vulnerability to crisis in lucknow, india: the role of assets in mitigating risk

8/7/2019 Vulnerability to crisis in Lucknow, India: The role of assets in mitigating risk

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The project team wishes to thank the Ford Foundation and the

National Science Foundation for their support of the study. All

findings and views reported here are those of the authors.

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks go to the respondents from our study slums whocontributed so much of their time and knowledge throughout the

course of the study.


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VULNERABILITY TO CRISIS IN LUCKNOW, INDIA

THE ROLE OF ASSETS IN MITIGATING RISK

A Study conducted by:

Paula Kantor and Padmaja Nair, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Oxfam GB in India

With

Grameen Development Services, Laxmi, Lucknow Mahila Sewa Trust

and Sarathi Development Foundation

JANUARY 2005


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PREFACE

A house is both more and less than a home for urban slum-dwellers in Lucknow,

India. It is more because, for most people, especially women, it is also the workplace.

It is less, because physically, it may be built of cloth and cardboard and, legally, theresident may lack secure tenure. In the twelve slums whose residents are the subject of

this study, about half the sample population was poor at some point during the study

period. They had limited education and skills, low-wage and uncertain employment,

inadequate health and sanitation services that contributed to ill-health, and they

lacked access to financial and productive resources. They were thus more vulnerable to

natural and life-cycle risks and less able to recover from untoward events such as

floods or illness. Although they owned and built assets, crises such as illness depleted

their assets rapidly, and slowed recovery and asset rebuilding. By examining the

temporal and dynamic effects of poverty, in addition to measuring it, this study adds

an important dimension to our understanding of the lived experience of poverty. It

yields critical information about ways to reduce poverty and vulnerability. These issues

are of great interest to the ord oundation as it has adopted an asset building

strategy to address the key mission goal of poverty reduction.

By following households over three years, this study shows how people often move in and

out of poverty, even in a short time span. In keeping with findings from other parts of the

developing world, it shows that low-income people can and do save. Even on meagre

incomes, they struggle to build assets. Surprisingly, they invest in improving their homes

even when tenure is insecure. They deploy their assets strategically to mitigate risk and

prevent the inter-generational transmission of poverty. In order to preserve their assets,

even at very low levels of consumption, people prefer to lower consumption further ratherthan liquidate assets. They invest in childrens education to ensure them a better future.

The study also shows, however, how quickly the assets of low-income people can be

depleted in times of crisis. Bouts of illness and the death of the main breadwinner are

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especially damaging to economic security and asset preservation. The direct and

opportunity costs of these events are so high that they propel low-income people into

debta factor that significantly undermines asset-building. It highlights the importance of

access to better sources of loan funds and to insurance products for low-income people.

The study makes a strong case for improved access to employment and income for

low-income women. Again, as in other developing countries, the study found that the

poorest households were most dependent on womens incomes. Yet low-income

women were employed in the lowest paying and most insecure jobs. They often worked

at home under sub-contracting arrangements, their productivity and incomes were low,

they had no benefits and they lacked bargaining power with employers and middle-

men. Their children had to forego school because they were needed to assist with paid

and unpaid work in the home. Security of tenure and housing conditions mattered

greatly to women and other slum-dwellers for whom the workplace was in the home.

It affected their ability to access jobs, their productivity and incomes. Low-income and

low-caste people, with least secure tenure, and women were also disadvantaged in

their ability to influence the political and economic system and public and private

actors to improve their situation.

The inter-linkages between urban poverty and livelihood insecurity, combined with

inequality of power relations, argue for broad-based responses. Improvements will require

interventions that address the rights of the urban poor and, at a minimum, provide better

access to labor and financial markets, land, housing and services. They will require citizen

education and training for civic action. To be effective, interventions will have to be done

on a large scale that involves collaboration between various actorsresearchers, activists,

governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As a first small step in this

direction, this study involved collaboration between researchers at the University of

Wisconsin, Oxfam GB in India and four local NGOsthe Grameen Development

Services, Laxmi, Lucknow Mahila Sewa Trust and Sarathi Development oundation. It built

application into the research process by attempting to demonstrate the importance of

designing research-based interventions and by building research capacity in the NGOs.

We hope the findings will inform the design of better policies and interventions to improve

the lives and livelihoods of urban slum-dwellers in Lucknow and elsewhere.

Rekha Mehra

Program Officer, Economic Development

ord oundation, New Delhi

November 1, 2004



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CONTENTS

Introduction and Project Overview 9

Study Methodology 11

Key Concepts: Vulnerability, Assets and Responses 13

Key Study indings 15

Income Security 15

Working Hard to not Get Ahead 19

Education: Investing in The uture 21

The Burden of Ill Health 23

ood Security 24

inancial Security 25

Home and Land as Bases of Security 27

Non-illness Stress Events and Response Strategies 29

Gender and Vulnerability 31

Study Recommendations and Conclusions 35

References 38

Appendix 39


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INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OVERVIEW

In the past, poverty analysis in India has focused primarily on the rural sector, reflecting

Indias agrarian nature. However, India has recently started urbanizing rapidly: between

1991-2001, the overall urban population growth rate was 31 percent, compared with an

overall population growth rate of 21 percent and a rural rate of 18 percent. As a result of

this rapid urbanization, India has a growing problem of urban poverty that demands

research and policy attention.

This study was designed to respond to this research need. Its aim was to develop an

understanding of the dynamics of poverty in urban India by examining:

Differences between households in access to income and assets;

How differences in access to income and assets are associated with exposure to

different financial events (i.e. illnesses, death, loss of work, flood, fire, spending on

religious festivals, marriages and dowry); and

How households respond to financial events, linked to their ability to access and

control assets.

Vulnerability is not just a household-level concept: there also may be differences betweenhousehold members vulnerability. These arise because of intra-household differences in

exposure to events and access to assets, and differing involvement in decision making

relating to participation in planned events and responding to unplanned events. The study

collected data at both the household and individual levels in order to test for evidence of

intra-household differences in access to and control over assets, and in vulnerability.

The study aims were met by integrating both qualitative and quantitative research methods

to address the following hypotheses.

1. We hypothesized that characteristics at the individual, household and community levels

influence the abilities of households and individuals to access and control income and

to diversify their asset base. Specifically:

A number of factors at the community level were expected to increase household

vulnerability, for example: slums having been in existence for fewer years; illegal

land status; proximity to drainage ditches or refuse dumps; lack of basic

infrastructure services; concentration of low-caste households; and a lack of

NGO presence or community-based organizing.

At the household level, household size; having a female head of household;

being Hindu of low caste; being Muslim versus Hindu; having few workers in

the household; low status and autonomy of women in the household; lack ofaccess to financial capital; recent migration to the city; a lack of education; and

isolation from community networks were characteristics expected to increase

household vulnerability.

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Individual-level risk factors included gender; age; lower education levels; lack

of skills training; insecure employment and occupation status; and low share of

household income.

2. Households with smaller and less diverse asset bases were expected to experience

more financial crisis events particularly unanticipated events relative to those

with large, diverse asset bases. Other factors expected to increase the number of

events experienced included household size, gender of head of household, the

presence of very young and elderly household members who may be more prone

to illness, and lower levels of education. Income was expected to influence the

experience of planned events, with higher income households more able to

participate and thus participating more often in social events and religious

festivals. Community identity was also expected to influence the experience of

financial crisis events, in that different social groups may face more or less pressure

to participate in social and religious events and may have different standards

guiding levels of participation in festivals.

3. In the South Asian context, theory points to likely intra-household disparities bygender in experiences of, and responses to, financial shocks. Data was collected to

track how different household members were affected by the events experienced

and the selected response strategies. We expected that girls and women would be

most likely to experience declines in consumption and that when asset sale or

mortgaging forms part of a crisis response, households would rely first on assets

held by women, such as household utensils or jewelry.

This research project applied a longitudinal panel study design to the problem of

urban livelihood insecurity, studying residents of urban slum settlements in Lucknow,

India multiple times over a 33-month period starting in September 2001. It was a

collaborative project, based on a partnership between the University of Wisconsin-

Madison and the Lucknow office of Oxfam GB in India. Oxfam then involved four local

non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the study to carry out fieldwork and

develop interventions based on the results. We also integrated two research fellows

into the study, who conducted their own related studies and assisted with the overall

project. Building the research capacity of the local NGOs and research fellows formed

part of the project objectives (see Process act Sheet), as did the provision of inputs to

Oxfams development of an urban livelihoods program in India. The study provides a

good model of how to build academic-NGO collaborations to conduct applied

research programs.


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The study focuses on twelve informal settlements within the municipal corporation area of

Lucknow (see Context act Sheet). In order to understand how vulnerabilities and

strategies of adaptation and avoidance change over time, the study team collected three

rounds each of qualitative and quantitative data. The issues addressed in the qualitative

rounds varied from period to period while the survey topics remained constant over time

to allow us to assess change.

Slum selection

The twelve study slums were selected according to predetermined selection criteria; one

criterion was that a partner NGO was working in the slum. The NGO presence helped in

building rapport with the residents and increased the respondents willingness to stay

involved in the project over the multiple rounds of data collection. The research team

developed other selection criteria to ensure that the study communities were as

representative as possible of the diverse poor urban population in Lucknow. The selection

criteria included a range of characteristics such as physical location within the city, size

and age of the settlement, caste and religious composition, primary occupations, land

tenure issues and presence of obvious risk factors like drainage canals and railway lines.

The NGOs involved in the project submitted lists of the slums in which they worked, plus

any available information about each slum. These lists formed the basis of slum selection.

Appendix 1 lists the twelve selected slums and their characteristics.

Only two of the study slums were primarily Muslim. However, in the end the household sample

was over 50 percent Muslim, well over the estimated share of Muslims in the city (26 percent).

While this may be valid to the extent that Muslims are concentrated in lower-income areas of

the city, we must remain aware of this over-sampling when we attempt to generalize the results

to all slums in Lucknow. inally, all of the Muslim Shias in the sample came from one slum,

Thathar Colony. This slum is very poor in terms of facilities, and has the highest concentration

of female-headed households and problematic tenure status. Thus, the status of Shias in oursample does not necessarily represent all Shias in the city.

Qualitative data collection

Focus group discussions

Much of the qualitative work in the first and second rounds of research involved focus

group discussions, integrating participatory exercises as appropriate. In the first

round, the aim of the focus groups was to understand how the slum residents

characterized vulnerability by having them describe families at high and low levels of

vulnerability. Discussions were held separately with men and women to determine

whether perceptions of vulnerability differed by gender. ew differences emerged

overall, although women placed more emphasis on lack of access to basic services,

and the problem of lazy male earners (men who failed to fulfil their traditional role

of breadwinner), as indicators of high vulnerability.

STUDY METHODOLOGY


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In the second round, the NGO partners took a larger role in defining the qualitative data to

be collected. Based on their knowledge of the slums and the analysis of the quantitative data

from the first round, they identified key issues they wanted to address in greater depth. The

purpose in the second round was to probe deeper into these specific issues using new slums

similar in characteristics to the project slums. We wanted to confirm and validate attributes of

vulnerability, and understand in greater depth why people act as they do and how they

perceive different events. The issues addressed varied across the NGOs and included the effects

of irregular work, the impact of ill-health, spending on festivals, the importance of saving, and

issues around womens labor force participation.

In-depth household interviews

In the first and third rounds, the NGO partners conducted in-depth interviews with selected

households in the study slums. In the first round, these households were selected based

on the focus group results, where participants identified families in the settlement at high,

medium and low levels of vulnerability. One interview was conducted with a family at each

vulnerability level in each slum, and these three families were also included in the sample for

the quantitative survey. The interviews focused on what events were experienced, how

households responded, who in the family was burdened by events and response strategies,and who decided how to respond to a negative change.

In the third round we used the data from rounds one and two to select families and issues to

follow up with a more in-depth discussion. Many of these families became income-poor or

were poor and remained in that state during the study period. We focused on particular issues

that we wanted to understand in more depth, such as the importance of education to financial

security, the burden of debt, or the impact of a major crisis like becoming a widow.

Quantitative data collection

Household surveys

or the quantitative part of the study, we randomly selected forty households per slum

to interview with a survey asking questions about the household and individuals in the

household. Note that while the NGOs were active within the selected slums, they did

not choose the households we included in the study; the respondents were selected

through a random process. The survey included sections on housing, access to

services, land tenure, consumption spending, saving and other income sources at the

household level, and demographics, labor force participation, assets, events, debt

and illnesses at the individual level. The individual-level data were obtained by

interviewing all adult members in the family. In the first round the sample size was

479, declining to 458 in the second round and 433 in the third, due to attrition. Theoverall attrition rate was 14 percent.


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Vulnerability is defined as exposure to risk, shocks and stresses, resulting from some sort of

unplanned environmental change.1 There are two dimensions of vulnerability, external and

internal. Risks, shocks and stresses are common terms illustrating external vulnerability while

internal vulnerability refers to a households inability to cope with these external changes

without experiencing damaging loss. Vulnerability is a more complex concept than poverty, in

that it has a dynamic quality, making it better-suited to capturing changes in socioeconomic

status (in contrast to povertys focus on current socioeconomic status). Thus, studies of

vulnerability can improve our understanding of how to facilitate long-term improvements in

peoples well-being within a changing external environment.

Household livelihoods are vulnerable to external changes or risks. A livelihood is protected

against outside risks by the level and diversification of the assets a household can claim. Thus,

building assets is a key means through which to reduce external vulnerability and to improve a

households ability to respond to unavoidable events.2

Assets can be classified in diverse ways, but the main categories are physical or productive,

financial, human capital, social capital, and natural capital (see Box 1 for examples of these

categories). These different types of assets protect household livelihoods against external risks.Based on this protective role, the extent of ones vulnerability is indicated by a households

KEY CONCEPTS: VULNERABILITY, ASSETS AND RESPONSES

Box 1: Examples of different types of assets

Productive assets: work equipment, land, secure tenure, good quality housing.

.inancial assets: savings in money form, jewelry, gold. Debt is a negative

financial asset.

Human capital assets: spending on education and preventative health care, levels

of education, experiences of illness, training and skills.

Labor: part of human capital but central to urban poverty and vulnerability due tothe great dependence on income in urban areas. Dependency ratios, occupation

and employment status, work days and regularity of work, worker characteristics

(age, sex).

Social capital assets: networks though which people access jobs, credit, help in

times of need; organizations or institutions with which one interacts. One needs to

examine net claims as these relationships are two-way and can be a drain. They

can also be negative or exploitative, for example patron-client relations.

Natural assets: access to natural resources such as clean air, water, land. In urban

areas this access is mediated by other interests, since access to basic services is not

guaranteed and is often politicized, and tenable legal land for housing is limited.

1 Chambers 1988; Wratten 1995; Moser 19982 Chambers 1988; Swift 1988; Chambers and Conway 1992; Moser 1998; Sebstad and Cohen 2000;Rosenzweig and Wolpin 1993


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3 Grootaert, Kanbur et al. 1995; Chambers 19974 Sebstad and Cohen 2000; Lund and Srinivas 2000

ability to survive a crisis without irreversible damage to its productive capacity or net assets.

Diversifying ones asset base is the best way to accomplish this, resulting in a more secure

livelihood.3 In assessing assets and vulnerability one must also consider context-specific

structural factors such as caste, class, race or gender that may limit ones ability to transform

assets into the necessities of survival, namely food, secure housing and income. Thus, cultural

norms and expectations related to gender, caste, race or class may mediate individuals or

households abilities to utilize their asset bases effectively in times of crisis, increasing their

vulnerability.

What are the different sources of risk that urban poor households face, and how do

households respond to events, both proactively and reactively? Risk is a broad term:

there are many different types of risks, arising from different sources, and characterized by

differing frequency and impacts.4 Three different sources of risk include:

Structural factors: inflation, seasonality and weather patterns that may result in

floods or droughts;

Unanticipated shocks and crises: unemployment, serious illnesses and

hospitalization, the death of a main earner, fire, harassment by city officials and the

bulldozing of settlements; and Lifecycle events: marriages, births, festivals and rituals. These are expected events

but still cause a large drain on household finances.

The source of risk can determine its frequency and nature. Often the risks associated with

structural factors are covariate, meaning they affect all households at the same time. Such

risks are generally infrequent, but may be repeated. Shocks and crises tend to be low

frequency, though some illnesses may be a high-frequency risk. Shocks tend to be

idiosyncratic, affecting individual households versus entire communities, and occur

randomly. Lifecycle events affect individual households (marriages, births) or communities

(rituals and festivals) but are not random in that they are expected to occur as households

move through their lifecycles.

Responses to risk vary according to the frequency, source and nature of the risk in

question. Households may develop proactive strategies to guard against risk as well as

reactive strategies to adapt to it after an event has occurred. Proactive strategies may

include building up a diverse asset base; investing in insurance programs to guard

against income losses due to illness, death or maternity; and saving money and

managing household finances well (i.e. avoiding extraneous expenditure, especially on

leisure activities such as gambling and drinking). Strategies to adapt to external changes

after they have occurred may include the selling or pawning of physical assets, taking

loans, reducing consumption or putting more people into the labor force.


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Access to a secure and adequate income is a vital component of a secure livelihood. This is

true from the perspective of the urban poor themselves; focus group participants listed access

to a regular secure income as a characteristic of the least vulnerable households. It is also true

because of the central role income plays in enabling access to other valued items such as

health care, education, housing and services, savings and financial security. While it is true

that access to income does not guarantee that other valued outcomes can be achieved, it is a

crucial first step on the way to sustained livelihood security.

A considerable share of households in the Lucknow study did not have access to an

adequate, secure income Twenty-five percent of the study sample started the study in an

income-poor state (per capita monthly income less than 518 Rs (11 US $) and remained there

throughout the study period. Ten percent faced the challenge of multiple swings in income,

moving in and out of poverty over the 2.5-year period; 8 percent fell into poverty, and 19

percent escaped. The largest group 38 percent of the households avoided income poverty

altogether (act Sheet 1). Table 1 below shows how households in different income poverty

status categories vary in their asset holdings and demographic characteristics. Interestingly, few

demographic or structural factors affect income insecurity. Only caste differed across the

categories while the number of female-headed households, length of residence in the slumand mean household sizes did not. In the rest of the report, including the fact sheets, we

examine some of these asset categories as well as the experience of events in more detail. We

integrate gender differences into the analysis throughout. The symbol at the top of the fact

sheets indicates gender-desegregated results.

KEY STUDY FINDINGS

INCOME SECURITY


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5 Pucca homes are secure, good quality homes, with walls and roofs made of brick or concrete.

16 17



Characteristics Stable and income Entered poverty Exited and re-entered Entered and re-exited Exited poverty Non income poor

poor (n=110) (n=35) poverty (n=22) poverty (n=21) (n=74) (n=162)

Demographics More Muslim Few high-caste Few high-caste Hindu Few high-caste Few high-caste Hindu households Hindu scheduled caste

Shia households Hindu households households Hindu households and high-caste households

Labor mobilization Main earners in domestic Stable person-days of work; Increasing person-days Many vendors Person-days of work increased Main earners in salaried and

and art is an work n ot a re as on fo r m ov em en t o f w or k; h igh es t i n Low dependence on female labor between rounds 1 and 3; part of self-employed service work

High dependence on into poverty R2 and R3 Reduction in work days in round 2, reason why households became Low dependence on female labor

female labor Few children work F ew c hi ld re n wo rk i nc re as ed t o ro un d 1 le ve l by ro un d 3; non -poor Low person-days of work; high quality work

Low person-days of work; days of work reason for multiple Large decline in dependants Stable dependency ratio

low quality work transitions Higher share of children work

Large decline in dependants Few children work

Financial assets 68% save; 50% borrow 68% save; 65% borrow 82% save, 50% borrow 73% save; 48% borrow 78% save; 52% borrow 90% save; 35% borrow

Lowest saving balance Dependent on loans to pay Loans outstanding 1.4 Loans outstanding 2.5 times Loans outstanding 2.0 times Highest saving balance

Loans outstanding 2.5 times for ill health times monthly income monthly income monthly income Loans outstanding 1.6 times monthly income

monthly income Loans outstanding 4.8 times

monthly income

Physical assets 44% pucca5 homes; 52% pucca homes 65% pucca homes; improvement 76% pucca homes 55% pucca homes; 82% pucca homes

improvement over the study 62% have own electric connection over the study 78% have own electric connection improvement over the study 75% have own electric connection

44% have own electric 34% have own water connection 61% have own electric connection 38% have own water connection 63% have own electric connection 60% have own water connection

connection 49% have hygienic toilet 30% have own water connection 48% have hygienic toilet 36% have own water connection 73% have hygienic toilet

19% have own water More than half live on 50% have hygienic toilet More than half live on illegal land 58% have hygienic toilet Few live on illegal land

connection illegal land Few live on illegal land More than half live on illegal land

43% have hygienic toilet

More than half live on

illegal land

Education Most educated in household Most educated in household Most educated in household Most educated in household Most educated in household Most educated in household

h as o nl y 6 .5 y ear s o f h as 8 y ear s of e du cat ion h as 8 y ea rs o f e du ca tio n h as 1 0. 5 y ear s of ed uc at ion h as 8 y ea rs of e duc at ion h as 1 2 y ear s of e du cat ion

education 79% of children in school; Only 57% of children in school; 79% of children in school; Only 63% of children in 82% of children in school; 78% in

On ly 62 % o f c hil dr en in s ch ool ; 9 0% i n pri vat e s ch ool 65 % i n p ri vat e s ch ool 47 % in p ri vat e s ch ool s ch ool ; 5 7% in pr iv at e s cho ol pri vat e s ch ool an d h alf o f t he se

45% in private school in English medium

Health Second highest total illnesses Lowest total illnesses (5.7), Highest total illnesses (8.9), 6 illnesses on average 6.7 illnesses on average Low total illnesses (5.8)

(7.6) , spend second lowest but spend second highest spend the least on t reatment Spend the most on treatment, have

on treatment to treat them Vulnerable to ill health due ability to pay for higher quality care

Vulnerable to ill health due Meet costs of ill health through to inability to treat illnesses

to inabili ty to treat i l lnesses loans


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Labor is a key asset for the urban poor; in Lucknow it is the primary means through which

families accessed the income required to meet their basic needs. How families allocate

labor, the quality of the labor power available, and cultural constraints on who can work

and in what activities are primary determinants of income security and hence the ability to

continue to invest in labor and build other assets. Many urban poor households depend

on the informal economy for their income, and this often leads to labor strategies where

families work hard, but do little more than survive.

.amilies in Lucknow who earned their primary income from salaried work were

considerably better off than those dependent on casual labor, self-employment or

piece rate earnings Thus, improving entry into employment with regular and

relatively high earnings is vital to improving urban livelihoods, implying that moves to

formalize the informal economy(enforcing minimum wage laws, implementing the

International Labour Organizations home-based worker convention, improving access

to credit and secure work locations) and to provide safety nets ensuring minimum

income (welfare funds, informal sector workers bill) will assist in improving urban

livelihoods. This also requires a proactive employment policy to attract and retain

investments that create new jobs

Improving employment opportunities requires breaking down the barriers imposed by

gender and community Workers have socially-constructed identities, and as such they do not

enter the labour market freely and equally. In India, and more particularly in the North

Indian context, caste and religious and gender identities limit workers occupational

choices. It is common for women to have to work within the home, both as a result of

purdah restrictions and because of the risk of social disgrace arising from public

acknowledgement of a households need for womens earnings. Thus, most women

who worked in Lucknow did so within the home, whether selling groceries or

vegetables or doing embroidery work. or most, this severely limited their income

earning ability relative to men in the same activity, or to women who could work

outside of the home (See act Sheet 8). Addressing socio-cultural constraints on

womens occupation and work location choices is central to improving both their

ability to contribute to the household income and shift their family out of poverty, and

their own personal benefits from labor market participation.

Religion is more important than caste in determining occupational choices in the

Lucknow context Irrespective of caste, more Hindu than Muslim households had salaried

work as their main income source. Lucknow is a state capital, so this difference may be a

result of discrimination in access to government employment. Muslims are concentrated in

traditional artisan work and self-employed service work, with the former being among themost vulnerable occupational category in terms of income and the ability to build other

assets (see act Sheet 2). Muslims are more likely than all Hindus to have been income

poor, and more remained poor throughout the study period.

WORKING HARD TO NOT GET AHEAD

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Who works and how much they work is also related to the security of their occupation.

Artisans insecurity is apparent from their labor mobilization strategies They are more

dependent than any other occupational group on female and child labor Because of this,

they have more workers in the family and more person days of work than any other group, yet

still earn among the lowest income (see act Sheet 2). Another group in similar traits is

families dependent on domestic service work This subset of all female-headed households

is characterized by small household sizes, low dependency ratios and extremely low incomes.

While not all female-headed households fare so poorly in terms of income, they all tend to be

of smaller size with lower dependency ratios than male-headed households. Those who do

better have access to some male labor, often an adult (or soon-to-be-adult) son, or have more

education and thus better sources of income. This highlights mens superior labor market

access and the need to improve womens educational and economic opportunities in order to

improve their economic independence and the economic condition of families dependent on

female earners (see act Sheets 8 and 9).

Child labor is a strong indicator of current and future vulnerability It illustrates a need to

mobilize more labor to meet basic needs and signals a greater future struggle for the child

workers to do more than survive since they may have had to forgo formal education andtraining in order to work. Eleven percent of all school-age children in the sample were

working Boys were more likely to be pulled from school to work than girls (See act

Sheet 3). The particular vulnerability of artisan families and the additional burden on boys are

clear: 24 percent of all children in artisan households worked and by sex, 31 percent of boys

worked and 17 percent of girls.

Irregularly-available work and loss of work days due to illness increase income insecurity

Changes in person-days of work within the family are associated with movements into and out

of income poverty. Improving the regularity of work and income, via labor legislation on the

one hand and decreasing the risk and impact of ill health on the other, can help families plan

better for the future, motivate them to make more risky investments which often produce higher

incomes, and thus may do more to assist families in moving out of poverty.

The centrality of employment within livelihood security means the state and civil society must

work more proactively with the private sector to develop and attract more good-quality

employment opportunities to urban areas. These efforts must build the qualifications of the

labor force in a strategic way, such that they match those required by employers; hence

training programs must be given greater and more expert attention within anti-poverty

strategies NGOs and the state must apply longer-term, market-driven vision to avoid

developing training programs which rely on traditional, sometimes obsolete skills, creating

products to supply marginal or over-crowded markets. NGOs, the state and the privatesector also must work against instead of subtly supporting the status quo of gender-

and community-based discrimination in economic opportunities


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Improved income security and better economic opportunities require better education.

The evidence in Lucknow shows that men and women with more education were

more likely to be in salaried employment, and earned more income . This is not a

surprising result; the relationship between education and income is established.

Nonetheless primary education does not receive the attention needed to ensure

that schools can deliver their services in the quantity and even more importantly

quality required to meet demand. Todays urban youth living in slums will have few

chances for a better life in a global economy where knowledge, information and

technology will play an ever-larger role, if they cannot obtain at least a good-quality basic

education. School attendance is a problem in Lucknow, where almost one third of

school age children were not in school; slightly more boys do not attend than girls (see

act Sheet 3). Why is this the case?

To educate is a dream of all parents, but when there is no income then we cannot fulfil many

of our desires.

This statement sums up the perceptions of poor slum households in Lucknow about the

importance and feasibility of educating both boys and girls. The demand and desire isthere, so what keeps children out of school? What are the barriers that keep parents

from fulfilling their dreams for their children? Poverty and lack of income are

barriers to education, as are low-quality school environments. Irregular work and

high numbers of dependants are additional factors contributing to difficulties in

meeting education costs. Even in government schools where fees are low, the cost of

books and copies is often beyond the reach of poor households. ailure to pay fees on

time means humiliation for children and often ends in the children being struck off the

school register. And most importantly, an unfriendly school environment with poor

infrastructure and even poorer methods of teaching and discipline are the biggest

deterrents to sending children to school.

In school we are beaten whenever we do something wrong. We do not like that.

Studies were not good; the teachers used to teach one day and not come the next.

The non-income poor in the sample spent more per school-going child and placed

more of their children into private schools, even private English-medium schools. They

are able to buy their way out of poor quality publicly-provided services, ensuring that their

current advantages will be maintained if not increased in their childrens generation.

The Lucknow results highlight that parents do not carry the whole burden of working toincrease childrens school attendance. Parents want to educate their children but find

obstacles in their path due to low incomes and poor-quality institutions. They do not

see the worth of allocating a portion of their low income to a service from which

EDUCATION: INVESTING IN THE FUTURE


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22

they are doubtful of receiving a return. Thus, a three-pronged strategyis needed

to improve school attendance.

One element involves improving incomes among the urban poor so that they are

better able to afford schooling and less dependent on child labor.

The second involves expanding incentive programs to motivate more families to

send more children to school, particularly girls. School lunch programs have had

some success in achieving this end.

The final and most central strategy is to improve the quality of government schools

by increasing the accountability of the state and schools for the services they

provide. This will involve a partnership between NGOs and parents to set and monitor

standards for service delivery and to hold service providers accountable. This is a

challenge in Uttar Pradesh where NGO activism is low and the state is characterized by

a lack of action.


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Half of the 4100 financial stress events experienced by sample households over the

2.5-year study period were non-chronic illnesses, and a further 20 percent were

chronic illnesses. While each illness alone may not have a large cost burden, the

cumulative cost over time and the effects on physical strength and productivity

particularly when the sick person cannot afford to treat the illness or to leave work to

rest make such events a major burden for the urban poor (act Sheets 4 and 5).

Evidence from Lucknow suggests that the poorest are often unable to treat their

illnesses, with a common response in the face of a chronic or non-chronic illness

being to do nothing.

Among those who do take treatment, families across all income categories do not

take advantage of public health centers or government hospitals unless they have

a major illness requiring hospitalization. Preferred providers are private clinics, which

offer longer hours, higher-quality services, more respectful treatment and the

possibility of payment in instalments. Thus, poor households pay more for treatment

than they might otherwise have to if government health services better met their needs.

amilies treating illnesses meet these costs through savings, reducing daily

consumption, and at times through loans. Those who were income-poor throughoutthe study were more likely to take loans for treatment; more households among the

better-off relied on savings.

Hospitalizations are more immediately financially debilitating than chronic and non-

chronic illnesses, which have more of a negative cumulative effect over time.

Though hospitalizations were not frequent events, they were quite burdensome due to

their high costs (act Sheet 5). In order to meet these costs, families often took loans,

used savings, or relied on charity from family and friends. Also, compared to other

event types, a greater share of responses to hospitalizations involved the sale or

mortgaging of assets, signalling the long-term reduction of human and physical

capital resulting from hospitalizations. Improved government health facilities and

insurance products to cover hospitalization costs are two means by which to

reduce the risk of a sustained deterioration following a hospitalization

THE BURDEN OF ILL HEALTH


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The study collected data on the various foods that households consume, in order to

understand the quality of food consumed and who in the household consumes what. We

combined the spending data to determine per capita total food spending (excluding

spending on tobacco and alcohol products), spending on staples such as potatoes,

onions, flour, rice and dal, and spending on nutritious foods that are not necessarily

staples, such as milk, eggs, green vegetables and fish or meat. Across the study period,

the mean per capita total monthly food spending was 340 rupees This value is

marginally less than the government of India poverty line for urban areas (346

rupees per person per month). Thus, on average, families in the study slums in Lucknow

are falling just short of this minimum. In fact, across the three research rounds, 60

percent of the families studied reported average monthly per capita food spending

less than this amount. Not surprisingly, staple foods compose the major share of monthly

food spending, accounting for about 60 percent of expenditure. Non-staple nutritious

foods constituted on average 30 percent of per capita monthly food spending, while

special foods such as cold drinks, and meals and tea consumed outside the household

accounted for the remaining 10 percent of expenditure.

Another indicator of food insecurity is how many households purchase staple foods on adaily basis. .or example, between 20 to 25 percent of the sample households over

the study period bought dal, flour, and rice on a daily basis, indicating that they were

unable to purchase in larger quantities due to low income

We also investigated the extent to which mens and womens access to foods particularly

nutritious foods differed. Reported gender-based food inequality is low among the

study households in Lucknow .or most staple and nutritious foods, over 90 percent

of the households reported that all family members ate them. Eggs are the one

exception where only 84 percent of families consuming eggs reported all ate them. Of

those allocating eggs to particular household members, a greater share reported that men

rather than women ate them. The same gender inequality is found to a greater extent

in consuming meals and tea outside of the home. These are male consumption items,

representing mens leisure activities and their greater mobility outside of the home.

Spending on alcohol and tobacco products is related to food security in that it

represents money diverted from meeting the familys basic needs to meeting

individual needs. These individual allocations generally go to men, with the Lucknow

data showing that more men than women consume tobacco products and alcohol.

FOOD SECURITY

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Access to savings and credit can form the basis for financial security among urban

poor households However, it is also important to note that credit can increase

vulnerability over the long term, even as it decreases immediate consumption shortfalls. So

in the short term, credit may play a key role in meeting immediate needs for

food or medical care, but in the long term it may result in an unsustainable debt

burden Improving families ability to save becomes a vital part of livelihood

improvement strategies, since families with savings tend to rely less on loans to meet

consumption needs.

Residents in the study slums in Lucknow show a high propensity to save, though

more non-poor households than any others are able to save (act Sheet 6). Levels of

saving varied widely across households, with the stable poor and those who

became poor having much lower median stocks of savings than the others

These households have less adaptability in the face of larger or cumulative financial

stress events.

Average savings levels had no relationship with the number of events experienced. So

while savings do not have a role in helping families avoid financial stress events,they do play a role in adapting to events On average, those with higher relative

savings stocks used savings more often as response strategies to financial events and

relied on consumption cuts and loans less frequently. Even with the greater reliance on

savings, they were able to maintain their saving advantage over the life of the study,

signalling their ability to renew savings stocks from income flows.

Overall, savings are important responses to events for all households Thus,

programs that enable more families to save, and all families to save more, should

be incorporated into urban livelihood interventions since savings provide a liquid

source of funds to buffer other assets in times of crisis. Such interventions will involve:

improving microfinance outreach in urban areas so that the urban poor have

trustworthy, secure places to save;

motivating more banks and other formal financial institutions to provide savings

products targeted at the urban poor, meeting the clients needs in terms of liquidity

of funds, simple procedures and easy access;

supporting indigenous saving mechanisms, particularly among women, by

providing seed funds and training in financial management and group dynamics;

and

improving earning opportunities and income levels so the amount families can

save increases.

Vulnerability associated with reliance on loans for basic needs and in the face of

financial crises is apparent in the Lucknow study slums. Overall, 46 percent of

households borrowed money during the study period However, those who

FINANCIAL SECURITY

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became poor had a much higher share of families taking loans and those who

remained non-poor had a much lower share. Thus, higher incomes led to more

savings and less debt among the latter while high income variation and falling

incomes led to lower savings and higher reliance on debt for the former, making them

more vulnerable. Median loan burdens support this, with families who became and

stayed poor during the study having the highest median loan balance as a share of

monthly income.

Two common uses of loans across all households were for medical expenses and

daily food consumption (act Sheet 6). While credit should not be limited for such uses

since it helps families meet immediate needs, it is clear that relying on credit for these

consumption needs makes repayment very difficult and can increase future

vulnerability Hence there is a need for a holistic approach to microfinance that enables

families to take consumption loans currently and also assists them to build savings to

meet these needs in the future, reducing dependence on debt in the longer term.

Another common use for loans is to fund participation in religious and social

ceremonies; these uses of debt admittedly have meaning and are important to therespondent households, and may also assist them in building and maintaining social ties.

However, funding such investments using credit increases the burden of debt by

providing no means through which to repay the loans. This was a particular problem

for families who became poor, among whom it was more common to use loans to meet

social and religious obligations. While loans are used to some extent across all event

types, they are more common when events are of high cost. Thus, they are often used in

response to social events such as weddings and for hospitalizations. Their use for festivals

is different, in that these tend not to represent large costs each time, but are recurring and

thus become large over time.

ew urban poor households in Lucknow access credit from formal institutions. About half

of all loans taken across the study period instead came from friends, neighbors,

relatives or self-help groups (all good sources). The latter are a surprisingly small

source of credit, indicating that the microfinance revolution has not reached Lucknow.

Reliance on good sources of loans shows that the urban poor are integrated into

networks of support which provide low- or no-interest credit in times of need.

The balance of the loans taken by the study households came from shopkeepers

(for daily needs), employers and money-lenders. The latter are not a major source of credit

in Lucknow.


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Having a secure place to live is a much more pressing issue for the urban as opposed to

rural poor. Access to land and services is limited in Indian cities, including Lucknow.

However, cities vary in terms of the extent of pressure on land, the quality of service

provision and the city authoritys interest in addressing encroachments. Lucknow is a city

characterized by relatively low pressure on land and low interest in carrying out

evictions and displacements among city officials Hence, most of the study slum

residents perceived themselves as somewhat secure. Part of the reason for this is their long

length of residence in the study slums (act Sheet 7).

Having a secure home with basic services is important for personal as well as economic

security. Households with legal land had better-quality homes and services and higher

incomes on average. They achieved these outcomes over a long period, as most slums on

legal land were in the old city where families had resided for generations. Only half of

non-tenants actually lived on legal land; nonetheless, those on illegal land showed

evidence of access to basic services (electricity, water, toilets) and the willingness to invest in

their homes to make them semi-pucca and pucca.6 The home-improvement process is

slower on illegal land but it is happening, supporting residents perceived feelings of

security.

The high perceived tenure security in Lucknow suggests that expending resources to

legalize tenure may not be an immediate priority issue in addressing urban

vulnerability in this case Improving basic services, increasing employment opportunities

and incomes, and improving schools and health facilities are more important. However,

this does not mean that tenure can be ignored in the long term As urbanization

increases in India over the next decades, more pressure will be put on urban land

and services Preparing for these challenges now is important in cities such as Lucknow

where tenure does not at present appear to be a priority. NGOs in Lucknow can begin

using the planning process now to assure that the poor are given space in new

settlements and market space for their economic activities, as well as advocating for

the rights of the urban poor in light of their contribution to the city economy Also,

certain subgroups of the urban poor may require immediate tenure-related interventions.

One such group is rag-pickers who, due to illegal land status, the power of traders, and

the unpopularity of their occupation, require formal recognition and assistance in

accessing secure land with services on which to live and work (see Box 2 below for more

information on the vulnerability of rag-pickers).7

HOME AND LAND AS BASES OF SECURITY

6 Pucca homes are secure, good quality homes with walls and roof made of brick or concrete; semi-pucca homes areon their way to becoming pucca through incremental improvements. Generally some or all walls are brick or concretewhile roofs are of lower quality material.7 This finding is drawn from the study The Ragpickers: Theorizing Vulnerability completed by Shyamoli Singh as part ofthe larger study.


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Box 2 Summary of the Lucknow rag-pickers study

Rag-pickers are people who scavenge the colossal amount of waste that is

generated every day in cities. They select waste articles from dumpsters that can be

recycled, touring all day on foot to far-off places to collect waste. Waste is anything

that holds no value to its original owner. This includes kitchen waste, vegetables,

fruits, flowers, leaves from the garden, old medicines, paint, chemicals, light bulbs,

spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish and cloth

soiled with blood and other body fluids from hospitals and clinics. This waste is

often decaying or foul-smelling, and carries risk of disease. One of the researchfellows conducted a separate study of rag-pickers, to examine their occupational

health risks and economic and social vulnerabilities.

Rag-pickers in Lucknow come primarily from three regions: Assam, Bihar and Uttar

Pradesh. The study focused on representing these three regional groups and then

also captured them in homogeneous living environments (i.e. only rag-pickers) and

heterogeneous environments (where rag-pickers live alongside other professional

groups). Thus the study examines the effects of regional identity and slum

environment on the vulnerabilities of rag-pickers, studying six slums in order to

capture region of origin and slum environment variations. A household survey,

focus groups, and in-depth observations of picking behaviors were used to collectthe necessary data.

While non-chronic and chronic illnesses are the most frequent events, the most

burdensome events, characterized by frequency and median cost, are social

ceremonies, house repairs and festivals (act Sheet 4). estivals are interesting in that

they rank third in both frequency and burden and are recurring events. Thus, they likely

place a large burden on households as they struggle to find the means to make these

social investments. This is clear from the response strategies used to meet festival

expenses, where a larger share of households relied on loans (29 percent). Loans were

also often used for social ceremony expenses (36 percent of households used loans); this

is less surprising, because marriage and dowry were part of this category. Both of these

entail large expenditures for which loans and help from others were more common

sources of funds compared to other events.

The death of an earner was a very infrequently-occurring event, but was very

debilitating in terms of its estimated cost. Our study considered monetary costs only,

but it is important also to consider social costs, which are likely to be particularly high

when the survivor is a woman.

NON-ILLNESS STRESS EVENTS AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES

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Summary of .indings

Services

Pickers living in older slums (e.g. pickers from Uttar Pradesh) had better access

to services in comparison to those living in newer slums.

Rag-pickers living in the heterogeneous communities had better access to

services, implying that rag-pickers are marginalized when they are segregated.

Health

Rag-pickers are extremely susceptible to diseases due to the type of waste they

collect, their exposure to the elements, and their risky picking and sorting

practices (no shoes, no gloves, children playing amongst the waste during

sorting, no hand washing before cooking).

When ill, rag-pickers prefer private treatment over government hospitals due to

perceptions of the quality of treatment and negative experiences (rudeness) at

government clinics.

In focus group discussions, rag-pickers did not associate their work with a highrisk for ill health; they did not perceive their work as risky, except due to injury

and exposure to the weather.

Income

The Assamese earn significantly less than the other regional groups; this is

partly related to their difficulties with the local language, and their higher

dependence on subcontractors to give them living space and picking areas.

Households not solely dependent on rag-picking for income are economically

better-off than those involved only in rag-picking. Diversification is important to

improving livelihoods.

Vulnerable Groups

Women were more exposed to health- and work-related risks.

The Assamese are worst-off socially and economically due to having fewer ties

in the community, problems with the language, and greater dependence on

subcontractors.

Rag-pickers in heterogeneous slums may have better access to services, but they

also face insults and rudeness by non-rag-pickers. They are often isolated and

marginalized, and as a result may not benefit from their better access

opportunities.

Box 2 Summary of the Lucknow rag-pickers study


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A rather unique aspect of this study was its collection of both household- and individual-level

data, allowing us to examine gender-based intra-household aspects of vulnerability. Like

poverty, vulnerability is not just a household-level concept; different members of the

household experience vulnerability differently .or example, women and girls may be

more vulnerable in some respects than boys and men Aspects of vulnerability where intra-

household differences may appear include food consumption, investment in childrens

education, investment in health care, exposure to illnesses, and who is burdened by the

responses to events (i.e. particularly consumption cuts or sales of assets). Gender differences in

decision-making involvement may increase womens vulnerability if they have little say in how

the household allocates its income or responds to negative events.

In the Lucknow study we found little evidence of gender differences in consumption

of basic food items or most such items, over 90 percent of households reported that all

members ate them (rice, dal, flour, vegetables, milk, fish/meat, fruit); only eggs differed

from this with more men than women consuming them. Gender differences in

consumption were more apparent in non-basic foods consumed outside of the household;

men drank prepared tea and ate meals outside the home much more often than women.

Men also consumed more vice items such as tobacco and alcohol than women.

Boys are more vulnerable than girls in terms of the percentage not attending school,

but among those studying, households spend more on male school-going children

than on females (act Sheet 3). This is due to differences in the types of schools attended.

More boys attend private English-medium schools while more girls attend government

schools. Thus, boys are more likely to be receiving an education that will prepare them for

future job opportunities, leading to the likely reproduction of womens existing labor

market disadvantages among their daughters generation.

Men and women who work contribute equivalent shares of their earnings to the

household pool, though these shares differ when disaggregated by marital statusUnmarried girls who earn contribute a lower share of their income than unmarried boys.

Presumably, girls can spend their earnings on personal items, including saving for their

dowry. Married women contribute a slightly higher share of their earnings to the

household pool than married men.

There is evidence of gender-based vulnerability in exposure to illnesses. Women

experienced significantly more illnesses on average than men throughout the study

period (act Sheet 5). However, average spending per illness did not vary by gender, so

for each illness event there is no sign of discrimination in spending levels.

Rounds two and three of the research indicated that women were affected by morehousehold events than men and they were less likely to be involved in decisions

about how to respond to events However, their lack of decision-making involvement did

not mean they were any more burdened by response strategies than men.

GENDER AND VULNERABILITY


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Box 3: Female-maintained households in Lucknow

A separate study of female-maintained households in Lucknow examined the

vulnerability of these households across household types - de jure (widowed, divorced/

separated in law), de facto (husband away working, not legally separated) and female-

managed - and religious community - Muslim households in Muslim slum, Hindu

households in Hindu slum and both religious communities in a mixed slum. The study

was undertaken in three slums: two homogeneous by religion (one Muslim and one

Hindu) and one mixed religious area. Twenty households across the three slums,representing the different types of female-maintained households, were involved in in-

depth interviews. The study found that:

Slum residents were more supportive in homogeneous religious pockets as there

was more cohesiveness and eagerness to help female-maintained households, but:

Traditional customs hindered womens entrance into socio-economic activities in

Muslim slums. The dominance of purdah proved to be the main hindering factor in

entering income-earning activities; this increased these households vulnerability by

decreasing their economic independence and ability to build savings.

All female-maintained households lacked basic services, but the worst-off were

Muslim households where, due to purdah norms, the households used dry latrines

that were often located close to the cooking area and were a breeding ground for

flies and other insects.

Health status across all households was quite poor as a result of high health risks

due to unhygienic conditions and poor living places. emale-headed households

also often could not treat illnesses properly due to low income levels.

Low education levels were quite common, with boys in particular being required to

work from an early age. Surprisingly, girls education was encouraged in de jure

households but discouraged in de facto households, largely for reasons of

reputation protection.

Per capita income of female-managed households, where a male was present but

not earning, was the lowest among all female-maintained subtypes. This is largely

due to the larger household size among this group.

Women maintaining households faced different problems at the individual level in

different communities. Women members of female-maintained households using basic services

experienced excessive abuse by other residents in the mixed Hindu-Muslim slum.

This was especially true for those in the de jure group, due to the absence of a

male in the household.

Economic exploitation by middlemen in fetching work and strict religious customs

contributed to the vulnerability of female-maintained households in the Muslim

community.

Official safety-net systems were not supportive of women-maintained households as

the government failed to recognise all their types, often not having any appropriate

schemes and programs for the different groups.

These results were drawn from a study titled Vulnerability of emale-Maintained Households done by Uzma Khan aspart of the larger study.


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Surprisingly, there is little evidence of differences in womens and mens involvement

in key household decisions, particularly between men and women who work (act Sheet

10). However, women who work have more say in the household compared to those

who do not So, improving womens opportunities for income-earning employment will

not only assist families in meeting their basic needs but also can improve womens status

in the household.

Overall, there is some evidence of intra-household gender differences in risks and

vulnerabilities but the differences do not all burden women and girls Gender

differences are most obvious in the labor market where men and women access very

different jobs and women are paid much less even in the same activities as men. These

earning differences make women more at risk of poverty individually and increase the

vulnerability of female-headed households by intensifying their labor mobilization

strategies.


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Key assets and strategies to reduce urban vulnerability

The key assets associated with lower vulnerability among the urban poor are labor (who

works, for how many days, and in what activities), savings, education, good health, and

access to basic services. All are important in helping families secure better access to income

and achieve greater livelihood security. Improving access to income through better job

opportunities is of central importance among the urban poor, which is clear from the data on

earnings. However, improved income alone is not enough to guarantee a reduction in

vulnerability. Interventions that influence how households spend their income and who controls

that income are also important; these interventions should stress the importance of investing in

preventative health care and in education, of promoting savings, and reducing spending on

social and festival events and on items such as alcohol and tobacco. Also important are

supply-side improvements in the quality of education and health services; these require more

accountable government, and civic groups ready to hold the state to its promises. Thus,

holistic cross-sectoral, gender-sensitive strategies are required which will improve income-

earning opportunities for both men and women, increase womens time available for work by

reducing the drudgery of household work, reduce the need for child labor, provide secure

access to land and housing, and improve access to and quality of physical and social services.

The challenge lies in how to design and implement urban development programs of therequired scale and complexity to do more than make small isolated improvements, and

leading instead to sustained improvements in urban livelihoods all in a context of

increasing urbanization.

Successful urban poverty eradication and sustained improvements in urban livelihood

security depend on all stakeholders working together much more than they have in the

past due to the interconnections between the causes of urban poverty and livelihood

insecurity. Small-scale sectoral interventions run by one NGO funded by one donor are

unlikely to make a sustained impact. Nor will interventions that do not address either the

rights of the urban poor to equal access to labor markets, land, services and full

citizenship, or the unequal power relations shaping the poors access to the state,

markets, and other institutions. Thus, creative, collaborative rights-based approaches form

the core of a forward-looking strategy to reduce urban vulnerability.

Rights-based approaches are appropriate to reducing urban vulnerability because they

encompass a holistic understanding of well-being, integrating economic, social and

political rights, and explicitly focus on the structural causes of poverty based in unequal

power relations. Thus, they reflect well the complex dimensions that cause and sustain

urban vulnerability and illustrate the range of areas where development interventions are

needed to make a sustained change in the way urban institutions are formed and

operate. Changes are needed to increase the power, voice and control of the urban poorwithin development, state, market and community institutions to ensure that the urban

poor can claim their entitlements to services, land, political representation, decent work

and social protection. All such institutional changes must be framed within a gender-

STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

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36

sensitive approach that guarantees urban poor women their rights, as well as being

sensitive to the rights of other marginalized groups within the category of urban poor

such as recent migrants, minority groups, the homeless and beggars.

Roles in implementing successful rights-based urban poverty reduction programs

There are many actors involved in the development process. All of them have roles, at

times similar and at others different, in successfully achieving increased urban livelihood

security through a rights-based approach.

The state should create an enabling environment for accessing rights; ensure the

provision of entitlements (to work, clean water, sanitation, land, education, good

health) and broaden the base of entitlements offered. It should create benchmarks to

monitor its pro-poor actions; make benchmarks and monitoring transparent and

available to all; enact reforms to reduce corruption and debilitating bureaucratic

processes; and provide safety nets for those unable to provide for themselves.

Donors and bilateral and multilateral development organizations should support

action research and creative, collaborative program development and implementationwhich address both immediate needs as well as the larger structural constraints

operating to keep the urban poor from full, equal incorporation into civil society and

markets. They should make changing power relations and facilitating empowerment

central to their work, maintain a long-term focus when monitoring impacts and

outcomes, and be more accountable to the poor.

NGOs should prioritize advocacy for the rights of poor urban dwellers, including the

right to participate in public processes, to access land and basic services, to education,

health care and decent work. They should assist the urban poor to access information;

work to change the power relations keeping the poor from equal participation in the

state, market, community and household; hold the government accountable to its roles

in creating an enabling environment and providing entitlements; be accountable to the

poor, giving them voice in their organizations; and be more willing to work

collaboratively with other NGOs to develop integrated urban poverty reduction

programs.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) should participate in political processes

(recognizing the challenge of participation in terms of time available and lack of

remuneration); access and provide information to CBO members; and hold

government and NGOs accountable to poor communities.


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In the end, to make a sustained impact on the factors maintaining and increasing urban

vulnerability, changes must occur in the way development institutions interact. A stronger

collaborative element is required. Changing power relations must also become central to

development interventions to ensure that the urban poor have the voice and status to

claim their rights in the state, market, community, and household. The latter also requires

gender-aware action. Urban poverty reduction strategies will become more successful

through joint efforts which put people in all their diversity at the center of development

thinking and practice instead of economic growth, and which focus on equity,

participation, empowerment, and accountability.


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Chambers, R. (1997) Whose Reality Counts? Putting the irst Last, London:

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Chambers, R. and G.R. Conway (1992) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods:

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Glewwe, P. and G. Hall (1995) Who is Most Vulnerable to Macroeconomic Shocks?

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Grootaert, C., R. Kanbur, et al. (1995) The Dynamics of Poverty: Why Some People Escape

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APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Study slums and their characteristics

Slum Age Size Social Occupations Land tenure(no. of groups

households)

Choti Jugoli 80 407 Hindu Daily earners, Disputed insalaried workers parts, tenants

Vijay Khera 25 340 Mixed Daily earners Government;legal andillegal in parts

Indiranagri 33 229 Hindu and Labor, Private, illegalMuslim self-employed in pockets

service

Pandey Tola 200 550 More Hindus Labor, Private, mainly self-employed legalservice

Kumharan Tola 150 220 Mixed Artisan, labor Private,mainly legal

Shivpuri 200 206 Mixed, Artisan Private, mainly more Muslims legal

Thathar Colony 20 121 Shia Muslims Artisan, Private,labor disputed.

Land mafia

Sanyog Nagar 29 164 Mixed Government Illegalservice,self-employed

Hata Sitara Begum 40 175 Mixed Self-employed Private,service illegal in parts

Jutewali Gali 52 129 Mixed Labor, Private,self-employed legal,

tenants

Purana Takiya 80 162 Muslim Service, labor 3 types,2 disputes

Machhali Mohal 100 142 Mixed Self-employed, Legalvending


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