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.
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| 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.
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