Ahmedabad’s slum population is the second largest in the state. Although there has been some progress in reducing those numbers across Gujarat – a success that few other states can flaunt – the issue persists. But in 2010, a new national “slum-free India” policy was announced, Rajiv Awas Yojana. This policy, unlike previous approaches to slums, encouraged in situ redevelopment – rehousing slum dwellers in the same spot, rather than displacing them to the outskirts of the city. It was an important step in recognising the economic connections that informal workers forge in their communities.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) responded: it set out a plan to put this “in situ” redevelopment into practice, through a public-private partnership. The idea was that builders would provide free apartment blocks to the slum dwellers. In exchange, the city would give the contractors any leftover land, which they could use to build expensive apartments for sale on the open market. The city also increased the “buildable area” allowances, meaning taller, denser buildings – a very lucrative incentive for developers to get involved in housing for the poor.

A similar plan in Mumbai, however, had stumbled when slum dwellers grew skeptical of the developers’ intentions. Years of attacks and forcible evictions throughout the city had them fearing the worst: being left with absolutely nothing. According to one report, they “were reluctant to give possession of their plots in [the] absence of alternative accommodation, as they feared losing possession of their sites permanently”.

So in Ahmedabad, the authorities reached out to the slum dwellers first, which is where Thakore enters the story. She had already gained a surprising, if informal, leadership status in her community a few years earlier, when she helped Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT), a respected housing NGO, to implement major infrastructure upgrades in the slum: toilets, running water, drainage, paved roads, street lights and solid waste management.

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