Slum Improvement Committees Meet City Officials in Raipur

Over the past two years, PRIA (in alliance with Chetana Child and Women Welfare Society, Raipur and Shikhar Yuva Manch, Bilaspur) has been intervening in 7 slums of Raipur city and 9 slums of Bilaspur to strengthen civil society voices on urban poverty. Through meetings, focused group discussions and community participation, slum dwellers have been organized into Slum Improvement Committees (SICs) at the slum level. Capacities of SICs have been built through training and orientation about different central as well as state government schemes available for the urban poor. 

SIC members have been motivated to develop rapport and good relations with each other to enable them to share their knowledge and settle problems on their own initiative. Several joint meetings have been held to share information and raise awareness of common problems, and to find collective solutions. The stage came when members of the SICs demanded an interface with other stakeholders in the city planning process so as to share their issues and problems. 
It is in this context that PRIA organized the city consultation on 9 May 2013 at Vrindawan Parisar in Raipur. The consultation brought together representatives of both cities (Raipur and Bilaspur) on a common platform. The consultation was attended by Dr. Kiran Mayi Nayak, Mayor of Raipur, Commissioners of Zone 3 and Zone 4, Mr. Manoj Singh and Mr. D.K. Banswar, and representatives of various civil society organizations working on the issue of urban poverty. The main issues discussed by the slum dwellers in the consultation were the right to tenure, demand for in-situ development (i.e., not to be shifted out) of slums settled on government  land, and including slums settled on railway land into RAY (Rajiv Awas Yojana). 
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