Posted: 01/11/2006
The settlement of Savda Ghevra is now home to around 7,000 families. The vast majority of them had lived in a well-established slum called Thokar no.8 until it was demolished. The residents were notified less than 24 hours before bulldozers moved in, and officials initially refused to consider finding them alternative accommodation.
After extreme and sustained pressure from Asha, government officials agreed to provide some resettlement land. After living in the area for over two decades and working with Asha for many years to improve their environment and their lives, the residents suddenly needed to start all over again. Many of them would have been even worse off than when they first arrived in Delhi, had they not gained education and skills during their collaboration with Asha.
Savda Ghevra lies on the outskirts of Delhi. The road approaching it is long and dusty, goats graze peacefully in the fields and there are few vehicles around. It's a very different scene to the traffic-clogged streets around the rubble remains of Thokar no.8.
At first glance, the area has many advantages to the cramped and chaotic slum housing that lies closer to the city of Delhi. Numerous toilet blocks are dotted around the site, and new electricity pylons line the main road running through the heart of the settlement. People live in bamboo huts with reasonable space between them, providing more privacy than in most slum environments, and the settlers will soon get permission to build permanent homes using bricks and cement.
The people of Savda Ghevra have coped incredibly well with the drastic relocation. Small shops have appeared, and some of the men push carts loaded with fruit through the lanes. An area close to the centre of the site has been marked out for a school building, and most children are attending a school a few kilometres away in the meantime.
However, the peaceful and airy setting masks some severe difficulties for the new settlers. The area is on the very outskirts of Delhi, 30km from Asha's headquarters. Although buses now travel to the area, many people have lost jobs that they once held near their homes. It's a long trek into the city and the bus fares eat into their already meagre wages.
Even as the first few families moved into Savda Ghevra, Asha put pressure on the authorities to provide electricity to the area, along with water tankers and toilet facilities. These are now in place, although water is still scarce at times. When water tankers arrive, everyone drops what they are doing and rushes to join the mass of people crowding around the tanker to get their precious supplies.
One of Asha's mobile clinic visits the area once a week. The community are aware of the importance of immunisation, contraception and other important aspects of community healthcare thanks to their previous involvement with Asha.
Many of the community's women were experienced Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) or trained birth attendants in their old slum, and enjoyed being part of the Mahila Mandals (women's groups). Now, they still practise health volunteering but do not have access to the same medical supplies and there is no community health centre for them to use as a base, so more work is needed to get the authorities to provide these vital facilities.
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We had been working with Asha to improve our slum for many years, but our homes were destroyed as the government needed the land. Asha helped us to get land allocated somewhere new and now, 4 years later, our area has water supplies, electricity, schools and healthcare.
Parvati, Community Health Volunteer, Savda Ghevra
