SPOTLIGHT ON A TRUST MEMBER LATA SHRIKHANDE
“This is all my experience over the past thirty years. I haven’t gained any of this knowledge from books. If I understand this and if I really respect Mother Nature, then it is my duty to share it.” Lata Shrikhande, the president of theShelter Associates trust and vermiculture expert, has possessed leadership qualities from a very early age. As a young girl in school, she earned ten rupees at a time as prize money for her participation in extra-curricular activities. While most children would set this money aside for themselves, Lata decided to save her earnings. When her prize money totaled 150 rupees, she purchased a new cupboard to gift back to her school. It is with this unique nature of giving that Lata has approached her involvement with Shelter Associates.

STATUS OF SLUMS IN PUNE
Following India’s independence, Mahatma Gandhi time and again reminded people that 90% of the nation’s people lived in rural areas. Over the decades, for a variety of reasons, these conditions have changed. In the 1950s, with the rise of urbanization, many people started migrating from village to city for new job opportunities and basic amenities. However, Lata says, most ended up becoming “lost migrants in their own country,” as these amenities were nowhere to be found.

Traditionally, many private homes in cities across India were constructed with servant quarters. Therefore, servants were not only provided with work, they were also guaranteed accommodation and basic amenities. This changed when urbanization began, and builders stopped creating these quarters due to the rising cost of housing. Thus, the migrants arriving from villages were able to find work, but had no place to live. This challenge was worsened with the growing middle class mentality that “I don’t want to see the slum from my house, but I want the individual in my home to cook and clean,” Lata says. This represents a systematic way of keeping the lower classes down. The middle class homeowner thinks, “I want to provide work, but that’s it. I need to provide work so the classes stay apart, so there are always those people to do the dirty work. But I don’t want to provide housing, because I want to maintain this discrimination.”

For this reason, slum pockets mushroomed across cities, and were categorized as either recognized or unrecognized slums. If the communities were provided with basic amenities such as water and clean sanitation, they were labeled aslegally recognized. This, however, was not typically the case. In fact, most slums remained without any kind of basic amenities or recognition, becoming literally forgotten by the city. Lacking recognition as a slum, these families have been left at the will and mercy of the city authorities. Unlike the middle classes, who have the luxury to view the political system with complete apathy because they do not depend on its structure for anything, the slum dweller must “know and votefor his local politician for the basic right to live in his own country.”

Because politicians seek votes, they have little incentive to regularize unrecognized slum settlements. If a slum is recognized, its people no longer need to depend on politicians. Thus, the politician keeps the slum dependent by not providing amenities, and ensuring his vote – otherwise the slum dwellers can begin to think on their own!

This is the state of slums today, and the catalyst for one of Shelter Associates’ central challenges. Because city authorities have spent so long “playing with the dreams of these people,” slum dwellers are accustomed to officials using them for their own good. According to Lata, this has caused them to approach outsiders with the question, “What are you getting out of it?” Changing this negativity, this lack of trust, presents an acute challenge. Shelter has the task of “changing the mindset of who we are and what we will do for you. The slum dwellers have suffered generations of being fooled by politicians. They say, ‘Leave us with our fate. Enough is enough.’ Then you have the challenge of building on that. What we are doing with social mobilization is trying to rebuild the confidence lost from decades of distrust of local administration – an administration that views slum dwellers as subhuman, as a disease to be moved at the whim of the administrator.”

GARBAGE SEGREGATION
In 1980, Lata found herself beginning to question what goes into a garbage bin:“The garbage bin in my area is a reflection of social attitudes. It’s not my position to deal with that, I will just plug my nose and walk away. The moment you accept that yes, that is me, that is the moment you want to change that reflection. The moment I placed my hand in the garbage bin was the moment this became the mission of my life. You can’t get used to this, because solutions are so simple once you pay attention to the problem.”

In dealing with this problem, Lata spoke with rag pickers, the local women who pick paper, plastic, and broken glass out of the garbage as a form of livelihood. The women were selecting recyclable waste from the garbage bin and removing it for their use. Lata wondered, Why not just keep the recyclable waste apart and hand it to the women instead? “We have become so self-centered as a society. When we break glass in our homes, we are so careful to pick up every single piece to protect ourselves, our families. But then we throw it out without a second thought of who it may be harming outside.” The women who pick through the garbage hurt themselves and develop all sorts of skin diseases. Because this is their work, they cannot do anything to prevent this. For this reason, we must “think about the greater community, beyond our immediate selves and our immediate needs.” Garbage segregation is really a simple exercise, but it will only become a habit once a person knows the purpose and value behind it. As Lata said, “Social mobilization is about understanding the purpose, otherwise it cannot be sustainable.” Therefore, it is necessary to spread awareness, and “start with the root cause of individuals in their homes to make them understand the value of what they are doing.”

After all, natural forms of recycling have been instilled in India for years. Lata gave the example of a juice shop to explain this. When making juice, many scraps of fruit are wasted. However, a bullock cart is used to bring the ice to make the juice. In order to eliminate the waste, the people working in the juice shop use the scraps to feed the cart’s cattle. This incentive not to waste anything is truly “imbedded in Indian culture.” However, with urbanization, life changes and the cattle are no longer around. Thus, the fruit scraps are thrown out the window without any consideration of waste. We must deal with this directly. As Lata said, “We are not all made for big things. But we can each do small things in our homes, in our communities, that will make a difference.” Ultimately, we must “inspire the next generation, so they start respecting Mother Nature. We have started to take Mother Nature for granted, and that is a key problem with our environment today.” It is with this goal and motivation that Shelter Associates will strive to turn the Pune slums into a site for urban agricultural growth. In order to do this, we must recreate that nature of giving and leadership that was so instilled in Lata as a young girl, rendering social mobilization sustainable.

“A simple way of life is a beautiful way of life. Use and throw goes beyond recycling in our everyday lives and relationships. This is not our way. Everything has to be treated with respect and compassion.”

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