I got an e-mail from an organization in India about a problem in Mumbai ... a problem that exists in communities all around the world. Here is the message. My reply follows.
Do suggest solutions to tackle pavement takeovers in MumbaiThis is my reply .. addressing a bit of the issue, but not all of it by a long way.
info@karmayog.org to me
Posted by Namita in www.karmayog.org - a platform for social and civic issues
100 yards from the Anti Corruption Bureau office on P B Marg, right in front of the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound, diagonally opposite the Hard Rock Cafe, a large group of migrant labourers have taken up residence... with plastic sheets, tiles uprooted from the pavement, railings and bamboos pilfered from a nearby worksite, and bits and pieces salvaged from trash heaps. They have even built a makeshift temple very recently out of these scraps where elaborate puja is conducted by the women.
The pavement is completely blocked. So they have spilled out on the road. They have set up cooking fires on the road itself and defecate and bathe openly on the road itself. They also use the road itself to make their wares ... garlands and baskets and trinkets and food items which they sell. The children, specially the very young, crawl directly on the road.
This road has become a very busy thoroughfare recently, due to all the offices in the neighbourhood. But half the road is taken up by the squatters. Pedestrians inch their way down the middle of the road, trying to dodge buses and cars. Young girls working at the BPOs in adjacent offices, run the gamut of walking through crowds of young men lolling around in their underwear, squatting on the road.
At times, violent fights break out between the inmates, spilling out into the opposite lane. At peak hours, huge traffic jams start as the traffic moves forward in a single lane, barely inches away from the cooking fires burning away on the road. And at night, buses and trucks roaring down the ill lit road are in grave danger of running down the barely seen huddles of people sleeping directly on the road.
Apart from being filthy, insanitary, a breeding ground for disease, apart from being a traffic hazard and a safety hazard, apart from being a complete trangression of all BMC and RTO rules, it is unthinkable that human beings are being given permission to live like this on such a busy thoroughfare - and they must be given permission by SOMEONE, because they can't just live like that in open sight, breaking all the rules without someone in authority turning a blind eye.
So who is this someone we need to speak to? Who is there in BMC who can help? Or the POLICE? The local police have obviously been looking the other way and it obviously is worth their inattention. So nothing to be gained by complaining.
Any ideas?
Posted by Namita in www.karmayog.org - a platform for social and civic issues
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Dear Colleagues
This is a great question. Most easy "solutions" are not solutions at all and merely move, hide or destroy the problem. A "top down" view and top down solutions tend not to be very effective.
Why are these migrant labourers settled in this location? Perhaps they see it as the "best" place to be. Why? Is it the potential for work? Is it a better place to be than the alternatives?
In Harlem, New York, some years ago street vendors pretty much took over a big part of Central Harlem. Eventually a local group in cooperation with the city authorities set up a more formal market area where vendors could operate. There was a lot of noise because the location was not as well trafficked and it was a change ... but several years later the new location is itself now part of the Harlem scene and on tour bus routes! The new location was "better" because (1) it solved the problem of informal street vending on the main streets AND (2) it allowed the vendors to maintain a livelihood. It was not an easy thing to implement but it worked better than some people expected.
Your situation is not the same ... but there has to be (1) a better place for migrant workers to live than where they are and (2) there has to be more potential for livelihood than where they are. These are both tough questions for society to address. Rural area to urban area migration has become a huge issue around the world and is not addressed in the normal metrics used by decision makers responsible for financial fund allocation. Money moves to increase profits but rarely moves to improve quality of life, especially the quality of life of people at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). The capital markets do not give any credit to people and organizations that improve quality of life unless they make profit doing it. This is an unsustainable idea.
Again, using New York as an example. Several years ago there was a quality of life problem caused by drug dealing in open spaces around the city and homeless people occupying these places. There has been (1) a massive improvement in the performance of the police in addressing unlawful behavior ... but in a constructive way, and (2) an improvement in the social service intervention to help the homeless and address drug addiction. This has been expensive in terms of both police costs and social service cost but for every resident it has improved quality of life substantially. The value proposition for society has been positive. There has also been a "good economy" for much of this time which helped to diminish one of the root causes.
The challenge of poverty is complex. Better health services and better education help, but it is better opportunity to earn a decent wage that is the big item. Again, the profit market metrics are very good to put some people to work, but leave out a big segment of society. I want to see value metrics in play as well so that NEEDS can be matched with underutilized human capacity to satisfy needs. This model cannot easily be profitable, but this model is value adding for society in an amazing way.
This is already too long ... so let me stop now. This is an important subject.
Peter Burgess
truevaluemetrics.org
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