‘We are from different settlements but we belong to one city.’ – Rekha, Vikasini from Ahmedabad Living on the neglected margins of the nation’s urban sprawls, the poor women of India’s slums bear the manifold burden of housework, childcare and livelihood. They struggle to make their voices heard by city administrations, and for planners and municipalities, to acknowledge that the poor are just as entitled as any other citizen of India to a roof over their head, running water, a toilet at home, and clean and healthy surroundings. The Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) was established in 1994 with the aim of mobilizing and empowering urban poor women, and supporting their access to adequate housing. In a journey spanning 25 years, MHT has changed the lives of over 1.7 million individuals, reaching more than 330,000 households and skilling over 17,000 women. The City-Makers shares with you the story of this incredible journey – a journey of transformation that has the potential to change the cities in which we live. In the accounts of the courageous individuals who took the steps, individually and collectively, to bring about transformation at the personal and community levels, you will read of the struggles, the solidarity, the successes of women workers in the informal economy to own a house; build it with their own hands; bargain with government and private agencies for access to water, sanitation, affordable energy and land rights; find solutions to make their homes climate resilient; and participate in city-level planning and decision-making processes. Within the success stories of Meena, Munish, Mumtaz, Parul, and many others like them, lies the central message of the Mahila Housing Trust’s mission: that women living in urban informal settlements must be taken along if India wishes to make its cities participatory, inclusive and sustainable. ]]>
