From anjali0682 at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 17:38:44 2008 From: anjali0682 at gmail.com (mittal anjali) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:08:44 +0100 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban restructuring- Call centres on the periphery and the city Message-ID: <42cc1a520806030508gdc1762em366f3b9da5fb1e07@mail.gmail.com> Hi all I am looking at the spatial restructuring as the result of the Call Centre industry in and around Delhi for my thesis (written thesis) at the master level. I am posting the themes that I have identified based on my research so far for discussion, your comments and suggestions. During my field work I conducted few interviews with the call centre employees residing in various parts of Delhi. The initial objective was to map out the spatial restructuring that these social actors who are directly involved with the information networks and directly interacting with the international clients. So what were resultant local implications of these involvements on their experience of the city and so on. This required further follow up interviews and ethnographic research. Given the limitation of time for the thesis, this would not have been possible. So, as of now the thesis seems to have three parts to it that covers three different scale. (i) the urban network or region- this section will look at the larger urban restructuring at the city level resultant of the growth of the BPO industry but focussing only on call centre and not the entire range, discussions such as the growth of edge cities- Gurgaon and Noida ; the local responses to external and internal forces. (ii) architecture and built environment- the call centre architecture, the malls and the gated communities; (iii) social actors- this are the call centre employees and will be based on their narratives from the interviews. Based on their interviews a pattern of urban networks could be generated- like the range of areas used for shopping, place of work and their local geographies.. (a sketch is attached to give a better idea. It is a preliminary sketch and will complex with further research). anjali -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080603/58e88a95/attachment.html From anjali0682 at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 22:55:37 2008 From: anjali0682 at gmail.com (mittal anjali) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 18:25:37 +0100 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban restructuring- Call centres on the periphery and the city Message-ID: <42cc1a520806031025m5c269c8cn688458c68eae4224@mail.gmail.com> Hi all I am looking at the spatial restructuring as the result of the Call Centre industry in and around Delhi for my thesis (written thesis) at the master level. I am posting the themes that I have identified based on my research so far for discussion, your comments and suggestions. During my field work I conducted few interviews with the call centre employees residing in various parts of Delhi. The initial objective was to map out the spatial restructuring that these social actors who are directly involved with the information networks and directly interacting with the international clients. So what were resultant local implications of these involvements on their experience of the city and so on. This required further follow up interviews and ethnographic research. Given the limitation of time for the thesis, this would not have been possible. So, as of now the thesis seems to have three parts to it that covers three different scale. (i) the urban network or region- this section will look at the larger urban restructuring at the city level resultant of the growth of the BPO industry but focussing only on call centre and not the entire range, discussions such as the growth of edge cities- Gurgaon and Noida ; the local responses to external and internal forces. (ii) architecture and built environment- the call centre architecture, the malls and the gated communities; (iii) social actors- this are the call centre employees and will be based on their narratives from the interviews. Based on their interviews a pattern of urban networks could be generated- like the range of areas used for shopping, place of work and their local geographies.. anjali -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080603/ec3719b5/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Wed Jun 4 07:38:37 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:08:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] from lake to playground to parking lot... Message-ID: <910594.12832.qm@web23005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> As Indian cities rush to equip themselves with ‘world class’ infrastructures, precious public resources are gradually being taken over for exclusive use with little to replace them for local residents. Rohan D’souza reports on the delicate balance of forces on a neighborhood playground in Bangalore which is slated to be turned into an underground parking lot. Akkithimmanahalli playground situated in Richmond Town, Bangalore, is like any other playground one can see in Indian cities or towns. An open maidan, where public access is free and unrestricted and various groups play sports of their choice simultaneously. It is not affiliated to any association/institution. There are many such maidans in Bangalore. That they have somehow survived the current real estate scramble is what is amazing. read the entire post at http://www.7oclocklive.com/?p=20 ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Wed Jun 4 12:53:31 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:23:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban restructuring- Call centres on the periphery andthe city Message-ID: <420031.48445.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Anjali Mittal wrote: >Hi all >I am looking at the spatial restructuring >as the result of the Call Centre >industry in and around Delhi >for my thesis (written thesis) at the >master level. I am posting the themes >that I have identified based >on my research so far for discussion, >your comments and suggestions. Hi Anjali, can you say a little more about which discipline you are writing this thesis in and what is the expected length of the thesis? off the cuff, i am a little puzzled by the three themes you identify-- each of these can turn into a thesis by itself. are you setting these up as a sequence of chapters -- with the first two chapters setting the ground for the third one-- where you really draw on your interview data ? in other words, how are you setting up the links between the different themes ? also it will help to know what kind of broad theoretical frameworks you are working with. best anant ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 19:10:30 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 19:10:30 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Of claimed spaces, messy spaces and property markets Message-ID: It is strange to feel a sense of communion with Bangalore city. In recent times, someone mentioned how he found Bangalore to be a flat city while Bombay was a city thick with stories. Perhaps those stories abound in Bangalore too, but I have isolated myself enough not to recognize them. One such story has been surfacing since the last two days and has gotten me thinking, once again, about space, about accessing the city, about urban land, and about the notions and practices of property. It is indeed strange to feel a sense of communion with this city, this city which has since sometime been labeled as the epitome of fast paced and messy growth. "It is S. M. Krishna's fault," I am told, "He has brought the city to be the way it is today. He sold it to the real estate sharks and to the global land developers." I wonder whether the story of today's Bangalore is as simple as this. It is rhetorical to even make such a statement, but what needs to be stated is the fact that the story of this city is yet to be told, in all its thickness and richness. The story of this city is not all flat; it is the story of our times. I will try a little now ... So, it is absolutely strange to feel a sense of communion with this mad city called Bangalore. The airport has moved to 40 kms away from the city. The traffic is as bad as it could be. The city's drains are already overflowing even with the wee bit of heavy showers. What is becoming of this city? That is the plaint with which civil society movements and organizations started in Bangalore, the city which is overflowing and teeming with the good governance and fight-corruption organizations. But that indeed is a flat paradigm of the city. I am confronted with the question of how do I understand and frame the notion and process of change? Yes, it is indeed strange to feel one with this city, this city that is usually seen as a flat and a doomed-to-fail city. But it is not. It is a city which is at the crossroads of very important trajectories and what defines these trajectories are the contests and conflicts over accessing urban space. I was watching the Majestic area through the windows of the BMTC bus - every nook and corner of Majestic is occupied, legally and illegally. Sometimes, the illegal don't even know that what they are engaging in is deemed illegal by law and planning. Everyone needs access to space - space, both metaphorically and physically. Booksellers on the footpath, pirated VCDs and pornographic material, bags, shoes, clothes, security services, banking services, pawnbrokers, jewellers, restaurants, hotels, malls at the side of the roadside messiness and occupied spaces - in Bombay they call this cheek by jowl. In Bangalore, I would say that the different times of the city co-exist in Majestic area and beyond. Different groups of people and individuals have occupied space, some nook, some corner, some cranny. And there are occupations and professions that exist in this area which are hidden from the eye but very much located in this geography. Majestic reminds me of a different time in the city. Yes, there are plots on which malls are being constructed in Majestic too and in a few years, the malls will be there unless something drastic happens. But what you see in Majestic is the existence of all kinds of time streams - yesterday, today and tomorrow. That yesterday is not disintegrated from today and tomorrow; it is intimately connected. And that yesterday will be shaped by today and tomorrow just as much as today and tomorrow will be shaped by yesterday. The physicality and the mortality of yesterday may disappear, but yesterday itself cannot disappear. Majestic says this to me as I observe the hectic and frenzied pace of urban space in this part of Bangalore. As I move from Majestic into Rajajinagar, I am further surprised. Rajajinagar appears much more insular than the Richmond Town area that I live in. It appears that Rajajinagar is living in a time of its own. Photographs of Dr. Rajkumar, the famous cinestar whose death rocked the city, abound in this area. Rajkumar seems absolutely alive and kicking in the spirit of Rajajinagar. Perhaps, his presence even defines the locality of Rajajinagar and marks this space as distinct from other parts of the city. A strong feeling of Kannadiga-ness envelops you if you walk carefully through the area - the sounds, sights, smells, scenes- they strongly remind you that you are in the state of Karnataka of which Bangalore is an important geographical party and symbolic aspect. A subtle sense of the Kannada nation grips you as you walk preceptively, a feeling that is distinct and particular to this area. Now, with the Bangalore Metro expected to run through this area, one will have to wait and watch to see what processes the notions and practices of modernity, locality, community, urbanity, nation and globalization will generate. Clearly, what has been most interesting about this form of participant observation across the Western parts of the city is the ways by which people have occupied urban space. At Magadi, as we see the hectic and frenetic construction of an underpass, we also simulataneously note that under the trees, there are people who are making and selling bamboo curtains. At Majestic, one notices fruit-cake kind of constructions that were certainly not planned, but created over time, through various networks of politics, graft, deception, illegality, identity and finance. Rajajinagar abounds with spaces that are known in our parlance as "neeche dukan, upar makaan", again a form od practice that planning defies as illegal and that is increasingly coming under scrutiny with the construction of the Metro Rail. These are spaces which are being practiced variously and in ways that may not be recognnized by urban planning and law. They exist and yet, there is a strong feeling that runs through a large number of us that eventually, these spaces may be destroyed, taken over, annihilated and subsumed. Urbanity is being conceived as this process of the big fish eating the small and the small eating the smaller. The question is whether the current stream of urbanization requires much more intense attention to the processes that are taking place, irrespective of outcomes, if we are to nuance our understanding of change, growth, future, 'development'? As I moved into Nagarbhavi, I noticed that virgin properties which were once rocky lands, are now being constructed over. The pace of construction in the area is tremendous. I realized that the potential construction of the Bangalore Metro Rail around Vijaynagar will lead to property prices rising in and around the interiors of West Bangalore. I recognize that this is one of the ways in which property markets develop. The question that arises is whether the growth of property markets, the conversion of multiply claimed spaces into single ownership and title deeds that can be traded between people 'legally', is an irreversible process? Are the trajectories of cities defined? How do we conceive of the future? How does one draw on the past to understand and conceive the future? I begin with these questions and many more ... It is absolutely strange, yet wonderful, to feel a sense of communion with the city. It is an enabler, one that allows you to see the city as an organic entity that has life and is not a determined/controlled mass of space ... -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080606/5d720533/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Jun 7 07:16:28 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 18:46:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] morning walker Message-ID: <1797.59764.qm@web23002.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Speaking of cities and stories... "Morning walker" All this talk about environment and pedestrian rights over the past couple of weeks prompted me to pull out an old folder that I have not looked at in a long time. It contains a letter from my mother and an article by Amita Baviskar, that I thought at that time was somehow related to my mother’s letter. My mother wrote the letter a couple of years before her cancer turned terminal. At that time the letter made me laugh. She said,... read on at http://www.7oclocklive.com ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From elkamath at yahoo.com Sun Jun 8 17:29:27 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 04:59:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] FW: the failed harvest of food policy by Aseem Shrivastava Message-ID: <535128.32519.qm@web53609.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI The failed harvest of food policy Any way you cut it, the food crisis in Southasia and around the world is bordering on the critical. And the culpability extends all the way from the Chicago Board of Trade to the power corridors of New Delhi, as organised greed takes control of our lives and diets. By : Aseem Shrivastava http://www.himalmag.com/2008/june/cover_food_policy.htm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080608/cd79d486/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Mon Jun 9 07:56:11 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 19:26:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Gurgaon's gated community (via NYT) Message-ID: <498999.53692.qm@web23001.mail.ird.yahoo.com> The New York Times June 9, 2008 Inside Gate, India's Good Life; Outside, the Servants' Slums By SOMINI SENGUPTA GURGAON, India — When the scorch of summer hit this north Indian boomtown, and the municipal water supply worked only a few hours each day, inside a high-rise tower called Hamilton Court, Jaya Chand could turn on her kitchen tap around the clock, and water would gush out. The same was true when the electricity went out in the city, which it did on average for 12 hours a day, something that once prompted residents elsewhere in Gurgaon to storm the local power office. All the while, the Chands' flat screen television glowed, the air-conditioners hummed and the elevators cruised up and down Hamilton Court's 25 floors. Hamilton Court — complete with a private school within its gates, groomed lawns and security guards — is just one of the exclusive gated communities that have blossomed across India in recent years. At least for the newly moneyed upper middle class, they offer at high prices what the government cannot, at least not to the liking of their residents. These enclaves have emerged on the outskirts of prospering, overburdened cities, from this frontier town next to the capital to the edges of seam-splitting Bangalore. They allow their residents to buy their way out of the hardships that afflict vast multitudes in this country of more than one billion. And they reflect the desires of India's small but growing ranks of wealthy professionals, giving them Western amenities along with Indian indulgences: an army of maids and chauffeurs live in a vast shantytown across the street. "A kind of self-contained island" is how Mrs. Chand's husband, Ashish, describes Hamilton Court. India has always had its upper classes, as well as legions of the world's very poor. But today a landscape dotted with Hamilton Courts, pressed up against the slums that serve them, has underscored more than ever the stark gulf between those worlds, raising uncomfortable questions for a democratically elected government about whether India can enable all its citizens to scale the golden ladders of the new economy. "Things have gotten better for the lucky class," Mrs. Chand, 36, said one day, as she fixed lunch in full view of Chakkarpur, the shantytown where one of her two maids, Shefali Das, lives. "Otherwise, it is still a fight." When the power goes out, the lights of Hamilton Court bathe Chakkarpur in a dusky glow. Under the open sky, across the street from the tower, Mrs. Das's sons take cold bucket baths each day. The slum is as much a product of the new India as Hamilton Court, the opportunities of this new city drawing hundreds of thousands from the hungry hinterlands. In China, the main Asian competitor to which India is often compared, the state managed early on to harness economic expansion for huge public works projects and then allow more and more Chinese to partake of the benefits. There, the poor are far less likely to be deprived of basic services, whether clean water or basic schooling. In India, poverty has also dropped appreciably in the last 17 years of economic change, even as the gulf between the rich and poor has grown. More than a quarter of all Indians still live below the official poverty line (subsisting on roughly $1 a day); one in four city dwellers live on less than 50 cents a day; and nearly half of all Indian children are clinically malnourished. At the same time, the ranks of dollar millionaires have swelled to 100,000, and the Indian middle class, though notoriously hard to define and still small, has by all indications expanded. For those with the right skills, the good times have been very good. Mr. Chand, 34, a business school graduate who runs the regional operations for an American manufacturing firm, has seen his salary grow eightfold in the last five years, which is not unusual for upper class Indians like him. The Chands are typical of Hamilton Court residents: Well-traveled young professionals, some returnees to India after years abroad, grateful for the conveniences. Some of them are also the first in their families to live so comfortably. Mr. Chand attended an elite but government-financed school. His father was in the military. Mrs. Chand's father was a civil servant; her mother, a teacher. Some of their expenses, Mr. Chand said, their elders consider lavish. Gurgaon, a largely privately developed city and a metonym for Indian ambition, has seen a building frenzy to satisfy people like the Chands. The city's population has nearly doubled in the last six years, to 1.5 million. The skyline is dotted with scaffolds. Glass towers house companies like American Express and Accenture. Not far from Hamilton Court, Burberry and BMW have set up shop. State services, meanwhile, have barely kept pace. The city has neither enough water nor electricity for the population. There is no sewage treatment plant yet; construction is scheduled to begin this year. India has long lived with such inequities, and though a Maoist rebellion is building in the countryside, the nation has for the most part skirted social upheaval through a critical safety valve: giving the poor their chance to vent at the ballot box. Indeed, four years ago, voters threw out the incumbent government, with its "India Shining" slogan, because it was perceived to have neglected the poor. It is little wonder then that the current administration has seized on "inclusive growth" as its mantra, and as elections approach in less than a year, it is spending heavily on education, widely acknowledged as a key barrier to upward mobility for the poor. That the bottom of the pyramid votes became obvious to the Chands when they last went to the polls. "I didn't see too many people like us," Mr. Chand recalled. Hamilton Court, meanwhile, is rarely courted at election time. Inside its gates, the Chands have everything they might need: the coveted Sri Ram School, a private health clinic and clubhouse next door, security guards to keep out unwanted strangers and well-groomed lawns and paths for power walks and cricket games. "Women and children are not encouraged to go outside," said Madan Mohan Bhalla, president of the Hamilton Court Resident Welfare Association. "If they want to have a walk, they can walk inside. It's a different world outside the gate." For the Chands, the school was one of the building's main draws. They bought their apartment just after the birth of their eldest, Aditya, who is now in first grade. Next year, they hope to enroll their youngest, Madhav. The school recently hosted a classical music concert. The business school guru C.K. Prahalad gave a lecture the following week. Mr. Chand called Hamilton Court a community of "like-minded people." Some 600 domestic staff members work at Hamilton Court, an average of 2.26 per apartment. The building employs its own plumbers and electricians. At any one time, 22 security guards and 32 surveillance cameras are at work. "We can't rely on the police," Mr. Bhalla said. Gurgaon has one policeman for every 1,000 residents — lower than the national average — and a surfeit of what Mr. Bhalla calls official apathy. "We have to save ourselves," he said. The guards at the gate are instructed not to let nannies take children outside, and men delivering pizza or okra are allowed in only with permission. Once, Mr. Bhalla recalled proudly, a servant caught spitting on the lawn was beaten up by the building staff. Recently, Mr. Bhalla's association cut a path from the main gate to the private club next door, so residents no longer have to share the public sidewalk with servants and the occasional cow. The Gurgaon police chief, Mohinder Lal, said the city's new residents had unrealistic expectations of the Indian police. If a police officer does not arrive quickly, Mr. Lal rued, the residents complain. "They say, 'You're late. Come back tomorrow.' " He, too, said that the police could not cope with the disorder of Gurgaon's growth. "Development comes, mess comes, then police come and infrastructure," he said. Gurgaon's security guards, most of whom live in Mrs. Das's slum, likewise have little love for law enforcement. They accuse the police of raiding their shanty, hauling men to the local stations and forcing them to clean and cook before releasing them back to their hovels, often without a single charge. The police say migrant workers are a source of crime. One afternoon, Mrs. Das returned from her duties at Hamilton Court, cleaned up the lunch plates that her sons had left on the floor and took her plastic water jugs to stand in line under the acacia tree, only to discover that there was a power failure, which meant the water pump could not be turned on. Next to the water line, workers were ironing a pile of orange janitors' uniforms from a neighborhood mall; the laundry service is one of Chakkarpur's many thriving private enterprises. Mrs. Das already had two of her sons in a charity-run school nearby, but much to her shame, she missed the registration deadline for her youngest, now 6, who will now be a year behind his peers. Her biggest regret is being unable to check her sons' homework. Mrs. Das has worked in other people's homes since she was 7. She cannot read. "If they are educated," she said of her boys, "at least they can do something when they grow up." Next door to Mrs. Das's brick-and-tin room, a 2-year-old lay on a cot outside, flies dancing on his face. His mother, Sunita, 18, said the child had not been immunized because she had no idea where to take him, and no public health workers had come, as they are supposed to. The baby is weak, Sunita reckoned, because she cannot produce breast milk. During repeated visits in recent months, a government-financed childhood nutrition center was closed. The nearest government hospital was empty. Mrs. Chand, a doctor who decided to stay home to raise her children, trained in a government hospital. Her other maid told her recently that her own daughter had given birth at home, down there in the slum. Sometimes, Mrs. Chand said, she thinks of opening a clinic there. But she also said she understood that there was little that she, or anyone, could do. "Two worlds," she observed, "just across the street." ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon Jun 9 13:43:27 2008 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:43:27 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mobile Videos: a discussion Message-ID: <829391B9-9090-4805-B882-6C300594A40B@sarai.net> Dear All, Below are the transcripts from the discussion on videos shot by mobile phones. The link to the mobile video Mobile Sketches Memory Card 01 is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnSth4cxOY best Jeebesh --------------------------------- Extracts from a discussion on Mobile Videos Cybermohalla Ensemble June 2008 Suraj Rai: A mobile phone... It's in our pockets. We just take it with us to the fair, take it with us to the play, take it with us when going from one place to the other, carry it with us on the way. Kiran Verma: Often, while looking out of the window of a bus, I used to wonder... if I were to pause and think, what would I think about the outside? I made a mobile video of the view from the window of the bus. And then when I saw it later, I realised, while music played and people chatted, and there was a restlessness in the bus, people on the road were very quiet and completely solitary. Jaanu Nagar Just day before yesterday, in the evening, it was raining heavily. It is said a downpour can ruin many things. But when I stood and watched, it seemed to me everything was becoming more resplendent. I found this attractive. Everything looked so different from usual. Descriptions of rain are usually about how people run for shelter, leave what they are doing, But what I was seeing was something different. I thought a photo may not capture this difference. I wanted to see if I could make a video resonate with what I was thinking. I looked through the screen and started recording. Someone held an umbrella, another had covered himself with a plastic sheet. Someone was returning from work, a scarf thrown over his head. People were not running around. Some were buying vegetables for home. And there was a chowmein stall - It was open to the sky. The man was busy frying chowmien in the pan. I thought a photograph would not have helped me capture this style, the special music... Along with the raindrops was the sound "chhan-chhan-chhan", as the stirrer moved in the pan, while everyone stood around under their umbrellas, waiting to eat. Tripan Kumar - That day my parents, my sisters and cousins - they all started dancing together, spontaneously. I had never seen them like this before. I mean, it wasn't any special occasion... We just happened to be in a room together, and everyone started dancing. The young and the old, all danced together. For no special reason. I'd never seen such a burst of joy, expressed in this way, inside a room, before. I was surprised. And I wanted to keep with myself this memory of having been surprised. Nasreen - It could be something banal. But was I attracted by it? If it attracted me, then it was significant enough to be shot. It's possible it remained banal for someone else. But if it seemed important to me, then, yes, it was something worthy of being looked at. Love Anand - For instance, I'd often look out of my window at the shadows cast by clothes put out to dry. These shadows would hover over the entire lane, and create a very special ambience. Shadows would glide over people's faces, knock against things. I'd always try to search a language to think, to describe this environment of shadows. Babli Rai - To make a mobile video, one doesn't need to go out in search of a "special" event or occasion. Mobile videos draw from the simplest moments of our lives. In that sense, the mobile phone camera makes one look for the special within the ordinary. A woman may wear make-up everyday. But to make a mobile video of this simple thing, makes her, her make-up and the ordinariness of that moment, special. Lakhmi Chand - One immediately thinks of a mobile video as being something personal. But mobile phone conversations, sms, photos, videos, ring tone etc have a velocity in everyday life - they get their life from being in circulation. That is why, even though mobile phones have very small screens, the staggered circulation of its images stretches their lived beyond the first moment in which they were taken. Love Anand - In the two years that we have been making mobile videos, it seems to me that all of us have deepened out ways of looking through the act of looking around us, everyday. In writing, we think about what we have seen and how to write it. But in making mobile videos, the view before us unravels itself frame by frame. There is a relation between the practice of writing and the practice of making mobile videos. One requires inner stillness, and the other requires us to still our surroundings. I think with a mobile video, we try to find a stillness amidst the speed around us. We try to find a moment of stillness in the world. Yashoda Singh And in writing? Love Anand - In writing... In writing it is as if we are inhabiting a stillness and trying to write it. By making a mobile video, we still that which is speeding, so we may think from within it. Yashoda Singh - So a mobile video makes us go deeper into something than writing does...? Love Anand - No, I'm not saying that. I can try to understand that which I can see by revisiting it in my mind's eye. But what about that which elides me? A mobile video can help me bring it into my view. So I can be with it. Yashoda Singh - Is it that we see something and immediately know it is interesting, we should make a mobile video of it? Love Anand - No... The question for me is, how do we perceive something that races past us? What can we do to bring it into our field of vision? How can I hold it, even for a moment, while it rushes past me, so I may enter it to think with it? Lakhmi Chand - Mobile phone videos are embedded in networks. This opens up a big playing field. The shrinking and expanding images around us become a player here. As do those minor moments which would not even have been thought of as occasions before. Jaanu Nagar - The world is foggy. When you capture a grain from it, as you may sometimes do with a mobile video, it helps you understand the expanse and the detail. Tripan Kumar - I may have made an image of something that I don't recognise. This image may allow others to address those images which remain unnamed in their lives. Azra Tabassum - A frame is like a hook that gathers that which lies scattered around us. And I join a few of my own hooks to think ahead with the frame. Probably the attempt is that what lies scattered in my life is brought to speech through the movement within the frames. Or maybe I depict the dilations of my eyes and in this I connect the various scattered flickers that are around me. Rakesh Khairalia - In the depiction of things around us, we sometimes see them still, sometimes in movement, and sometimes in turmoil. So this is a way to try to understand how to look. And when this is deepened, we create generative environments. From where does this generative form come into our thinking? This is a question. What is in our imagination that searches the generative both in stillness and in change? Whose mind is this? Where did it come from? Where is it about to go? It is the turmoil of these questions that shapes the way we construct a frame. They are an occasion to think, to rethink what we have thought before, and to plough further. Where can it take us? How deeply are we connected to it? This life, things around us, changes around us, the time in which we live - how are we related to all this? This is how we think with mobile videos. ----------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080609/e852b2ce/attachment-0001.html From maliniranga at gmail.com Mon Jun 9 22:25:05 2008 From: maliniranga at gmail.com (Malini Ranganathan) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 09:55:05 -0700 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Research on Greater Bangalore's water | Need for assistant Message-ID: <45e96de0806090955w4a54cfcav2a713e59cbdfdabf@mail.gmail.com> Hi Urban Studiers, I am in the second phase of my PhD dissertation fieldwork on reforms, politics, and citizenship claims around water in peri-urban Bangalore. One case I have been exploring in depth is the Greater Bangalore Water and Sanitation Project (GBWASP), a project orchestrated by three international financial institutions that involves considerable financial participation by citizens. Last year, I worked with a very reliable field assistant who was fluent in Kannada and Tamil to interview residents, ex-elected representatives, RWAs, and administrators, and translate written material from Kannada to English. Unfortunately, my research assistant is not very well and won't be able to accompany me on my second phase of research. If you know anyone who might be interested in this type of work (pay negotiable) and could help me quite intensively during the period June-August 2008, I would very much appreciate any leads. Some of the tasks include: - Visits to the new Bruhath Bengaluuru zonal office in Bommanahalli, my chief field site, to collect recent data on water payments - Follow-up interviews with residents and RWAs who largely occupy tenuously legal "revenue layouts" in order to understand reasons for resistance, re-negotiation of the terms, and ultimately, participation in this project - Interviews with the recently elected MP/MLA for the region - Interviews with engineer staff at the Bangalore water board, non-participant observation at the zonal offices of BBMP, and attendance at community-level meetings THANK YOU! Malini Ranganathan PhD Candidate, Energy and Resources Group University of California at Berkeley Cell in Bangalore: 99009 91058 From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Tue Jun 10 10:03:44 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 21:33:44 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] what the Hyd cab strike revealed Message-ID: <630768.9816.qm@web23012.mail.ird.yahoo.com> “What is the IT and BPO industry’s obligation to the city whose public infrastructure is the single largest free ingredient of its own success ? ” read the draft article at http://www.7oclocklive.com ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From elkamath at yahoo.com Fri Jun 13 23:33:16 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:03:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Mckinley on Joburg water privatization Message-ID: <395324.74166.qm@web53610.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI WATER STRUGGLES FROM JOHANNESBURG AND BEYOND Dale T. McKinley* May 2008 (*Activist with the Anti-Privatisation Forum & Coalition Against Water Privatisation and independent writer, researcher & lecturer) It's been five years since residents of the poor community of Phiri (Soweto) were first confronted with the practical consequences of the City of Johannesburg's corporatisation and commodification (read: privatisation) of water delivery. That was when Phiri was chosen as the first community in the Johannesburg Metro to 'benefit' from the implementation of its Operation Gcin'amanzi. What subsequently happened has now been well documented many times over: the surreptitious and forcible installation of pre-paid water meters under the pretext of fixing ageing infrastructure; the victimisation and cutting-off of supply to those who refused; and, sustained resistance pitting community residents – organised through the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and the newly formed Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) - against an 'unholy alliance' of Johannesburg Water, the City of Johannesburg, state prosecutors, the SA Police Services and private security firms. Given such an overwhelmingly uneven contest of power/resources, the resistance forces were never going to halt Operation Gcin'amanzi (the first of its kind in post-apartheid South Africa) in its tracks and gain an outright victory in their struggle for accessible/sufficient free water and human dignity. Those on the left who at the time (and have since) argued for continuous physical resistance were (are) not the ones on the receiving end of what was arguably the most sustained, sophisticated, resourced and vicious attack by combined state-corporate forces on one poor community since 1994. Many Phiri residents paid an enormous personal price for physically resisting and standing up for their rights and dignity. Besides helping to re-invigorate the tactic of re-appropriation of a public resource turned into a privatised commodity (through destroying and/or by-passing pre-paid water meters), the battle of Phiri marked another new watershed in post-1994 water struggles. It served to not only further focus South African and international (critical) attention on the practical character and consequence of the ANC government's neo-liberal (water) policy onslaught, but also opened the door to testing the stated water service delivery commitments of relevant state policies/ legislation and South Africa's Constitution. For left/anti-capitalist activists, it is never an easy thing to adopt tactics that do not appear to fit into pre-configured, historically-located understandings and approaches to such struggle (although it deserves mention that this does not, historically, apply in equal measure to those whom such activists claim to represent/struggle with). And so, it was in 2005-2006, with a great deal of trepidation and initial half-heartedness, that the APF and CAWP (with the assistance first, of the Freedom of Expression Institute and subsequently, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies) entered into the institutional-legal terrain of class struggle, assisting five, representative, Phiri residents to prepare and file a case in the Johannesburg High Court challenging the legality and constitutionality of Operation Gcin'amanzi's limitation of the free-basic supply of water and the installation of pre-paid water meters. The case was seen as a tactic, part of a larger, long-term strategy seeking to use all means available to ensure that water itself is seen and treated as a public resource, that water service providers remain publicly owned, managed and run and that water service delivery provides adequate, accessible and quality water to all through an in-built redistributive framework. An excerpt from the founding affidavit of one of the applicants, Lindiwe Mazibuko, reveals the dire material and human situation that is the lot of so many Phiri residents and which is also representative of millions of other poor households across the country: "Of the 20 people who are part of our household, one is a pensioner, 3 are small babies and six go to school. I suffer from arthritis and high blood pressure. My mother suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and has a history of cardiac arrest. My sister … suffers from a stroke. She moved in with us with her four children for us to take care of them. My mother is retired and receives a pension grant of R820 per month. The rest of us are unemployed." Other applicants tell the story of what it has meant to live without adequate and accessible amounts of the most basic of all needs in life - water – simply because they are poor. Jennifer Makoatsane describes the burden of washing nappies for her new-born baby, of trying to clean her father's gangrenous foot and of running out of water during the funeral for her father. Sophia Malekutu reveals the immense technical difficulties she has had with the pre-paid water meter, paying various monies to get it fixed without receiving water. And, Vusimuzi Paki relates the tragic experience of how, when a backyard shack on his property burnt down, he was unable to put out the fire because the water ran out (from the pre-paid meter). As a result, two young children – two-year old Katleho Tamane and nine-year old Dimpho Tamane – burnt to death inside the shack. Such have been the 'benefits' of Operation Gcin'amanzi and its cynical propaganda of 'water conservation' for the benefit of 'the people'. The case was filed in July 2006 and eventually heard – over three days – before Johannesburg High Court Judge M.P. Tsoka, in early December 2007. Over four months later, on 30th April 2008, in a historic and ground-breaking judgement, Judge Tsoka declared that the City of Johannesburg's forcible installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri is both unlawful and unconstitutional. The Judge ordered that the limitation of free basic water to the present 6 kilolitres per household per month, be set aside and that the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water must supply Phiri residents with 50 litres per person per day. Furthermore, the court declared that the choice given to residents of either a prepaid meter or a standpipe for water provision in Phiri is also unlawful and directed the City to provide residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. The City of Johannesburg was also ordered to bear all the legal costs of the applicants since 2006. The judgement ranks as one of post-apartheid South Africa's most important legal victories for poor communities and all those who have been struggling against unilateral and profit-driven neo-liberal basic service policies. As CALS stated soon after the judgement, this is the first time, "in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised". Judge Tsoka however, went beyond the legal points, recognising the racial, class, administrative and gender-based discrimination underlying the City of Johannesburg's water policy. The Judge explicitly rejected the arguments for restricting the water usage of poor communities: "… to expect the applicants to restrict their water usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes in order to save water is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a dignified lifestyle." The Judge labelled the so-called 'consultation' with the Phiri community as, "more of a publicity stunt than consultation" and criticised the City's "big brother approach". The greatest credit for this extraordinary legal victory must go to the residents of Phiri that resisted the installation of the pre-paid meters, and to all the other residents of poor communities, both in Johannesburg and across the country, who have been fighting for accessible, affordable and sufficient water provision/delivery. While the judgement has already been appealed by the respondents, and will most probably go all the way to the Constitutional Court, this does not detract from the political and social significance of this victory. It is a case which does not only have applicability to South Africa but which, by its very character, enjoins the attention and direct interest of billions of poor people around the world who are suffering under neo-liberally inspired water policies, alongside the governments that are implementing such policies and their corporate allies who seek to turn water into nothing less than another profit-making stock market option. The CAWP and its allies are confident that the High Court judgement will be upheld and that water provision will now no longer be delivered in a discriminatory, patronising and inhumane manner. While legal avenues of redress are inherently slow and the 'justice system' rarely provides any meaningful justice to the poor, it is important to make use of the legal space to expand, advance (and even further clarify) the base struggles on the ground. In the meantime, the struggle against all forms of water privatisation continues. Numerous mass actions (pickets, marches, door-to-door campaigns etc.) have been undertaken over the last year by various community structures allied to the APF and CAWP. In Kliptown, the struggle against the continuation of the bucket system, suspect water quality (attributable to a death by cholera just last week) and lack of infrastructural development has intensified. In the informal shack settlement of Boiketlong (in the Vaal) the community has been on the offensive against an almost complete lack of water and sanitation infrastructure, a struggle that is slowly but surely forcing the municipality to concretely respond. In nearby Sebokeng (Zone 20), residents have begun to mobilise the community and make their demands heard, despite heavy police repression which has already resulted in the death of a community activist last seen in the company of the police. And earlier this year, action by residents of the Kwa-Masiza Hostel, under the banner of CAWP, who had been without water since 2001, succeeded in forcing the water service provider – Metsi A Lekoa – to restore water supplies to the hostel. Outside of Gauteng, the CAWP and APF remain actively involved in organising, mobilising and assisting communities in both water and other basic service struggles in Rammolutsi (Northern Free State), Khutsong (North West) and in and around Queenstown (Eastern Cape). Besides South Africa-specific work and activism, the CAWP has also been central in the formation and ongoing work of the newly formed African Water Network and its activists have participated in numerous regional and international social fora and meetings with allied movements and progressive NGOs. The collective impact of various forms of water privatisation on the majority of South Africans continues to wreak havoc and misery. Occasional cholera outbreaks/deaths persist, inadequate hygiene and 'self-serve' sanitation systems lead to continuous exposure (especially for children) to various preventable diseases and uncontrolled effluent discharges and scarcity of water for food production intensifies environmental pollution and degradation. The human dignity of entire communities continues to be ripped apart, as the right to adequate, accessible free water is sacrificed at the altar of commodified privilege and profit. Yet despite this, the struggles against water privatisation have already achieved advances for the poor and have begun to place increasing socio-political-legal pressure on government. Crucially, these struggles continue to plant the seeds of an alternative, seeds that can be found in the organised ability of poor communities to both politically and physically undermine privatised delivery at the point of 'consumption'. Not only is this an act of self-empowerment at the most basic level of reproductive life, but provides the foundation upon which the majority of South Africans can pursue the demands for policy and structural changes in the ownership, management and distribution of water and other basic services essential to life. (a version was published in the current issue of Amandla magazine) Cross posted from DEBATE -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080613/3ca71b05/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Jun 14 07:36:43 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:06:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Mckinley on Joburg water privatization In-Reply-To: <395324.74166.qm@web53610.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <353804.32960.qm@web23008.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear Lalitha, Thanks for posting this. Dale McKinley has been writing consistently and insightfully about urban politics in South Africa for some years now. here is a review piece http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=106621094325551 I wonder what explains the lack of engagement between Indian urban debates and the south African ones. anant --- lalitha kamath wrote: > FYI > > > > WATER STRUGGLES FROM JOHANNESBURG AND BEYOND > > Dale T. McKinley* > May 2008 > (*Activist with the Anti-Privatisation Forum & > Coalition Against Water Privatisation and > independent writer, researcher & lecturer) From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Jun 14 17:10:35 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:40:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Right to the city videos Message-ID: <813004.93150.qm@web23008.mail.ird.yahoo.com> David Harvey's 2004 talk on the Riht to the city at Lund University is now available online in two parts at http://www.myspace.com/anders_lund_hansen anant From aliak77 at gmail.com Sat Jun 14 21:31:11 2008 From: aliak77 at gmail.com (Kath O'Donnell) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:01:11 +0300 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Mobile Videos: a discussion In-Reply-To: <829391B9-9090-4805-B882-6C300594A40B@sarai.net> References: <829391B9-9090-4805-B882-6C300594A40B@sarai.net> Message-ID: <383607190806140901x43b16772yea929572bd180674@mail.gmail.com> Hi Jeebesh, thanks for posting these. I hope u don't mind but I forwarded to the videoblogging yahoogroups list as there's a few people there interested and creating mobile videoblogs & videos. they loved the work and descriptions and Adrian & Rupert replied with a film from Joris Ivens on Rain from the late 1920s if you're interested. Joris Ivens, "Rain" http://www.ivens.nl/film29-5.htm, 1929, 12 minutes http://ia351416.us.archive.org/1/items/Regen/Regen.mp4 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/message/70866 is the thread - replies are listed at bottom of the page. looking fwd to seeing more. I've enjoyed sarai and cybermohalla projects over the years - it's great to see the video works. cheers kath 2008/6/9 Jeebesh : > Dear All, > > Below are the transcripts from the discussion on videos shot by mobile > phones. > > The link to the mobile video > Mobile Sketches > Memory Card 01 > is > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnSth4cxOY > > best > > Jeebesh > --------------------------------- > > Extracts from a discussion on Mobile Videos > Cybermohalla Ensemble > June 2008 > > Suraj Rai: > A mobile phone... It's in our pockets. We just take it with us to the fair, > take it with us to the play, take it with us when > going from one place to the other, carry it with us on the way. > > Kiran Verma: > Often, while looking out of the window of a bus, I used to wonder... > if I were to pause and think, what would I think about the outside? > I made a mobile video of the view from the window of the bus. > And then when I saw it later, I realised, > while music played and people chatted, and there was a restlessness in the > bus, > people on the road were very quiet and completely solitary. > > Jaanu Nagar > Just day before yesterday, in the evening, it was raining heavily. > It is said a downpour can ruin many things. But when I stood and watched, > it seemed to me everything was becoming more resplendent. > I found this attractive. Everything looked so different from usual. > Descriptions of rain are usually about how people run for shelter, leave > what they are doing, > But what I was seeing was something different. I thought a photo may not > capture this difference. > I wanted to see if I could make a video resonate with what I was thinking. > I looked through the screen and started recording. > Someone held an umbrella, another had covered himself with a plastic sheet. > Someone was returning from work, a scarf thrown over his head. > People were not running around. Some were buying vegetables for home. > And there was a chowmein stall - > It was open to the sky. > The man was busy frying chowmien in the pan. I thought a photograph > would not have helped me capture this style, the special music... > Along with the raindrops was the sound "chhan-chhan-chhan", as the stirrer > moved in the pan, while everyone stood around under their umbrellas, waiting > to eat. > > Tripan Kumar - > That day my parents, my sisters and cousins - they all started dancing > together, spontaneously. > I had never seen them like this before. I mean, it wasn't any special > occasion... > We just happened to be in a room together, and everyone started dancing. The > young and > the old, all danced together. For no special reason. I'd never seen such a > burst > of joy, expressed in this way, inside a room, before. I was surprised. > And I wanted to keep with myself this memory of having been surprised. > > Nasreen - > It could be something banal. But was I attracted by it? If it attracted me, > then it was > significant enough to be shot. It's possible it remained banal for someone > else. > But if it seemed important to me, then, yes, it was something worthy of > being looked at. > > Love Anand - > For instance, I'd often look out of my window at the shadows cast by clothes > put out to dry. > These shadows would hover over the entire lane, and create a very special > ambience. > Shadows would glide over people's faces, knock against things. > I'd always try to search a language to think, to describe this environment > of shadows. > > Babli Rai - > To make a mobile video, one doesn't need to go out in search of a "special" > event or occasion. Mobile videos draw from the simplest moments of our > lives. > In that sense, the mobile phone camera makes one look for the special within > the ordinary. > A woman may wear make-up everyday. But to make a mobile video of this simple > thing, > makes her, her make-up and the ordinariness of that moment, special. > > Lakhmi Chand - > One immediately thinks of a mobile video as being something personal. > But mobile phone conversations, sms, photos, videos, ring tone etc > have a velocity in everyday life - they get their life from being in > circulation. > That is why, even though mobile phones have very small screens, > the staggered circulation of its images stretches their lived beyond the > first moment > in which they were taken. > > Love Anand - In the two years that we have been making mobile videos, it > seems to me that > all of us have deepened out ways of looking through the act of looking > around us, everyday. > In writing, we think about what we have seen and how to write it. > But in making mobile videos, the view before us unravels itself frame by > frame. > There is a relation between the practice of writing and the practice of > making mobile videos. > One requires inner stillness, and the other requires us to still our > surroundings. > I think with a mobile video, we try to find a stillness amidst the speed > around us. > We try to find a moment of stillness in the world. > > Yashoda Singh > And in writing? > > Love Anand - > In writing... In writing it is as if we are inhabiting a stillness and > trying to write it. > By making a mobile video, we still that which is speeding, so we may think > from within it. > > Yashoda Singh - > So a mobile video makes us go deeper > into something than writing does...? > > Love Anand - > No, I'm not saying that. > I can try to understand that which I can see > by revisiting it in my mind's eye. > But what about that which elides me? > A mobile video can help me bring it into my view. So I can be with it. > > Yashoda Singh - > Is it that we see something and immediately know it is interesting, > we should make a mobile video of it? > > Love Anand - > No... The question for me is, how do we perceive > something that races past us? > What can we do to bring it into our field of vision? > How can I hold it, even for a moment, > while it rushes past me, > so I may enter it to think with it? > > Lakhmi Chand - > Mobile phone videos are embedded in networks. > This opens up a big playing field. > The shrinking and expanding images around us > become a player here. > As do those minor moments which would not even have > been thought of as occasions before. > > Jaanu Nagar - > The world is foggy. > When you capture a grain from it, > as you may sometimes do with a mobile video, > it helps you understand > the expanse and the detail. > > Tripan Kumar - I may have made an image of something > that I don't recognise. > This image may allow others > to address those images which remain unnamed in their lives. > > Azra Tabassum - > A frame is like a hook that gathers that > which lies scattered around us. > And I join a few of my own hooks > to think ahead with the frame. > Probably the attempt is that what lies scattered in my life > is brought to speech through the movement within the frames. > Or maybe I depict the dilations of my eyes and in this > I connect the various scattered flickers that are around me. > > Rakesh Khairalia - In the depiction of things around us, we sometimes see > them still, > sometimes in movement, and sometimes in turmoil. > So this is a way to try to understand how to look. > And when this is deepened, we create generative environments. > From where does this generative form come > into our thinking? This is a question. > What is in our imagination that searches the generative > both in stillness and in change? > Whose mind is this? Where did it come from? > Where is it about to go? > It is the turmoil of these questions > that shapes the way we construct a frame. > They are an occasion to think, to rethink what we have > thought before, and to plough further. > Where can it take us? > How deeply are we connected to it? > This life, things around us, changes around us, > the time in which we live - how are we related to all this? > This is how we think with mobile videos. > > ----------- > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -- http://www.aliak.com From divyarrs at gmail.com Mon Jun 16 17:34:17 2008 From: divyarrs at gmail.com (divya r) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:34:17 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Representation to the PCCF-against privatisation of lakes in Blore Message-ID: <250ac9ab0806160504i17803166s7e3f02738d9f0acd@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, As you must be aware, the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka has directed the Forest Department to submit a report on the status of lakes in Bangalore. Attached below is a representation to the PCCF (principal chief conservator of forests) urging him not to support the privatization of lakes. Kindly endorse the same on http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/blorelakes/ Your complete details - Name, address and email id is required. Please fill in all the details, else it cannot be used in the court. Feel free to forward this to others. This petition will be available for endorsement only till tomorrow evening. Regards Divya 16th June 08 To: Dr. Dilip Kumar, IFS Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Karnataka State Forest Department Aranya Bhavan Bangalore – 560003 Dear Sir, We are aware that the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka has directed you to file a status report with regard to status of lakes in Bangalore that are being privatised. The undersigned wish to express their deepest concern over the ongoing efforts of the Government of Karnataka through the agency of the Lake Development Authority (LDA) to privatise lakes in Bangalore, and hand them over to private profit making bodies. Already four prime water bodies - Agara Lake, Hebbal Lake, Vengaiah Kere and Nagawara Lakes have been already been leased out by LDA. As per the lease agreements signed between the LDA and the private entities, these lakes have been handed over on lease of 15 years, subsequently extendable, ostensibly for development of the lakes. Such development involves introduction of restaurants, kiosks, boating, water sports, jetty etc, as it has already been seen in the case of the Nagawara Lake by Lumbini Gardens Pvt Ltd, and by M/s Par – C Systems in the case of Vengaih Kere. We are deeply distressed by this development as we find this unethical and counter to the objective of environment conservation and maintenance of lakes as our public commons. The kind of activities that have been allowed distance visitors from nature, and feed into a consumerist culture that we could well do without. Incidentally, these lakes were comprehensively de-silted, restored and rehabilitated by grants from the Norwegian Government under the Indo-Norwegian Project and the National Lake Conservation Programme of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. As a result these lakes are fantastic water bodies and excellent habitats for birds - both migrating and local. In addition they support a wide diversity of flora and fauna, and support the livelihoods of tens of fishing families. Over time, these lakes have been intensively used by all local residents and the general public for various purposes. While Agara is being used for walking, jogging and recreational purposes, Hebbal Lake has been used for customary and traditional occupations like fishing, grazing and irrigation. In addition, birdwatchers have been visiting these wetland habitats regularly documenting the excellent diversity of migratroy waterfowl. All these lakes, and Hebbal in particular, have been the subject of numerous scholars and researchers studying wetlands, birds, aquatic life and so on. Hebbal Lake has infact been repeatedly proposed for conservation as a bird refuge, and its watershed as a Regional Park (per the Lakshman Rau Committee Report – 1988). These water bodies are also critical open spaces for children of surrounding neighbourhoods whose sensibilities towards nature and its dynamics are also awakened by the easy access to such open spaces. We sincerely believe that it is an unnecessary and damaging investment to now lease out these very lakes for advancing commercial interests. Besides being illegal this will take away our public commons and our natural heritage and will only benefit a few commercial entities. This loss will be dear and felt by present and future generations. Keeping all this in view, we urge you to recommend to the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka that the programme of lake privatisation must be abandoned. We strongly feel that lakes must be maintained as our common heritage, their maintenance undertaken with the cooperation of local communities and no activity inconsistent with the traditional and specific use of the water bodies should be allowed now or in the future. As concerned individuals, we are keen to assist the Government of Karnataka and its agencies in any intervention that will ensure the protection and sustenance of our lakes systems. -- "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.... signifying nothing :) " http://captured-on-camera.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080616/8df39927/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Tue Jun 17 08:37:02 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] On the road, without mobile Take 0 Message-ID: <225963.99846.qm@web23011.mail.ird.yahoo.com> A somewhat disorganized post (link below). It is really a very very preliminary attempt to reorganize and reconceptualize my old fieldnotes. I dont yet know where I want to go with this. But I am posting the link here because parts of it may resonate with urban study members and that may lead to new clues! On the road, without mobile Take 0 http://www.7oclocklive.com/ From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Jun 17 10:41:56 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:11:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Web resource for researchers Message-ID: <581899.7286.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> H-ASIA June 16, 2008 A Web resource for researchers ************************************************************************ From: Daniel Niles Here is a site that should be of interest to some on this list: a peer-to-peer cross-disciplinary clearing-house for researchers of all kinds. http://cooperative.ning.com The site will evolve, but it is envisioned as a place where research writers, fieldworkers, local experts, publishers, editors, translators and others can find and help one another. All languages, topics, and research-related requests and offers are appropriate. Once there, for more about the site, see "notes" > "All notes." Daniel Niles National Museum of Ethnology Senri Expo Park, Suita City, Osaka 565-8511, Japan ****************************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080616/7b5b64dd/attachment.html From bharati at chintan-india.org Tue Jun 17 22:26:48 2008 From: bharati at chintan-india.org (Bharati Chaturvedi) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:26:48 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] chintan recruiting for urban work In-Reply-To: <581899.7286.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <581899.7286.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1513.128.220.181.178.1213721808.squirrel@mail.chintan-india.org> Dear All,  Chintan (www.chintan-india.org) is recruiting candidates for the following work related to urban issues, in and around Delhi :  1. Advocacy : To ensure policy makers can't exclude the urban poor. All work with representatives and voice of urban poor. The work includes a great deal of innovative thinking, meeting policy makers, writing and pushing your way through. We expect the candidate will be able to contribute to the advocacy strategy as well while on the job, not merely work. 2 positions. Position 1 : Candidate must be interested, be able to read, speak and write fluent english, as well as follow Hindi. We do not need long years of work expereince, but some work experience will be an asset.  Position 2 : Candidate must be fluent in Hindi-reading, writing and of course, speaking. Shd follow English reasonably well, but flawless writing and speaking not required. The work will include research, creating newsletters and working very actively on the field with waste recyclers, inlcuding offering them training and policy updates. Meeting policy makers and working to help recyclers be heard at diverse fora. We dont look for long years of work, but some work experience will be an asset.  2. Mobilizers and Animators : We are looking for mobilers to work on the ground to help organize the informal sector. Our best mobilers have always been people who are eager to learn, very hard working and willing to spend a lot of time of the field, willing to simply invest in meeting the urban poor.  You will be mentored by a senior mobilizer, but expected to contribute some ideas of your own, once settled in.  If you are not conversant with email or the computer, you will be trained, as this is essential in all chintan work. We do not look for any work expereince but we any work with communities, even voluntary, is an asset.  Interested, email me your CV in Hindi or English. Or post them to 238, sidhartha enclave. New delhi. 110014. do not drop them off..  bharati *************************************** > > > H-ASIA > June 16, 2008 > > A Web resource for researchers > ************************************************************************ > From: Daniel Niles > > Here is a site that should be of interest to some on this list: a > peer-to-peer cross-disciplinary clearing-house for researchers of all > kinds. > > > http://cooperative.ning.com > > > The site will evolve, but it is envisioned as a place where research > writers, fieldworkers, local experts, publishers, editors, translators and > others can find and help one another. All languages, topics, and > research-related requests and offers are appropriate. > > > > Once there, for more about the site, see "notes" > "All notes." > > > Daniel Niles > > National Museum of Ethnology > Senri Expo Park, Suita City, > Osaka 565-8511, Japan > > ****************************************************************** > > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -- Bharati Chaturvedi Director Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group 238 Sidhartha Enclave, New Delhi. 110014. India www.chintan-india.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080617/686f332f/attachment.html From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 06:18:57 2008 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (leo saldanha) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:18:57 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Campaign against lake privatisation Message-ID: <9057132d0806171748s3448966eyf6a24299b299c012@mail.gmail.com> *Date:18/06/2008* *URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061862550400.htm* ------------------------------ Back Karnataka - Bangalore * Campaign against lake privatisation * Divya Gandhi ------------------------------ * Four lakes have been leased out to private parties 300 people have signed up online * ------------------------------ Bangalore: In a new protest against privatisation of lakes in the city, almost 500 residents have signed appeals —online and in person — urging Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dilip Kumar to "abandon" the programme of handing over lakes to private companies to develop them into recreation hubs. The PCCF has been asked to submit a status report on the city's lakes to the High Court later this week, following a public interest litigation petition filed by the Environment Support Group (ESG). Four lakes have been leased out by the Lake Development Authority for development to private parties for 15 years on a develop-operate-transfer basis. Six others will be "adopted" by private developers for five years. The development activity, which involves the introduction of restaurants, kiosks, boating, water sports and jetties "is unethical and counter to the objective of environment conservation and maintenance of lakes as our public commons. In addition, they support a wide diversity of flora and fauna, and support the livelihoods of many fishing families," the online petition, posted by ESG, reads. Three hundred people have signed up at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/blorelakes/index.html. Another 150 signed up for a signature campaign on the same issue. Smitu Kothari, a Delhi-based activist, said he joined the campaign as lakes, being people's commons, should be the responsibility of the State, which has to ensure they are kept accessible. In a bid to save the last among the four lakes leased out to private companies — Lake Agara in Koramangala — over 60 residents of Bangalore signed a similar petition to the PCCF on Sunday, expressing concern at the developmental activities to be initiated by Biota Natural Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. on the lake. * * (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu -- Leo Saldanha Environment Support Group 105, East End B Main Road, Jayanagar 9th Block East, Bangalore 560069. INDIA Telefax: 91-80-26341977/26531339/26534364 Email: leo at esgindia.org or esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org ["We plant trees not for ourselves, but for future generations." - Roman Poet Caecilius Statius] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080618/f0544055/attachment.html From kalpana.naidu at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 11:32:56 2008 From: kalpana.naidu at gmail.com (Kalpana Naidu) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:32:56 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Housing for low income populations Message-ID: I am looking for entrepreneurs or organizations that provide housing solutions to low income populations (eg- slum dwellers). Any suggestions?? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080618/517ba2ae/attachment.html From mainakray at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 12:05:22 2008 From: mainakray at gmail.com (Mainak Ray) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:05:22 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Housing for low income populations In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please look up 1. Development Alternatives, Qutub Institutional Area. 2. Laurie Baker Centre, R.K. Puram, Near Som Vihar. These are some of the organizations that I was aware some 5 years back. Not sure if they are still around. On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Kalpana Naidu wrote: > I am looking for entrepreneurs or organizations that provide housing > solutions to low income populations (eg- slum dwellers). Any suggestions?? > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080618/6fe9befc/attachment-0001.html From divyarrs at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 21:38:49 2008 From: divyarrs at gmail.com (divya r) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:38:49 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Join us in forming a Human Chain around Agara Lake on 22nd June In-Reply-To: <250ac9ab0806180847o21486694o82ddae2ea57e12b7@mail.gmail.com> References: <250ac9ab0806180847o21486694o82ddae2ea57e12b7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <250ac9ab0806180908y2d969f0bt8b62d168a18a89d2@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Join us in forming a Human Chain around the Agara Lake (Kormangala) on 22nd June (Sunday) at 11.00 am. This is part of the campaign, which concerned individuals, organizations, communities have undertaken to protest and stop the on-going privatisation of lakes. Your presence will make a difference to the movement of saving public commons, and especially the conservation of lakes, which we owe to our future generations. Bring along your kids, neighbors and friends. Pls pass this on to as many people as you can. Regards Divya *Brief Note on the issue* The Lake Development Authority plans to 'develop' lakes in Bangalore, by handing it over to private parties. Already, four prime water bodies - Agara Lake, Hebbal Lake, Vengaiah Kere and Nagawara Lakes have been leased out to commerical entities for a period of 15 years. There is deep concern over the ongoing provatisation as such development involves introduction of restaurants, kiosks, boating, water sports, jetty etc, as it has already been seen in the case of the Nagawara Lake by Lumbini Gardens Pvt Ltd, and by M/s Par C Systems in the case of Vengaih Kere. We are deeply distressed by this development as we find this unethical and counter to the objective of environment conservation and maintenance of lakes as our public commons. The kind of activities that have been allowed distance visitors from nature, and feed into a consumerist culture that we could well do without. Incidentally, these lakes were comprehensively de-silted, restored and rehabilitated by grants from the Norwegian Government under the Indo-Norwegian Project and the National Lake Conservation Programme of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. As a result these lakes are fantastic water bodies and excellent habitats for birds - both migrating and local. In addition they support a wide diversity of flora and fauna, and support the livelihoods of tens of fishing families. Over time, these lakes have been intensively used by all local residents and the general public for various purposes. While Agara is being used for walking, jogging and recreational purposes, Hebbal Lake has been used for customary and traditional occupations like fishing, grazing and irrigation. In addition, birdwatchers have been visiting these wetland habitats regularly documenting the excellent diversity of migratroy waterfowl. All these lakes, and Hebbal in particular, have been the subject of numerous scholars and researchers studying wetlands, birds, aquatic life and so on. Hebbal Lake has infact been repeatedly proposed for conservation as a bird refuge, and its watershed as a Regional Park (per the Lakshman Rau Committee Report 1988). These water bodies are also critical open spaces for children of surrounding neighbourhoods whose sensibilities towards nature and its dynamics are also awakened by the easy access to such open spaces. We sincerely believe that it is an unnecessary and damaging investment to now lease out these very lakes for advancing commercial interests. Besides being illegal this will take away our public commons and our natural heritage and will only benefit a few commercial entities. This loss will be dear and felt by present and future generations. Keeping all this in view, we urge the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka-- which is hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Environment Support Group (ESG) against privatisation of lakes-- that the programme of lake privatization must be abandoned. We strongly feel that lakes must be maintained as our common heritage, their maintenance undertaken with the cooperation of local communities and no activity inconsistent with the traditional and specific use of the water bodies should be allowed now or in the future. As concerned individuals, we are keen to assist the Government of Karnataka and its agencies in any intervention that will ensure the protection and sustenance of our lakes systems. Do join us in a symbolic event to be held on 22nd June 2008 at Agara Lake, Kormangala. Through the Human Chain we will symbolically express that we want to preserve and conserve our lakes for the current and the future generations. -- -- "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.... signifying nothing :) " http://captured-on-camera.blogspot.com -- "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.... signifying nothing :) " http://captured-on-camera.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080618/c1b11f84/attachment.html From fred at bytesforall.org Fri Jun 20 00:15:00 2008 From: fred at bytesforall.org (=?UTF-8?Q?Frederick_Noronha?= =?UTF-8?Q?_[=E0=A5=9E=E0=A4=B0?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=87=E0=A4=A6=E0=A4=B0=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=95?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=A8=E0=A5=8B=E0=A4=B0?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8B=E0=A4=A8=E0=A4=AF=E0=A4=BE]?=) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:15:00 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Housing for low income populations In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8ea78e010806191145u1c00464of52258835f3a4d8f@mail.gmail.com> Some of Laurie Baker's books are also available via mail order from otherindiabookstore.com in Goa. Is there any comprehensive critique of the 'slum resettlement' schemes of Mumbai? FN 2008/6/18 Mainak Ray : > Please look up > > > > 1. Development Alternatives, Qutub Institutional Area. > > 2. Laurie Baker Centre, R.K. Puram, Near Som Vihar. > > > > These are some of the organizations that I was aware some 5 years back. Not > sure if they are still around. > > On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Kalpana Naidu > wrote: >> >> I am looking for entrepreneurs or organizations that provide housing >> solutions to low income populations (eg- slum dwellers). Any suggestions?? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Urbanstudygroup mailing list >> Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City >> >> To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit >> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -- Frederick FN Noronha * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org * Phone +91-832-2409490 Cell +91-9970157402 (sometimes out of range) http://www.youtube.com/user/fredericknoronha From mu81169 at hotmail.com Fri Jun 20 02:23:52 2008 From: mu81169 at hotmail.com (Thomas Knoll) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:53:52 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Housing for low income populations Message-ID: Hello all, I've just included two pieces on Housing generally, and a draft I produced on policies affecting space, housing and, yes, slums in Mumbai. It is a cursory overview and has not been updated since 2005. Additionally, I have a copious amount of other material on both of these subjects. Please feel free to contact me for more. Tom Knoll ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:15:00 +0530 > From: fred at bytesforall.org > To: mainakray at gmail.com > CC: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net > Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Housing for low income populations > > Some of Laurie Baker's books are also available via mail order from > otherindiabookstore.com in Goa. > > Is there any comprehensive critique of the 'slum resettlement' schemes > of Mumbai? FN > > 2008/6/18 Mainak Ray : >> Please look up >> >> >> >> 1. Development Alternatives, Qutub Institutional Area. >> >> 2. Laurie Baker Centre, R.K. Puram, Near Som Vihar. >> >> >> >> These are some of the organizations that I was aware some 5 years back. Not >> sure if they are still around. >> >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Kalpana Naidu>> wrote: >>> >>> I am looking for entrepreneurs or organizations that provide housing >>> solutions to low income populations (eg- slum dwellers). Any suggestions?? >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Urbanstudygroup mailing list >>> Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City >>> >>> To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit >>> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Urbanstudygroup mailing list >> Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City >> >> To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit >> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup >> >> > > > > -- > Frederick FN Noronha * Independent Journalist > http://fn.goa-india.org * Phone +91-832-2409490 > Cell +91-9970157402 (sometimes out of range) > http://www.youtube.com/user/fredericknoronha > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup _________________________________________________________________ Introducing Live Search cashback . It's search that pays you back! http://search.live.com/cashback/?&pkw=form=MIJAAF/publ=HMTGL/crea=introsrchcashback -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: UrbanShelterStrategies-Buckley.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 398858 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080619/ee8b0265/attachment-0001.pdf -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Int.HousingSites.doc Type: application/msword Size: 39936 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080619/ee8b0265/attachment-0002.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SPACE AND POLICY IN MUMBAI.doc Type: application/msword Size: 79872 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080619/ee8b0265/attachment-0003.doc From geetanjoy at isec.ac.in Fri Jun 20 13:31:03 2008 From: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in (geetanjoy at isec.ac.in) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:31:03 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Assessment of Judicial Impact Message-ID: <57560.203.200.22.246.1213948863.squirrel@www.isec.ac.in> The Hindu, 20.06.08, J. Venkatesan Attach a financial memorandum to each Bill Set up judicial impact offices in Delhi, States Assess judicial impact of new laws: task force New Delhi: Considering the huge backlog of cases in courts, a Task Force, set up at the instance of the Supreme Court, has recommended that a judicial impact assessment (JIA) be done whenever a law is introduced in Parliament or the State legislatures. Report to Bhardwaj The Task Force, under the chairmanship of Justice M. Jagannadha Rao, former Law Commission Chairman, presented its report to Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj here on Wednesday. The Centre will submit it to the apex court, hearing the Salem Bar Association case in which the Task Force was constituted. Justice Rao said a financial memorandum must be attached to each Bill, giving an estimate of budgetary requirement of not only other staff but also for meeting the expenses of additional cases that might arise out its passage in the legislature. Such a system had been followed in the United States for over two decades. The report said: “The budget must mention the number of cases likely to be generated by the new Act, how many courts and how many judges are necessary. JIA must be made on a scientific basis to assess the extra case-load which any new Bill or legislation may add to the burden of courts, and the expenditure required for adjudication of such cases must be estimated by the government and adequate budgetary provision made therefor.” The task force suggested the setting up of judicial impact offices in Delhi and in States for the assessment by involving social scientists, statisticians and legal experts. Blame for arrears Justice Rao said: “Every Central Ministry that sponsors a Bill should fund the creation of new courts to handle cases that may be filed after it becomes law. There is no point in blaming the judiciary for case arrears, the blame must also lie with other departments that help it.” Over 25 lakh cases were filed after an amendment to Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and no new court was set up to handle the cases. He said “2.5 crore cases are still pending in lower courts despite their disposing of 1.5 crore cases annually. The backlog does not get wiped out because fresh cases, almost equal to the number disposed of, get filed in courts every year.” Number of judges Justice Rao said: “We have 13 judges per million population and we need five times the present strength of about 14,000 judges. The Planning Commission and the Finance Commission must, in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, allocate sufficient funds for judicial administration.” The State governments “must likewise make adequate financial provision for meeting the expenditure of courts, at the stage of the Bills, for implementation of the laws to be made by the legislature with respect to subjects in the State List and the Concurrent List [in the Constitution].” Justice Rao said the credit for taking up the study should go entirely to Law Secretary T.K. Viswanathan following an article written by him in The Hindu in 2002 under the title “Judicial Arrears — Thinking outside the Box.” The other members of the Task Force are Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon, former Director of the National Judicial Academy (NJC), Bhopal; Prof. Mohan Gopal, Director NJC; T.C.A. Anant, Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Social Science Research; and Ramesh Abhishek, Joint Secretary, Department of Justice. From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Jun 20 14:37:18 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:07:18 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] recursive publics/ forms of writing Message-ID: <394110.24753.qm@web56815.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Hi all, re: a discussion Anant and I were having earlier about forms and venues of writing, I thought this discussion on Chris Kelty's blog was short, sweet and provocative. Enjoy. http://recursivepublic.net/2008/06/on-remixing-whats-the-object/#more-6 (This is associated with his new book, part of which draws from fieldwork in Bangalore, available for download (yey!) at http://twobits.net/read/ ) Curt From anokhip at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 15:12:22 2008 From: anokhip at gmail.com (Anokhi Parikh) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:42:22 +0200 Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy Message-ID: Hello, I'm working at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the group that did the litigation for the recent Johannesburg water case. The city of joburg has appealed and the case will almost certainly be heard in the constitutional court in a few months. In a lead up to that case I'm looking for case studies/analyses of water policy around the world. In particular i'm interested in places with very progressive water service delivery to poor communities - including how it is delivered, legislation, tarriffs, attitudes towards disconnections etc. Does anyone have any leads? Thanks, Anokhi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080620/cb656917/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Fri Jun 20 16:49:35 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:19:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <226361.93481.qm@web23002.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Hi Anokhi, Are you serious ? We are all waiting for Phiri to show us the way! Seriously though, I doubt if there are any case studies of progressive water laws that have stabilized anywhere. The little bit of literature that I have seen has all been about how local informal water markets are operating in the gaps and meeting the needs. But may be there is something to pick up from the experience of Guatemala specifically and Latin America generally ? This link may give you some useful leads because one of the non negotiables here is supply of water regardless of ability to pay. so the network may have created archives of case studies. http://www.freshwateraction.net/fan/web/d/doc_191.pdf anant --- Anokhi Parikh wrote: > Hello, > > I'm working at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, > the group that did the > litigation for the recent Johannesburg water case. > The city of joburg has > appealed and the case will almost certainly be heard > in the constitutional > court in a few months. In a lead up to that case I'm > looking for case > studies/analyses of water policy around the world. > In particular i'm > interested in places with very progressive water > service delivery to poor > communities - including how it is delivered, > legislation, tarriffs, > attitudes towards disconnections etc. Does anyone > have any leads? > > Thanks, > Anokhi > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Fri Jun 20 16:50:41 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:20:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <740454.94153.qm@web23001.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Hi Anokhi, Are you serious ? We are all waiting for Phiri to show us the way! Seriously though, I doubt if there are any case studies of progressive water laws that have stabilized anywhere. The little bit of literature that I have seen has all been about how local informal water markets are operating in the gaps and meeting the needs. But may be there is something to pick up from the experience of Guatemala specifically and Latin America generally ? This link may give you some useful leads because one of the non negotiables here is supply of water regardless of ability to pay. so the network may have created archives of case studies. http://www.freshwateraction.net/fan/web/d/doc_191.pdf anant --- Anokhi Parikh wrote: > Hello, > > I'm working at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, > the group that did the > litigation for the recent Johannesburg water case. > The city of joburg has > appealed and the case will almost certainly be heard > in the constitutional > court in a few months. In a lead up to that case I'm > looking for case > studies/analyses of water policy around the world. > In particular i'm > interested in places with very progressive water > service delivery to poor > communities - including how it is delivered, > legislation, tarriffs, > attitudes towards disconnections etc. Does anyone > have any leads? > > Thanks, > Anokhi > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > From anokhip at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 17:46:24 2008 From: anokhip at gmail.com (Anokhi Parikh) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:16:24 +0200 Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy In-Reply-To: <740454.94153.qm@web23001.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <740454.94153.qm@web23001.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: hi anant, it is a little bit crazy, during the high court proceeding, the judge was very interested to know about water policy elsewhere. Joburg water was making the claim that it's incredibly progressive of the state to provide any free water at all, and that pre-paid water meters are the norm in many many countries. I guess the judge didn't care that SA was already doing more than a lot of other countries who were in similar positions, he just wanted to know whether and how there could be an improvement. So, we're now looking at this stuff... tehre are a couple of cases in brazil and bolivia. ireland provides all water for free. other than that i'm still looking... thanks for the link -anokhi On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 1:20 PM, anant m wrote: > Hi Anokhi, > Are you serious ? We are all waiting for Phiri to show > us the way! > Seriously though, I doubt if there are any case > studies of progressive water laws that have stabilized > anywhere. The little bit of literature that I have > seen has all been about how local informal water > markets are operating in the gaps and meeting the > needs. But may be there is something to pick up from > the experience of Guatemala specifically and Latin > America generally ? > This link may give you some useful leads because one > of the non negotiables here is supply of water > regardless of ability to pay. so the network may have > created archives of case studies. > http://www.freshwateraction.net/fan/web/d/doc_191.pdf > anant > > --- Anokhi Parikh wrote: > > > Hello, > > > > I'm working at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, > > the group that did the > > litigation for the recent Johannesburg water case. > > The city of joburg has > > appealed and the case will almost certainly be heard > > in the constitutional > > court in a few months. In a lead up to that case I'm > > looking for case > > studies/analyses of water policy around the world. > > In particular i'm > > interested in places with very progressive water > > service delivery to poor > > communities - including how it is delivered, > > legislation, tarriffs, > > attitudes towards disconnections etc. Does anyone > > have any leads? > > > > Thanks, > > Anokhi > > > _______________________________________________ > > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group > > archives, please visit > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080620/3a9534e9/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Fri Jun 20 20:39:53 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:09:53 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <541646.20526.qm@web23015.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Anokhi, OK, that makes it a little easier. Joburg water lied through its teeth when it said prepaid water meters are the norm in many countries. If you have it in the court records you can nail it. There may be some tiny pockets here and there -- in say the former Soviet Union, and in Africa and in latin america that has not received public attention. I am saying this because there are companies in China that make prepaid water meters - I can see if i can track down who they sell to. But, it is not true that prepaid water meters are the norm anywhere at all. It was introduced in the UK in 1992 targeted at the poor, But disconnections were declared illegal in 1998 through a court order. It came to SA through DFID. Here is George Monbiot who did a series of reports on in 2004 on how the DFID was exporting junk through aid related conditionalities and consultancies http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1330405,00.html#article_continue Ireland did not privatize but the water utility has been facing a funds crunch and has been trying to get the consumers to pay - but an 1893 law that says free water will be provided to all stands in the way and there is a powerful campaign so, they are deferring it from year to year. In India, new water utilities have been created in many cities - still run by the state but outsourcing a lot of the work and much more concerned with balance sheets. But no prepaid meters anywhere. Actually- just last week, it has come to my notice that an American company, and a prestigious corporate social responsibility related NGO have tied up to supply locally sourced water after treatment in some villages on a prepayment basis. Proposals are being drawn up for this - but it is still not prepaid water meters. You just pay every month in advance and you go and collect the water cans daily. In bolivia they introduced prepaid meters in place of communal taps and removed them after the 2000 riots. To my knowledge South Africa is the only country now with prepaid water meters. You may already know this, but just in case -- Bronwen Morgan of Bristol University teaches socio legal studies and has done some interesting work on water rights. Worth contacting her if you havent already done so. http://seis.bris.ac.uk/~lwbmm/ and this compilation of various charters by sierra club can be useful http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/cac/water/human_right/ You must be already checking with TNI Amsterdam and CCS Durban. I will check in a couple of other networks and get back to you if something useful turns up. Best anant --- Anokhi Parikh wrote: > hi anant, > > it is a little bit crazy, during the high court > proceeding, the judge was > very interested to know about water policy > elsewhere. Joburg water was > making the claim that it's incredibly progressive of > the state to provide > any free water at all, and that pre-paid water > meters are the norm in many > many countries. I guess the judge didn't care that > SA was already doing more > than a lot of other countries who were in similar > positions, he just wanted > to know whether and how there could be an > improvement. So, we're now looking > at this stuff... tehre are a couple of cases in > brazil and bolivia. ireland > provides all water for free. other than that i'm > still looking... > > thanks for the link > -anokhi From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Jun 21 13:41:14 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:11:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] water policy Message-ID: <567569.25529.qm@web23006.mail.ird.yahoo.com> First, a bunch of links sent by a friend on possible sources for case studies and documented research on water rights. http://www.righttowater.org.uk/code/Legislation.asp http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/humanright/articles.cfm?ID=8210 http://www.blueplanetproject.net/RightToWater/index.html http://www.globalwaterintel.com/index.php?page=reportSelect The last one is an industry intelligence body -- so their reports are very very expensive. But the rest should be happy to share what they know. Second, here is an email from Lalitha Kamath, who forgot to click reply all. It is a note on water privatization -prepaid meters etc. in Indian cities. --------------------------------------------- Some months ago in Mumbai there was talk of introducing prepaid meters but there was resistance to it from Mumbai Paani- see article below. Interestingly this was happening at abt the same time there was considerable debate about the negatives of prep-paid meters in phiri. I'm not sure of the fate of prepaid meters in Mumbai. Bangalore is the site of the Greater Bangalore Water Supply Project (GBWASP) wh is the first case in India where consumers are actually paying for capital costs of water thro whats known as a beneficiary capital contribution (BCC). After vigorous protests from various groups incl a coalition called the Campaign Against Water Privatization Karnataka, the water board (who runs the proj) waived BCC for households who live in dwelling units of <600 sft. Can give more info on this if its of interest. The Bangalore water board has a system where poor groups receive whats known as a "lifeline supply" wh is cross subsidized by higher tariffs from commercial users. there are serious efforts on currently (from IFIs, consultants, corporates etc) to eliminate the price differential btw commercial and non-commercial users. cheers lalitha WATER IS OUR RIGHT - NOT A PRIVILEGE! SAY NO TO PREPAID WATER METERS Over 1.5 billion people lack ready access to drinking water and a large part of them stay in Mumbai city. Over exploitation, lack of efficient water management and organic or industrial pollution have reduced the availability and weakened the sustainability of this once abundant natural resource, thus furthering the problem. The solution to this being proposed increasingly is that of full cost pricing of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use and its efficient management. Its operation is being done through the agenda of public private partnership. The State has endorsed the further enhancement of this multi trillion dollar global market by enabling private entities to build, operate and maintain our public utility. What it does not realize is that it is the State's imperative that everyone including the poor is given access to this water and thus ensure that their basic fundamental right is in its right place. The vision of liberalization and deregulation of the water sector has been given a concrete feature by the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) - the donors to our government. In the process conditionalities have been forced down which are in the form of privatization of water services and full cost pricing. The rationale being proposed is that both public and private entities should pay for the costs of the water and sanitation services they receive. With this intention, the Government of Maharashtra appointed the French consultants - Castalia - to conduct a feasibility study for privatizing water services in Mumbai. The contract was given to Castalia through a Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) funding which is a section of the World Bank. What started as a pilot project in K-East Ward of Mumbai has now concluded as division of Mumbai into six zones where meters will be set up to measure and dole out water on the basis of how much the consumer can afford. Castalia recently submitted a report of their findings and recommendations at a stakeholder workshop held in Mumbai. The meeting was attended by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) labour union, K-East ward residents, activists, experts in water managements elected representatives and representatives of the World Bank and PPIAF. Here the Additional Commissioner (Projects) MCGM- Mr. Manu Kr. Srivastava stated that they (the MCGM) had no pre conceived notions of any management style for improving water distribution in K-East. However, this was in direct contrast to the idea of public private partnership management model for the water sector reforms as laid down in the Terms of Reference (ToR), thus confirming the idea that Castalia had been appointed by the World Bank purely to initiate a process of privatization of the utility and for setting up the logistics for selection of a private agency for the same. The Castalia report recommends a number of ways to rectify the situation in MCGM's water department, but all of them are in the realm of a public private partnership. It is indeed sad that these recommendations have been given on the basis of insufficient research (not a single site of contamination of water found), unreliable technology (the use of obsolete flow measurement tools), inaccurate methodology and inaccurate logic, resulting in MCGM themselves finding their report unacceptable. The key suggestions made by Castalia to the MCGM have been the following: a.. Water distribution in the ward through a single private operator through outsourcing options and public private partnerships b.. Outsourcing could be done through either Multiple Small Contracts for 1-2 years with Iintegrated Water Loss Reduction Programme (IWLRP) and thus looking after detection and repair leaks, stop of illegal use, creating of pressure zones, metering, bulk meters mains, and laying slum networks. Bill collection, operations, management of ward, customer service and the capital fund would remain with the MCGM. The Single Medium Term Performance Contract given for 6 years in which customer service, IWLRP and slum networks will be outsourced to single firm on integrated performance contract and rest could be managed by the department. c.. The public-private partnership option recommends a Management Contract for 4-6 years in which the private firm will manage the ward while rest of the functions would be with the department OR a Lease for 10-15 years in which the fund capital will be with the department while the rest will be with the Lease Contractor OR the Concession model for a period of 15-30 years in which a private firm will take over operation, maintenance and capital costs on a pre-agreed fee per litre of water delivered. "Sujal Mumbai" has been introduced by the MCGM recently in their hopes to be able to provide water 24x7 to the entire city by 2012. Under this scheme MCGM has proposed the following: a.. Mumbai city's water distribution network will be contracted to the following 6 companies: Neev Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (Zone I), Sky Way Construction (Zone II) comprising the island city. Bharat Constructions (Zone III), Jineshwar Engineering (Civil) Pvt. Ltd (Zone IV), for the western suburbs, Rashmin Construction Co (Zone V) and Jekin Enterprises (Zone VI) for the eastern suburbs. b.. A technical consultant will be appointed by the World Bank on behalf of the MCGM to recommend measures to improve the city's water supply network c.. A special budgetary allocation of Rs. 20 crores annually for 3 years has been suggested d.. These private contractors will look after work related to water distribution, elimination of leakages, replacement and rehabilitation of water mains, laying of new water pipelines, supply and install meters, conduct meter readings, etc. The MCGM will retain the distribution system, customer interface, billing and collection of water charges e.. MCGM will also introduce telescopic rates for consumption of water setting 150 liters of consumption per person per day (150lpd) as the norm. Those who consume more than this will pay more f.. The city will be divided into District Metering Areas (DMAs) of 1000 connections each g.. The slum dwellers living in the particular slums post 1995 only will get water through prepaid water connections Sujal Mumbai hopes to provide water to all under their plans. It intends to do so by bringing in private players under the purview of what is considered the responsibility of our government- the welfare state. It is doing so by treating water as an economic good and as a tradable commodity. The move by the World Bank to conduct a pilot study to supposedly improve water supply in our city has been just plain hogwash. The recommendations discussed above have led to the entry of private companies and that too all construction companies into the encroachment of our fundamental right of free access to water. By setting up prepaid water maters in the slums, the government is only declaring a war on the poor. The MCGM hopes to be able to put into practice the World Bank led theory of full cost pricing thus shifting its own burden on to the customers living in the slums. Until now, the citizens of Mumbai have paid only Rs.3.50 per thousand liters of water- this is a subsidized rate only because it is able to recover its costs through supply of water to commercial enterprises at different rates. World over, wherever water has been provided through prepaid connections an epidemic of cholera and other disease have take place. Natal and Johannesburg in South Africa are glaring examples. The conversion of previously free communal stand posts to prepaid meters has resulted in many households being denied clean water supply due to their inability to afford water. Women and children have to resort to collecting water from polluted sources. If one cannot pay upfront, you are unable to access water at all. Water from prepaid meters typically costs more than water billed from the utility. As a result, those in most need are denied access to water. Prepaid water meters have been used in Brazil, United States of America, Philippines, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Nigeria, Curacao, United Kingdom and China. Developed countries like USA and the UK have discontinued the use of these meters since the 90s due to public health reasons. The UK Water Act of 1998 outlawed the use of any device that cuts off customer's water supply due to insufficient credit on their prepayments cards. The ruling was based on the premise that the provision of water is vital to public health. It is indeed ironic that these are the very countries (USA & UK) that are now pushing the agenda of privatisation of water resources and treating water as a tradable economic good. It is now the turn of Mumbai to suffer the same fate as some of the other countries listed above. Setting up of prepaid meters in the slums will have a number of consequences: a. Force the dweller to decrease their consumption of water and thus use untreated water b. Resorting to untreated water could lead to Strain in relationships between persons and families within communities c. Make difficult trade offs between water, food, medicine, school fees, transport and other essential goods and services WHY SHOULD WE OPPOSE THE SETTING UP OF PREPAID WATER METERS · Prepaid water meters pave the way for privatization The World Bank's constant use of the term cost recovery and private sector participation lays down the conditions in their lending policies. This reduces the already difficult access and affordability of clean water thus promoting the interference of water companies. Prepaid water meters are simply a tool used under private contract in order to secure profits for the shareholders, not the access to water for the users. · Prepaid water meters changes the demand responsive nature of water management With the possibility that one's access to water will get cut off as soon as one cannot pay, the demand for water goes down as people will buy only how much they can really afford. This results in use of untreated water, which has further consequences on the health and hygiene of persons. It also reduces the interface that exists between the government and the consumers of water. The consumers have no mechanism to be able to address their concerns about loss of access to water once they run out of money to be able to pay for it. · Prepaid water meters undermine public health One is forced into making difficult trade offs between water, food, medicine, school fees, transport and other essential goods and services. Hence, all the gains that are supposed to be achieved through access to regular clean water is totally undermined as slum dwellers will have to look for alternative sources of water, which most likely will be polluted · Are Prepaid water meters really cost effective Despite potential management savings prepaid water meters are provided at a higher rate for users as compared to traditional billing system as these meters are high technology solutions, hence the private players will also have to recover their costs in installing and operating them · Prepaid water meters will only widen the inequalities that exist Water becomes an individualized marketed commodity thus eroding the social relations between families in the communities where these prepaid water meters will be set up. The shared burden of access to water is lost. These meters are provided only in areas that are poor thus securing payment from people who already have a difficulty to pay for the most basic things. The women and children are forced to go back to their traditional role of water carriers. Hence, progress hoped to achieve in gender gains and education for children is all lost. · It violates our fundamental right to water The human right to water has been guaranteed in our constitution and also through international covenants set up by the United Nations now. It is the responsibility of the government to provide its citizens with free access to potable water. Water is equivalent to our right to life Private companies and the World Bank have repeatedly tried to say that all consumers have the willingness to pay for clean water. However, this is true only in the case of the people who have the ability to pay. Is this the case for the poor living in slum areas too? This argument abuses the fact that all human beings need water for basic survival. Instead these decision makers must start analyzing the ability to pay. Households should not be forced to give up food in order to buy water. Water is an essential service and a constitutional right. We already pay taxes to the government for the service they provide to us. Why should we then give more money to a private company that operates as a monopoly and maximises their own profits at the cost of the consumer's life? It is a public good and the state of India is guaranteed to provide it to us without any obligations on the part of the consumers. Water is essential to life, is best protected by local communities and citizens, and not by private companies. And therefore we must protest the potential monopolization of our source of life and behold our constitutional right. SAY NO TO PREPAID WATER METERS Mumbai Paani, mumbaipaani@ gmail.com, 022-28822850/ 24143498/ 26251347 __._,_.___ From cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 22:15:23 2008 From: cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com (Cheryl Deutsch) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:45:23 -0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Water de-privatisation Message-ID: <189301e00806210945g6662fcccifb77ac02561ad2d1@mail.gmail.com> Dear Anokhi and others, Prepaid water meters have been proposed in Mumbai, recently... the Municipal Corporation hired a (I think) French company called Castelia to study one ward, K-East, comprising Andheri, Jogeshwari, and Goregoan east and is also the ward with the largest population in the city. Anyway, this company recommended the city install prepaid water meters. When the BMC held a "public consultation" on the issue, however, in November or December, community groups vehemently opposed the lack of actual consultation and the concept of prepaid water. The whole thing turned nasty when one politician started cursing some of the protesters. Aside from that, there's a new website which attempts to track the de-privatisation of water around the world. I got this message from a friend recently: "Just this month, the Mayor of Paris announced that the city would be returning services to public management from 2009. France - arguably the heartland of privatised water services - is at the forefront of the remunicipalisation trend that is also manifesting itself in parts of South America, North America and Africa. Increased tariffs and a failure to deliver on promised improvements have left water multinationals facing increasing opposition from local communities and politicians. Some have takensteps to end contracts with private operators. Others are considering doing so. The remunicipalisation tracker (www.remunicipalisation.org) provides case studies from these communities - giving details of the problems faced and the victories won." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080621/285bf8ac/attachment.html From nithyas at gmail.com Mon Jun 23 00:01:14 2008 From: nithyas at gmail.com (Nithya Sambasivan) Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:31:14 +0300 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Informal Urbanities - references? Message-ID: <485E9A72.1040108@gmail.com> Hello everyone, I am looking for any books or articles on construction, maintenance or regulation of informal urbanities. I am beginning to look at urban studies (cities and suburbia) and technological interventions. Even better if the setting is in India. Any pointers to this topic would be very helpful. Thanks in advance. Regards, Nithya -- PhD student Human Computer Interaction | Information and Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nsambasi From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Mon Jun 23 09:29:04 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:29:04 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fort, Bombay - 400 001 Message-ID: Fort, Bombay – 400 001. Clean footpaths, Spic and span, Bombay – 400 001. Clear, Smooth, Walkable, No hindrances, Bombay – 400 001. But vendors operate, Surreptitiously, With their plastic thelas, Wrapping up the bright blue plastic, And running away with their wares when the municipality van comes around, Bombay – 400 001. "Three to four times a day, the van comes, these days. Have to watch out And then … Bhag bhag bhag, abe bhag, gaadi aa gayi" Bombay – 400 001. "Is that not ruthless? Three to four times a day? What do they get by denying people the right to earn a decent living?" Bombay – 400 001. "Traditionally, citizenship has always been linked with property, And more so in the recent times, When you are a valid citizen only if you are own property, And all those encroaching space are violators of the law," Bombay – 400 001. "Wow, this area is all quiet, all empty, and what time of the evening is it? Only 7 PM? The vendors would shut down at 9 and go back to their homes!" Bombay – 400 001. "But I remember, When I was working here, A decade ago, There used to be these hutments on the footpath, And we would come down in the afternoons, And during the slack evening hours, To watch TV, Because the pavement dwellers were the only ones who had a public television!" Bombay – 400 001. And we walked, "Hey, look there! The TV is still there, There, Exactly there! Just where it used to be, Ten years ago!" Bombay – 400 001. And then as we walked further, "And look there, Can you see the squatters? Their shanty homes still there, In that walled little compound, They used to be there when I was working in this area," Bombay – 400 001. Hidden, yet evident Those shanty hutments! How people access the city? How people make their claims, On space, To determine their livelihoods? Political society – civil society … Yakka yakka do! Bombay – 400 001. So what happens when a space is cleaned of its numerous claimants, And clear owners of property are established? Are the contests completely removed? Does the space become irreversible? Does clear, titled ownership reign supreme? Bombay – 400 001. -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080623/79d9e915/attachment-0001.html From cupadhya at vsnl.com Mon Jun 23 10:25:21 2008 From: cupadhya at vsnl.com (cupadhya at vsnl.com) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:55:21 +0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: [URBANTH-L] CFP: Beyond the Tipping Point: Asian Development in anUrban World Message-ID: Hello, this should be posted on the list if it hasn't already been. Carol -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Angela Jancius Subject: [URBANTH-L] CFP: Beyond the Tipping Point: Asian Development in anUrban World Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:39:48 -0400 Size: 5800 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080623/2058c048/attachment.mht From cugambetta at yahoo.com Mon Jun 23 12:56:58 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:26:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] homes/ ownership Message-ID: <327919.14435.qm@web56811.mail.re3.yahoo.com> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/opinion/23krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin I found this Paul Krugman piece interesting... does anyone know of any interesting work on real estate in India post-47? I have always been interested in the implications of the relatively new availability of loans for architecture (as well as housing societies and earlier loan arrangements in their own time). As yet, I haven't come across any interesting historical work on the matter, has anyone else? (Of course, the Property section is an invaluable resource for thinking about the present!) Curt From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 11:39:36 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:39:36 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] The Idea and the Practice of a Slum Message-ID: "Right there, right there!" "Where? I can't see the damn station. Where is it?" "Right there, you walk past that little lane, you will hit the station." Grudgingly, I walked through the lane and lo and behold! I was at the platform of Govandi railway station. It just took me a little row of settlements and some open drains running by them to get to that wretched Govandi station (not to forget to mention, passing by some of the children playing around and that sole bhaiyya woman sitting idly). Did I say wretched? Yes, wretched is the feeling I get when I am at Govandi station. Perhaps in my life, I must have been to Govandi station exactly six times. Of the four of those six times, I have traveled in the east of Govandi, towards the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). But the last two times, I have actually experienced the wretchedness of Govandi station, when I have had to get off platform number 1 and then go past all the squatter settlements, till I eventually get to the infamously famous Lallubhai Compound. Wretched, Unpleasant … Wretched, that wretched Govandi area! Yes, I can feel the skin on me ... I can feel the anger and irritation rising in me, a feeling that I have rarely gotten as I have traveled the insides of some of the squatter settlements in Mumbai. It is not the squalor that produces that feeling of unpleasantness in me. Yes, there is squalor and squalor of the worst form that can be seen and experienced. The proximity of the squatter settlements to the city's only functional garbage dump and to the city's only abattoir makes the open drains and sewage in these slums the worst of their kind and nothing compared with the reasonably better off sewage facilities in most of the other slums in the city. Squalor, yes! Squalor! But that is not the cause of the unpleasantness within me. Then, what is it? Cut to Lallubhai Compound, between Govandi and Mankhurd: Lallubhai Compound, here it is, or should I say there it is. Yeah, there it is, so much of what I was trying to imagine it to be and so much of the reality that I could see and tried to fathom. I was not sure what I should feel when I see the rows of cement buildings that make up this Compound. Housed in these rows of buildings are slum dwellers from various parts of Mumbai City – those whole lived near the railway stations of Kurla terminus, Chembur and Matunga; those who once had dwellings along the pavements of the famous P. D'Mello road near VT station; people from Byculla, Dadar, Parel, you name it – they are all housed here. "That minister Nawab Malik got us to come here. He said that if we did not move here, we would even lose this house. Hence we came here." "We were living near the railway lines. Government decided to expand the railway lines and so, we moved here." "It was crazy when we first moved here. Felt like we had come to a village. My family was shunted out of Matunga and then we were made to live in the transit camps in Mankhurd for five long years till we eventually came here. There was initially a hill here. People went up on the hill and jumped off. They could not tolerate the loneliness. Only now, more people have come to live here and there seems to be some development." About 1.5 kilometers away from Govandi station is situated Lallubhai Compound, that infamously famous rehabilitation colony. For a moment, I almost think of the chawls in Parel area when I see the built environment here. The same noise, running around, tamashas on the street, shops below the buildings – it's just so much Parel. And yet, it is not Parel. There is hustle and bustle, lot of activity on the roads, but it seems like Lallubhai can only be a world within its own self (but for now!). Unlike Parel where the self of the chawl is intermingled with the multiple selves of the city that manifest in various forms – the industrial estates, the media offices, the traffic, the locality of Lalbagh – in stark comparison to all of this, Lallubhai is isolated, despite being so close to the row houses just across the bridge which house the wealthier residents of Govandi. "Lallubhai is a clear instance of the US housing projects for the poor. The poor were evicted from the city areas and placed at the outskirts of the city. Complete ghettoization." Could I say that Lallubhai is an instance of ghettoization, another import from the Americas into the urbs prima indis? Undoubtedly, Lallubhai is a ghetto, almost like people are being brought from the city and thrown away into some form of confinement. And yet, I would be condemned and damned if I were to say that people have been confined. Ground floor houses have been converted into shops, beauty parlors, English teaching classes and STD-PCO booths. People go back to the older neighbourhoods for work and for reaching their children to schools. Some of the residents have given up their homes for rent and have begun to live in the nearby squatter settlements or in and around their original places of residence. I walk around the area. A thriving women's hawker market has come up on the roads. I am told this is an "illegal" market because it is not certified by the municipality. The drains and rats between the buildings remind you of the house-gully situation in Null Bazaar where the settlers are harassed by the overflowing sewage between two buildings. There are groups of unemployed boys loafing around the area. I am told that these have become frequent lately. The rickshaw drivers make their killing each day – five rupees a seat for a one-way ride between Govandi station and Lallubhai. The local autorickshaw fellas seem like another socio-political group emerging in the area, they being camped around the naka which is their adda. Then there are the various forms of groups and organizations that abound within Lallubhai – the women's savings group, the hawkers' federation, National Slum Dwellers' Federation-Mahila Milan-SPARC – all housed within the same office premises of what is mentioned in bold as the Public Information Center. There are financial networks woven within the social and political fabric of the area – the grain merchants, the jewellery shops which double up as lending and borrowing institutions, you name it. There are social and political organizations that I am unaware of but which likely exist – the very networks that existed in the squatter settlements and that formed an important aspect of the everyday practice of a slum. Isolated – ghettoized – confinement – sorry to disappoint, but the space of Lallubhai is only unfolding with time. The self is emerging … Rethinking the Idea and Practice of a Slum … "It's good that people have been moved into these flats. They will learn to live in a sanitized environment. They will learn to live with dignity and respect." "They get more space than what they had in their little slums. This rehabilitation is benefiting the people." "It will take a while for the slum dwellers to learn to live here. They are not used to the vertical way of living." "The community has to learn to accept one and all. The lepers' rehabilitation colony in Oshiwara is placed away from the rest of the rehab housing. People don't want other groups to live around them. The community will have to learn." "Now, there are a lot of Muslims coming into this area as tenants. The Maharahstrians are reducing in numbers." By now, I have been going to all those areas in the city that I did not ever venture into while I lived here for 25 odd years. There are times when I pass through those unevenly lined row houses and I ask myself – why is this labeled a slum? By what standards are these well furnished houses within this apparently uneven settlement classed as slums? It would be highly banal on my end to state that the idea of a slum is quite different from its practice. But let me state what I felt as I experienced Lallubhai compound. That visit to Lallubhai has made it clear to me a slum is not merely a physical structure as it might be projected in policy and media. The slum is a network and simultaneously many networks and several circuits – all these networks and circuits connected with the space of the city, with the locality and meshed into numerous scales of statedom and nationdom and globaldom. When people are "rehabilitated" into flats and built structures, some of the circuits and networks are severed but at the same time, other connections become stronger and some connections become even more oppressive than they previously were. Consistently, I also hear remarks of how the slum dwellers had occupied the lands and have now gotten flats in return for free, that they are now living in sanitized conditions and their lives will improve and that they should learn to live in the flats rather than escape from there. The stories in Lallubhai betray all these notions. While some of the more upwardly mobile among this misleading category of "urban poor" benefit with the receipt of the house, for many other individuals and families, the receipt of the home could not be a greater curse. These have been families that have been in the bottom rung among the poor and that the house in Lallubhai for them is a liability more than an asset. For these groups, the monthly payment of electricity bills and maintenance fees coupled with increased transportation costs and the loss of their jobs or the lack of increase in salaries but rise in expenses, all of these factors lead us to rethink whether the house is truly a marker of improvement in their lives. And then there are several among those who never made it to Lallubhai despite living among the same populations who were to be 'rehoused' – the process of rehabilitation and the political dynamics are in no way equal for all – some get the house, some decide to move out, some are deprived, and much more than what I can know and tell … And as for the sanitized living, the more seen, the better – the poor garbage lifting facilities, the overflowing drains between the buildings, the lack of water until water is fought for as an entitlement, and the teeming rats – yes certainly, sanity and sanitation have to be rethought as much as the idea and practice of the slum have to be reconsidered. Beyond … That pervasive feeling of wretchedness and disgust continues within me until I reach Govandi station. It persists beyond as I pass Wadala, Chunnabhatti, Sewri, Dockyard and even further, into the passing days ... It travels within me and beyond me. I am still thinking what the city is and how the city is continuously accessed, both symbolically and physically, from time to time … -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080630/1f3ee7be/attachment-0001.html From maliniranga at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 14:42:03 2008 From: maliniranga at gmail.com (Malini Ranganathan) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:12:03 -0700 Subject: [Urbanstudy] History of housing/services post-1947 Message-ID: <45e96de0806300212s3d6d8f0cg69fa4229c8436160@mail.gmail.com> Hi Curt, The history of real estate in India post-1947 is probably hugely diverse given the multiplicity of development patterns in cities, issues of small cities vs. big cities, core areas vs. fringe areas, private vs. public, etc. But just yesterday, I came across this book by Robert Jan Baken (2003) "Plotting, Squatting, Public Purpose and Politics: Land Market Development, Low Income Housing, and Public Intervention in India" [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ESY7KhfPCWAC&dq=plotting,+squatting,+public+purpose] which traces the history of land and housing markets in Andhra Pradesh between 1971-1993 using the case of Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam. The book interested me because it uses empirical cases to demonstrate the strong connection between land and access to urban services. It doesn't focus specifically on home financing, but it does describe in detail the processes underlying the creation of quasi-legal subdivisions/revenue layouts (primarily in fringe/peri-urban areas or small towns) via private "brokers". These brokers often purchase large plots of agricultural land from farmers on the cheap and get General Power of Attorney to then subdivide the land and sell it off to individual buyers who either pay the full amount or pay a partial amount with the promise of paying the rest later. While the brokers are supposed to get their layout plans approved by an urban development authority, pay conversion charges from agricultural to residential land, and put down the investment for some basic infrastructure (roads, drains), most of them do not honor these basic obligations...thus the proliferation of poorly serviced layouts throughout the Greater Bangalore area, for instance, and the recent policy move by BBMP to "regularize" these areas. I have more info pertaining to the history of housing and services in peri-urban Bangalore if you're interested... Malini that proliferate peri-urban areas and small town in AP between 1971-1993 > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/opinion/23krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin > > I found this Paul Krugman piece interesting... does anyone know of any interesting work on real estate in India post-47? I have always been interested in the implications of the relatively new availability of loans for architecture (as well as housing societies and earlier loan arrangements in their own time). As yet, I haven't come across any interesting historical work on the matter, has anyone else? (Of course, the Property section is an invaluable resource for thinking about the present!) > > Curt