Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Sparc: A nucleus for transformation
BackBack

Sparc: A nucleus for transformation

Among Mumbai's slums, Dharavi has the most number of evolved toilet-users, but there is still a long way to go

Sparc’s focus is to empower slum communities, especially women. Photo: Devendra Parab/MintPremium
Sparc’s focus is to empower slum communities, especially women. Photo: Devendra Parab/Mint

Ashamma, in her 60s, was born in what is now known as Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Dharavi, Mumbai. She got married here and her son, Venkatesh Jogi, is the secretary of the Community Based Organization (CBO) that looks after the maintenance of the toilet block that she and around 1,800 of her neighbours use today. Ashamma recalls going to nearby mangroves as a child to defecate; and then to the peripheries of the Maharashtra Nature Park. In 2004, she saw a toilet for the first time when the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, or Sparc, built a toilet block adjacent to her slum, with 39 seats (16 for women and 23 for men). “Now I can’t even think how I did it in the open for so long," she says. Her next-door neighbour Shubhavati Rajbhar, in her 30s, who came to live in the slum after her marriage about 10 years ago, says, “Now there is no shame in disposing of cloths we use during the menstruating days. You wrap and throw in the dustbin and they are collected every day. I used to travel to the far edge of the park every time I had to throw."

The CBO secretary appoints a cleaner for a toilet block, sees that it is cleaned, garbage is collected and that people pay 1 per visit to the toilets.

Sparc is invested in a gamut of issues related to urban poverty and slum living, and sanitation is one of their key areas of specialization. Founded by Sheela Patel, its director, in 1984, Sparc is the third part of a strategic alliance of Jockin Arputham’s National Slum Dwellers’ Association (NSDA) and Mahila Milan, a women’s collective and a credit scheme designed to assist women pavement dwellers in Mumbai, all working for the building and maintenance of toilets in Dharavi and other slum habitats in Mumbai since the 1980s. Arputham appoints women field workers (also members of Mahila Milan) from within the community, and Sparc facilitates resources, funding and mediating between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the community. Dharavi resident Arputham, who was nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, is the toilet guru of this slum of 550,000 households teeming with energy, will and life in the heart of the city. There are 239 toilet blocks in all of Dharavi. He is known for his one-day cleanliness drives which he himself leads with children from the communities living here. “Go to one block in a slum, involve community members, give them responsibility and start work. (Narendra) Modi should have gone to the slums, taken the inputs of those living there and tried to fulfil their urgent demands," he says of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan started by the Prime Minister. When we met Arputham for an interview in August he said Dharavi may be a model in entrepreneurial skills, small industries and self-sufficiency, but it is still far behind when it comes to sanitation.

View Full Image

Sparc believes sanitation is a public good, not a private good. “Toilets are a means to promote closer relationship with the municipality and the city," Patel says. “When you have a huge deficit, you have to create a multitude of strategies and have a localized approach to problems," she says, explaining why she is sceptical of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Mumbai throws up a number of hurdles to building public toilets connected to the sewage system. There are many kinds of public lands, like land near water bodies, forest land, Bombay Port Trust land, Railways land, where constructing a public toilet is impossible. According to the Slum Rehabilitation Act of 1995, building a toilet in an area booked by a builder for rehabilitation requires the builder’s no objection certificate (NOC) and getting that is often difficult. “Real estate companies and political parties consider any kind of capacity building for slum dwellers a threat to them," says Patel. Sparc is advocating for the power of the BMC to use these lands.

In this scenario, Sparc’s work is an ongoing struggle. Increasingly, their focus is to empower slum communities to engage with city authorities themselves and reduce their work as mediators. As Arputham says, “People talk about toilets more freely today. That is something. But why wait till 2019? Modi should involve those who have defecated in the open to help him build toilets, and involve women. Nobody understands sanitation like women."

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 18 Oct 2014, 12:28 AM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App