BLOG OF A TRIP TO INDIA IN EARLY 2012 BY CHRIS JOHNSON TO RESEARCH THE ROLE OF WOMEN ARCHITECTS IN DRIVING SLUM RENEWAL IN INDIA. THE RESEARCH IS THE RESULT OF A BYERA HADLEY TRAVELING SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE NSW ARCHITECTS REGISTRATION BOARD.

Indian Cities are full of contrasts between ancient traditions and a fast moving future

3 JAN 2012, NEW DELHI, CHETAN VAIDYA

Chetan Vaidya is the Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) based in New Delhi. I have worked with Chetan on two previous books on Indian urbanism and attended a number of conferences with him. He has an important role in overviewing urban planning across India. We discussed the governments programs that relate to slum renewal. These include the Jawal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and specific program on slum rennewal called Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). Chetan outlined a project that NIUA was undertaking to compare a slum renewal project in Bhopal with one that had no renewal and to measure issues like health, income, jobs etc. We discussed this with the project officer involved.

Chetan also outlined the role of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) and its programs. Much of the detailed work on actual projects is delegated to Urban Local Bodies (ULB). Chetan believed that the role of women in slum renewal was improving and that NIUA worked with many women from NGO's and architects and planners. On previous trips to India Chetan had put me in touch with Renu Koshla and Manvita Baradi who I had met previously and would be again as part of my current research.

3 JAN 2012, NEW DELHI LODI TOMBS

In New Delhi I stayed at the delightful Lutyens Bungalow one of the buildings from the early twentieth century work on the new capital. It is like a family home with a pleasant garden. Within a few minutes walk are the superb Lodi tombs from 1440 set within the very green Lodi Gardens. The gardens are filled with early morning and evening walkers and joggers including groups who have loud communal laughing sessions. The tombs are beautiful stone buildings with inlays of coloured tiles. I have often drawn these buildings and did so again on this trip.

4 JAN 2012, NEW DELHI RENU KOSHLA

I met with Renu Koshla, the head of the Centre for Urban and Regional Environments (CURE) in suburban Delhi. I have visited Renu before and had visited some of the projects she is working on. We had a long discussion about the role of women architects and planners and the role of women generally in India. Renu is not an architect but works with architects and planners closely. Her concern is that architects and engineers are trained to work on big projects and not the iterative processes that slum renewal requires.

Renu believes that slum renewal requires a micro design approach and a problem solving process of many small parts. She believes that officials from Municipal Corporations can be patronizing and that they tend to force designs for slum renewal into formal grid like patterns. This is very different to the organic patterns that evolve in slums and villages.

Indian slums represent 18-19% of the Indian population with 40% of Delhi's population living in slums. Renu prefers to improve slums in situ but this is often difficult because of the poor quality of construction and of materials. In the village of Kachhpura in Agra CURE have improved the slums in situ but at Savda Ghevra the Delhi Municipal Corporation had relocated slums to a city edge site and CURE's role was to help improve conditions.

4 JAN 2012, NEW DELHI SAVDA GHEVRA

I visited the slum resettlement town of Savda with some of CURE's staff and saw on the ground how CURE is working to improve conditions and to find work opportunities particularly for women. Savda has a fairly formal layout with narrow straight streets with small (16 or 12 sq m) blocks that houses are built on. The cheapest houses are of a woven matting for walls while the better ones have brick walls rendered. There is no sewer, no toilets in houses although a common block has been built but most people seem to defecate in the open space. There is no fresh water apart from tankers that arrive once a day and distribute drinking water.

It does seem incredible that the Savda settlement is seen as a slum renewal as conditions are clearly substandard. CUREs initiatives include a door-to-door waste collection system, vermi composting of waste, women making fabric bags, water bulbs to give natural light into dark rooms, water supply projects, shared septic tanks and many more. Against the odds the conditions are slowly improving.

Water light

A new group of small two storey houses has recently been completed by CURE who designed these with architecture students from the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture (SPA). These have a good use of space and are setting some new standards.

 

5 JAN 2012, AGRA, KACHHPURA VILLAGE SLUM

I was driven to Agra where I visited CURE's offices in a very confusing Municipal Corporation building and we then went out to the village of Kachhpura which is a slum settlement located across the river from the Taj Mahal. To generate income for the improvement of the village tourist tours are offered where local villagers take groups through the village.

I did this and found it a fascinating tour where monuments appeared in amongst the bustle of the village. I even watched a play performed by local women. Money from these tours is funding a program of toilets being installed and to date 145 have been completed. Students of Architecture from the London Polytechnic come and work in the village each year. The latest CURE project is a Decentralised Water Treatment System (DEWATS) which cleans dirty water running into the village.

CURE is looking at a citywide approach to improving all the slums in Agra. They have found that the wells and tanks installed by the Moghuls can be cleaned up and help with the improvement of the slums.

6 JAN 2012 GWALIOR FORT

After Agra I went to the city of Gwalior and stayed in a converted palace that had beautiful gardens around it. Way above the town is the fort which appeared occasionally through the winter mist. I explored the fort with its temples and palaces surrounded by a wild landscape.

The trip to Gwalior was across flat countryside with lots of camels, peacocks and the occasional vulture.