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Community development -- The struggle for housing rights : a case study of pavement dwellers in Bombay India

University of British Columbia

The international campaign for housing rights focuses on the process of legislative change. Critics of the legislative change approach argue that this process is elitist insofar as such campaigns are fought on behalf of those people denied the right to housing by academics, lawyers and international non-governmental agencies, instead of in conjunction with the people. This approach, it is argued, excludes the people themselves from defining what housing rights mean to them, their culture and their community standards, placing such decisions in courts of law and legislatures. It is the position of this study that a more effective approach in the struggle for housing rights is one that recognizes that the problems of the poor and disenfranchized are not just their lack of rights per se, but also their lack of power to demand the legislative recognition and enforcement of those rights. This study explores a more inclusive approach to the housing rights struggle wherein the achievement of legislative rights represents only one peg in a more holistic strategy for change. This approach is represented by the theory and practice of Community Development — a process which empowers people to work collectively for change. Community Development provides the tools for people to understand, define and demand their rights, thus providing a bottom up and sustainable strategy in the struggle for housing rights. Community Development does not reject the role of legislative change, nor the responsibility of the state to recognize and enforce housing rights among its citizenry, but enhances the process to include all dimensions of the the housing struggle, most notably the community based sector which is currently excluded from the legislative change approach. The viability of a Community Development approach is built upon the premise that rights are norms or standards determined by the shared values of society and influenced by the dominant ideology. If people can articulate their values as well as organize to demand from the state the recognition and enforcement of their values, then they can work for change and begin to shape their housing rights. An indigenous non-governmental organisation using the methods of Community Development in the struggle for housing rights is the Society for the Promotion of Area Resources (SPARC). The work of SPARC focuses on a group of women pavement dwellers in Bombay India. In SPARC'S analysis, it is women who bear the brunt of poverty, yet are vested with virtually no powers of decision-making within (or outside) the family. SPARC uses the methods of Community Development to empower these women to demand the recognition and enforcement of their housing rights. Their work has resulted in such manifest outcomes as: challenging the Bombay Municipal Council in a court of law, building prototype houses, establishing a credit co-operative, undertaking a people's census and the creation of Mahila Milan — a community based organisation run entirely by the women themselves. Other latent, less measurable outcomes have also resulted from their work such as confidence building and solidarity among the women. SPARC'S use of Community Development methods on the streets of Bombay has important lessons for the international struggle for housing rights. Incorporating the community based sector in the struggle ensures that the process of defining and demanding housing rights remains democratic, culturally sensitive and sustainable. Community Development can be effectively facilitated by an indigenous non-governmental organisation which can gain the trust of the community and understand local customs, cultures, language and history. Essentially the debate over the right to housing comes down to a set of ethical questions, the answers to which form the philosophical and moral framework for the policy decisions that face a society. A Community Development approach ensures that all people have a voice in answering these questions and influencing the decisions that affect their lives, their housing and indeed their rights.

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2011-02-11

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31229

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University of British Columbia

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