in 2001 the total population of Mumbai amounted to 11.5 million people with 54% living in slums.1 Such conditions of near subsistence impede social cohesion. The question is how these circumstances could be improved and who would supervise such development projects. Evidence suggests that development projects aimed at improving social cohesion can be especially successful and sustainable when they involve local communities.2 This is both true for projects in the developed world and for ones in developing nations as the case of Mumbai and other similarly deprived regions proves. Nevertheless, Gerald Frug points out that local communities often exercise little influence over the development projects directly affecting their lives. In “A 'Rule of Law' for Cities” he takes issue with the problem of arbitrary power exercised by governments and the private sector—financial institutions—and perpetuated by insufficient legal systems. The existence of informal housing in Mumbai—characterized by the absence of legal licenses—reflects this exercise of arbitrary power. The government is responsible for “mass evictions that drive people from their homes, and, equally importantly, deprive them of their economic livelihood.”3 This situation prevents economic and social betterment. The solution to the problem is to empower the community, where empowerment is defined as allowing “the people not now in the process [to] be able to make decisions not now adequately addressed.”4 This strategy of empowerment would emerge through the democratization of the rule of law. Frug's main proposal is to make local economic development policy more competitive by transforming it into a “democratically organized institution.” For instance, development projects should grant the city’s legislature with more influence over development policy. In this way the city can “establish [its own] strategy for economic growth, with the experts advising the decision makers rather than being the decision makers.” 5 The policy of empowering the community is also present on the World Bank’s list of policy recommendations on international development projects. It focuses on the bottom-up promotion of communication.6 Indeed, development projects which the World Bank supervised or helped carry out empirically illustrate the point. The Mumbai “Slum Sanitation Program” (SSP) aimed to deal with the problem of sanitation in slums.
1 United Nations: “The Mumbai Slum Sanitation Program: Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megalopolis,” Carried out in Cooperation Between the Water and Sanitation Program, the World Bank, Cities Alliance: Cities Without Slums, 2006, http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/WSP-Mumbai.pdf, accessed on: March 19, 2009. Page: 8 2 The Hindu, 2009: “New Anti-Poverty Strategies,” March 18, http://www.thehindu.com/2009/03/18/stories/2009031855800800.htm, accessed on March 19, 2009. 3 Frug, Gerald, 2007: “A 'Rule of Law' for Cities” Urban Age, http://www.urbanage.net/10_cities/07_mumbai/_essays/india_Frug.html, accessed on: March 18, 2009 4 ibid 5 ibid 6 The World Bank, 2004: “Knowledge is Power: Communication for Empowerment,” Empowerment Community of Practice Newsletter, March/April 2004, http://go.worldbank.org/8XYLNAYMF0, accessed on: March 19, 2009.
The project was approved in 1995 and by 2005 the SSP managed to build 328 toilet blocks and 5,100 toilet seats in Mumbai slums. Slum communities participated in the implementation of the project since the initial stages and mobilization were secured through the cooperation of NGOs, contractors, and community based organizations (CBOs). The ongoing success of the project in terms of maintaining the toilet blocks is due to the fact that community based organizations are responsible for their management, repair and payment. The SSP confirms the benefits involved in adopting a “participatory demand responsive approach.”7 This is also proven by projects beyond India. Authors Sengupta and Sharma evaluate the Kirtipur Housing Project which took place in Kathmandu, Nepal and conclude that when “community empowerment, civil actions and local government interests [converge] to create a constructive partnership in line with wider enabling principles” development projects are likely to be more successful, sustainable, and contribute to social cohesion.8 The driving force behind the project has been the grassroots community, resulting in good quality and reasonably priced housing. The success of the project was the outcome of including the community in lobbying for, managing, and planning the project. Like in the case of Mumbai, urbanization in Kathmandu has been a failure and squatters are equally deprived as those living in slums. The project was set up as an attempt to the resist government eviction attempts resulting from plans to create a link road through the Vishnumati River banks. The local community in cooperation with a local NGO (Lumanti) initiated development activities. Grassroots mobilization relied on several methods, such as the use of local media to broadcast and publicize the issue. Such methods and the cooperation between Lumanti, the Kathmandu Municipality and other national and international NGOs pressured the government to enter into negotiations against demolitions. The result has been the provision of US$ 220,000 for the re-housing of displaced families. The project serves as a template for future development models in terms of its conclusions: • Grassroots initiatives effectively mobilize social capital. • The community has a lot of constructive potential. Including the community in decision making not only empowers but also creates a sense of accountability in terms of how their actions determine the success or failure of a project. • The project lends support to “community-led-enabling development,” which aims to secure best practices by merging the work of public and private actors as advocated by the World Bank and UN-Habitat. Communication tools have proven especially effective in empowering local communities, as a study from the International Development Research Center (IDRC), which reviews 19 diverse Indian organizations dealing with HIV/AIDS awareness, conflict resolution, and education, shows. For example, theater can be particularly successful in empowering women groups as it allows for direct engagement, “deals with tradition and it is culturally appropriate.”9 Theater was used to inform women on issues like the environment, alcoholism, violence, and education. The IDRC study concludes that empowerment translates to economic independence, political participation, and solidarity building.
7 United Nations: “The Mumbai Slum Sanitation Program: Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megalopolis,” Carried out in Cooperation Between the Water and Sanitation Program, the World Bank, Cities Alliance: Cities Without Slums, 2006, http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/WSP-Mumbai.pdf, accessed on: March 19, 2009. Page 26 8 Sengupta, Urmi and Sujet Sharma: “No longer Sukumbasis: Challenges in grassroots-led squatter resettlement program in Kathmandu with special reference to Kirtipur Housing Project,” Habitat International, 33, 2008. Page 34 9 International Development Research Center: “India: Building on Local forms of Communication,” 2008, http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/12069786571A_INDIA.pdf, accessed on: March 19, 2009. Page 66
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However, a policy of development through empowerment is not without risks. According to the World Bank, empowerment results in a “change in power dynamics, [and] can be perceived as a zero sum game: while some are seen to gain power, others may feel they lose it.”10 These unintended consequences can be controlled by taking into consideration the cultural and social context, and by approaching the community in an inclusive fashion to find a positive long term solution. Christia Flourentzou is an International Relations Graduate from the London School of Economics and Editor at atlantic-community.org Bibliography: Frug, Gerald: “A 'Rule of Law' for Cities” Urban Age 2007, http://www.urbanage.net/10_cities/07_mumbai/_essays/india_Frug.html, accessed on: March 18, 2009. International Development Research Center: “India: Building on Local forms of Communication,” 2008, http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/userS/12069786571A_INDIA.pdf, accessed on: March 19, 2009. Sengupta, Urmi and Sujet Sharma: “No longer Sukumbasis: Challenges in grassroots-led squatter resettlement program in Kathmandu with special reference to Kirtipur Housing Project,” Habitat International, 33, 2008, Pages 34-44 The Hindu: “New Anti-Poverty Strategies,” March 18, 2009, http://www.thehindu.com/2009/03/18/stories/2009031855800800.htm, accessed on March 19, 2009. The World Bank: “Knowledge is Power: Communication for Empowerment,” Empowerment Community of Practice Newsletter, March/April 2004, http://go.worldbank.org/8XYLNAYMF0, accessed on: March 19, 2009. The World Bank: “The Dangers, Risks and Unintended Consequences of Empowerment,” Empowerment Community of Practice Newsletter, August/September 2004, http://go.worldbank.org/R80DN9YJS0, accessed on: March 19, 2009. United Nations: “The Mumbai Slum Sanitation Program: Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megalopolis,” Carried out in Cooperation Between the Water and Sanitation Program, the World Bank, Cities Alliance: Cities Without Slums, 2006, http://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/WSP-Mumbai.pdf, accessed on: March 19, 2009.
The World Bank: “The Dangers, Risks and Unintended Consequences of Empowerment,” Empowerment Community of Practice Newsletter, August/September 2004, http://go.worldbank.org/R80DN9YJS0, accessed on: March 19, 2009.
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