Slum dwellers in the capital have joined hands to press for not only a budget the size of the Commonwelath Games spending for their housing but also the implementation speed to match.

While the campaign initiated by the United Volunteer Association [UVA] and People’s Action for the housing rights of slum dwellers in Delhi in the context of the expenditure on the CWG enters the 15th on Monday, a public meeting of slum representatives has been planned for September 1 to bring slum representatives together on one platform and press for the twin demands.

The campaign has two objectives:

* To demand that the government put asides an equal amount of money as has been spent on the CWG for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers; and

* That the government constructs pucca houses for slum dwellers with the same speed as they did for the CWG and hand over to them in two years.

“The conclave is our first step towards organising the slum dwellers to demand their right. We will use the opportunity to consolidate the gains of the campaign and seek to expand the scope of our work in the slum clusters,” UVA co-convenor Apoorv Misra said in a press release.

UVA members have reported an unusually positive feedback and support for the campaign. Arun Kaluria, UVA member in charge of onground operations, said, “When we started we were not sure if we could have made any impact on an issue which has been hanging fire for so long. Besides we were told that the slum clusters were a fragmented lot where groupism would not allow us to proceed. But our experience is totally different: we have signed up close to 250 volunteers from the 15 slum clusters we have covered so far and who have willingly agreed to be part of this campaign.”

UVA members have now covered 15 slum camps in west and central Delhi since the Independence Day when they started, with encouraging results. An audience of about 50 people is normally addressed in such meetings where they are explained the concept of Housing Rights as a constitutional mandate and the campaign objectives are then discussed and approved by the slum dwellers. To develop a volunteer group within the slum, members then ask willing youth and other residents to sign up as volunteers who can campaign locally. Over 250 residents from various JJ (jhuggi jhopadi) clusters have so far signed up for the campaign.

People’s Action member in charge of the campaign Atul Goyal said, “The campaign has achieved impressive traction and this meeting which we had earlier scheduled for mid-September is now being advanced to the 1st of the month to accommodate the slum dwellers enthusiasm.”

The slum representatives will meet at the Gandhi Peace Foundation on Wednesda.