View source for We, the Invisible

{{short description|Report from pavement dweller census in Mumbai, India}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2022}}
'''''We, the Invisible''''' was a report based on a 1985 census of around 6,000 [[pavement dweller]] families, funded and carried out by the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) and the Society for Participatory Research in India (PRIA). It drew attention to this disadvantaged group and helped to reduce the number of violent evictions.
== Aims ==
Activists from the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) such as [[Sheela Patel]] and [[Jockin Arputham]] joined with the Society for Participatory Research in India (PRIA) in 1985, in order to make census of around 6,000 of the poorest households in [[Mumbai]].<ref name="Path">{{cite journal |last1=Patel |first1=Sheela |last2=Arputham |first2=Jockin |last3=Bartlett |first3=Sheridan |title="We beat the path by walking": How the women of Mahila Milan in India learned to plan, design, finance and build housing |journal=Environment and Urbanization |date=23 December 2015 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=223–240 |doi=10.1177/0956247815617440 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The aim was to ascertain the scale and nature of the city's [[pavement dwellers]], since despite being unavoidable on the street, there was little known about who they were or where they came from. It was a transparent process in which the researchers kept the households informed about the census at all stages.<ref name="Count">{{cite book |title=Count me in: Surveying for tenure security and urban land management |year=2010 |publisher=UN HABITAT |isbn=9789211322286 |pages=15–18}}</ref> [[Slum]] dwellings had proliferated in the city, and the [[Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai]] had been granted permission to demolish pavement structures by a [[Supreme Court of India|Supreme Court]] ruling.<ref name="Dialogue">{{cite web |title=DEMOLITIONS TO DIALOGUE: Mahila Milan - learning to talk to its city and municipality |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_governance/pdf_capa_building/SPARC_Mahila%20Milan_learning_to_talk.pdf |website=UCL |accessdate=10 May 2020}}</ref>
== Findings ==
''We, the Invisible'' revealed that pavement dwellers were not transient populations, but people who had lived for over two decades in the city.  It showed approximately half of the pavement dwellers to be from the poorest districts in the state of [[Maharashtra]], with the other half coming from the poorest parts of wider India. Many came as victims of drought, famine, earthquakes, religious persecution or riots. Most lived in shacks of less than 150 square feet with no electricity or water connection. They paid protection money to gangsters, despite living on municipal land.<ref>Development Gateway Foundation: Urban Development: [http://topics.developmentgateway.org/urban/sdm/previewDocument.do~activeDocumentId=1001444?activeDocumentId=1001444 Empowering Slum Dwellers: Interview with Sheela Patel], 7 September 2004 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060728174354/http://topics.developmentgateway.org/urban/sdm/previewDocument.do~activeDocumentId=1001444?activeDocumentId=1001444 |date=2006-07-28 }}</ref> They were ignored by the city administration and could not afford to use public transport, but despite that provided a service to the city by being a source of cheap labour.<ref name="Norms">{{cite web |last1=Patel |first1=Sheela |last2=Burra |first2=Sundar |title=Norms and standards in urban development: the experience of an urban alliance in India |url=https://www.gov.uk/dfid-research-outputs/norms-and-standards-in-urban-development-the-experience-of-an-urban-alliance-in-india |website=GOV.UK |publisher=Department for International Development |accessdate=10 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Counterview">{{cite web |last1=Gupta |first1=Vishesh |title=Invisible urban poor: The pavement dwellers of India |url=https://counterview.org/2019/12/07/invisible-urban-poor-pavement-dwellers-of-india/ |website=Counterview |accessdate=10 May 2020 |language=en |date=7 December 2019}}</ref>
== Results ==
As a result of the report, there were no violent evictions of pavement dwellers in Mumbai despite the Supreme Court ruling. Negotiated evictions were facilitated and the group [[Mahila Milan]] was set up to represent women.<ref name="Dialogue" /> In 1986, 300 households were moved from their shacks on the East Moses Road to the Dindoshi Nagar site in [[Goregaon]]. The plots were more spacious, but also rocky and the area was unsafe at night. Having had no choice in being moved, the families were saddened by the experience and this spurred SPARC to find out what people really wanted. Following on from these discussions, four model houses were built and displayed in [[Byculla]] for one week. Everyone who had participated in the census was invited to attend and over 5,000 households went. The favourite model was the most expensive, at 16,500 rupees and it was taken to over fifty other similar exhibitions. Also this model was then built by some of the Dindoshi residents on their land.<ref name="Path" />
== See also ==
*[[Slum Dwellers International]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*{{Cite web|url=http://sparcindia.org/pdf/articles/We%20The%20Invisible.compressed.pdf|title=We, the Invisible: A Census of Pavement Dwellers|last=|first=|date=1985|website=SPARC|access-date=18 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912105401/http://sparcindia.org/pdf/articles/We%20The%20Invisible.compressed.pdf|archive-date=12 September 2016|url-status=live}}
{{Squatting}}
[[Category:Books about urbanism]]
[[Category:Squatting in India]]
[[Category:Mumbai]]
[[Category:1985 in India]]