:: Delhi Greens ::

The Sarai Programme at the Center for Study of Developing Societies, Delhi is an interdisciplinary platform for the investigation and interpretation of contemporary urban experience. Sarai produces events and processes, publishes offline and online content and generates contexts for research and creative practice concerning contemporary urban conditions.

The Sarai Media Lab invites expressions of interest and intent from artists and practitioners in diverse media – textual, visual, aural, spatial and temporal – who could be – visual artists (photographers, sculptors, installation artists, graphic artists), writers and independent scholars, filmmakers, architects, experimental musicians and composers, sound recordists, performers and people whose practices straddle or transcend different areas of practice  - for participation in the ‘City as Studio’ Project.

The City as Studio initiative will create contexts for high intensity inter-disciplinary processes at different locations in Delhi and at the Sarai space at CSDS. Sometimes these process(es) may be rendered as an exhibition, at other times as a gathering, as a library, as a temporary archive or as an occasion for performances, conversations and debates. At still other times it may take the form of a workshop, a temporary atelier, a media studio, a publication or an online
platform.

The City as Studio is neither a one off event, nor a workshop or a residency, nor a festival or a simple cluster of public programmes – though it has elements of all of the above. It is primarily a method of generating a new public profile for creative work in the city, a scanning of the horizon of possibilities that can be opened up in urban spaces through the presence of art, experimental cultural activity and public exchanges.

The studio process plans to bring together artists, filmmakers, photographers, discursive interlocutors, architects, writers, urbanists, scientists, architects, social actors and cultural workers, neighbourhood initiatives and diverse audiences to create art works, participatory performances, media works, and transmissions of
different kinds of signals.

Possible areas of that will be reflected upon could include but need not be limited to:

• the city as spectacle, as a site of consumption, as an arena of power
• the growing intensity of surveillance,
• the question of distance and anchorage: housing and transportation
• access to resources, location and privilege
• the local pursuits of pleasure
• life, death, and rites of passage in the city
• the everydayness and banality of terror
• imagined histories and urban legends, the fantastical and uncanny city
• the archived and remembered city
• urban ecologies, the city as a zone of bio-diversity, urban forests, rivers
• ways of life, sub-cultures, bodies of informal knowledge, local practices
• migrants, margins and minorities

Sarai invites applicants to imagine that the city itself is their studio, and that urban realities are their materials in order to create artistic work that acts as a body of public knowledge in and about the city.

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As appropriately put by Yvo De Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, “the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) will be a turning point in the fight to prevent (the) climate disaster. The science demands it, the economics support it, (and) future generations require it.” COP15 will begin in a few hours from now.

The final week of the Copenhagen summit is the 12th hour: the defining, crucial moment for leaders to sign on to a treaty to avert climate catastrophe and unleash a low-carbon future. In communities everywhere on earth, we can lead the way by showing the leaders exactly what we want them to do. But they will not act until they hear us. So, it is time to raise our voice, and it is time to get loud – FOR the Climate!

A Drumbeat to Save the Planet:

Climate Ke Liye Bajao!

December 12-12/12 is the midpoint of the Copenhagen climate talks. At this crucual moment, governments around the globe need to hear a clear, simple message from people everywhere: The time has come to sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty. Join the Global Day of Climate Action – December 12h – and participate in what will be the largest public protest in history. A protest to wake up world leaders to the urgency of climate change!

In Delhi and dozens of cities in India, the Climate Satyagraha Coalition is organising a CITIZEN’s march. As a symbolic action to wake up the world leaders to the urgency of climate change, we will make noise for the Planet using anything we can lay our hands on: dholak, khartaal, mridang, bansuri or even spoons, plates and buckets.

We are the last generation that can ensure the plante doesn’t tip over the chaos. Its time we showed that we don’t want talk anymore, we want action. We want leaders not politicians – lets show them they they can’t take us for granted. That the negotiations they are engaged in are about people’s lives, not just words.

Come, join the Rally at Rajghat on 12th December from 11 am onwards!

Join us in this global call for action. For further information, please contact:

Bidhan: 09845535405  ||  bidhanchandrasingh@gmail.com
Naveen: 9910702114  ||  nmishra7@gmail.com

With the objective of empowering women through technology, Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT) is organising a three day workshop for women on “Online Campaigns and Social Media for Nonprofits”.

You’ve probably already heard about using social media as a powerful tool for social change. Maybe you already set up a Facebook profile and have even braved Twitter, but are you really understanding how to use these tools effectively? We’ll walk you though planning your social media goals and how to measure the outcomes. Whether you are looking to recruit new volunteers, energize existing supporters, inform donors or just market your cause, we’ll talk about ways to get there.

Objective of the Workshop:

This workshop is for women working in the development sector (associated with a non-profit organization or working individually) to learn how to plan and execute online campaigns using social media and other online tools.

Content:

• Strategizing online campaigns
• Integrating online tools into your communication and fundraising plans
• Website best practices, including synchronizing with social media outreach
• Best practices for a range of social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.)
• Other interactive tools, such as email blasts, discussion forums, fundraising widgets etc.
• Creating a social media strategy for your organization
• Learning how to use analytical tools to measure online results

Also…

• You’ll receive hands-on practice
• Social Media Strategist Lisa Hodges (Joint Leap Technologies) will be leading the workshop
• Experienced activists will share their knowledge, including guest speakers Pramada Menon, queer feminist activist from Delhi, and Sanjukta Basu, Breakthrough, who will share her experience with the successful “Bell Bajao” campaign

APPLICATIONS SOLICITED FROM:

Women working towards a social cause, whether associated with a non-profit organization or working individually. Applicants should have basic computer literacy. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Cost:

Participants are expected to contribute Rs. 3000 towards the cost of the workshop. This will cover equipment, food and snacks, resource material and resource fee. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop. Outstation participants will have to arrange for their own stay and travel.

Thanks to Sarai for generously providing the space for the workshop. Limited scholarships available.

HOW TO APPLY:

Download and fill the application form and send it to projects@fat-net.org

REGISTRATION CLOSES ON: 7th December, 2009

For further information, please contact:

Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT)
A 6/1, Ground Floor, Adhchini
P.O: Malviya Nagar
Near: Punjab National Bank, Sarvodaya Enclave
New Delhi 110017, Phone number: +91-11-46595829

Context is decisive. It all depends on how you look at an issue, that provides the solutions that it throws up. Sharing with you one anecdotal example in the context of malnutrition among children below five years of age in a South East Asian country.

A certain development professional was given an assignment to remove malnutrition from the poor rural community in a South East Asian country within six months. Those of us, who have some exposure to the development initiative, will be well aware that a baseline survey to assess the status of the community is a first step to any social policy intervention.  Only carrying out such a baseline survey of a community easily takes an year. Therefore an action program that shows measurable outcomes within six months is an impossibility.

Faced with this challenge the professional talked to others and was advised to look at the community for new learning and action. So he went and stayed with the poor community and observed for clues. What he found was that all the families earned a living as agriculture labour. There were some families among them whose children were not malnourished. He wondered why and decided to follow these family routines over a few days each. What made these families unique where just three things that they did differently from the other families.

First the mothers of these children fed their below five year olds with their hands as against leaving the food for the children to feed themselves. Second, they added the greens of Casaba and Sweet potatoes to the meals and fed these three to four times a day to the children. These greens grew on the farms that these labourers went to. So no special effort was needed. Finally when they went out for labour work, they collected crustatians like small crabs and bivalves and brought them home to add to the food being cooked for the children.

Given this ‘key’ to reducing malnutrition among children, all that the professional had to do was to draw others’ attention to this. This was done by organizing group camps for collective cooking, where the mothers from these families also joined in. Their habits were observed by others, along with their healthier children. People and especially young mothers are smart and given an empowering context to operate from they can and do make a difference in the lives of their young ones.

On the eve of UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, a ‘Climate Bicycle Ride’ is being organised in Delhi on Sunday, 6th December at Ambedkar Nagar Terminal on BRT corridor; by the Delhi Cycling Club with support from Delhi Integrated Mass Transit System (DIMTS)’s NMT Cell and ‘The Open Planning Project’ (TOPP).

The event is open to people from different walks of life, age group and professions from Delhi & NCR and foreign nationals.

Key objectives of the event are to:

1. Raise awareness about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions;
2. Promote Cycling, Walking and Public Transportation as the most environmental-friendly way of commuting and as part of the solution to Delhi’s growing traffic woes; and
3. Experience the joy of cycling on dedicated bicycle tracks and have fun.

Participants will be encouraged to take a voluntary pledge to reduce their daily carbon footprint for a better and greener future. Your presence is key to the success of this event and also in promoting an important environmental and public cause.

ROUTE: The 11-km Climate Bicycle Ride will start from Ambedkar Nagar Bus Terminal at 09.00 a.m. and pass through Pushpa Vihar, Chirag Delhi, Moolchand on the BRT corridor and culminate again at Ambedkar Nagar T-point by 10.30 a.m. Click to view the route map

REGISTRATION: The event is open to all and there are no registration charges. You can confirm your participation simply by sending an SMS (type: 1) your name, 2) age, 3) phone number, 4) email ID and 5) locality you are coming from) to mobile number: 9990-22-66-44 or through email at delhicyclingclub@gmail.com before 4.00 PM, Thursday, 3rd December, 2009.

Subject to availability a limited number of cycles will be arranged free of cost on first-cum-first served basis for people who either don’t own a bicycle or find it difficult to bring them at the venue.

ASSEMBLY TIME: You are requested to assemble by 08.45 AM at the venue. Those participants who would be cycling in real traffic for the first time or after a long gap, are requested to arrive at the venue at-least 45-minutes before the start so that they could be given useful cycling and road safety tips by our volunteers.

Please note that this is not a race or a competition.  All participants will be cycling at a moderate speed on the dedicated bicycle lanes or curb side along the route. Participant cyclists will follow all the traffic rules, road etiquette and safety.

For further information, please contact:

Nalin Sinha
Convener
Delhi Cycling Club
Email: delhicyclingclub@gmail.com

Image courtesy Delhi Cycling Club

Vijay Jardhari of the Been Bajao Andolan from Uttarakhand, was one among many to call for action for  ’saving the climate’ at Dastkar, the Nature Bazaar that recently concluded in the Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi

Image Credit: Konsam Nirmala

Without inclusive growth, that includes the poor, the rich cannot survive in a city. Thank you for appreciating the development and environment combination of the blog. Your time is precious and I appreciate you making it available to comment on the Blog.

There is a dominant tendency on our part to think that poor living in the cities are a homogenous lot with same problems and therefore need uniform solution in the form of anti poverty programmes. JNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission) is an example of inclusive growth for the poor in the cities. Although in all honesty, while it does make efforts toward targeting heritage cities and look for unique needs of different cities, it does not take into account the needs of different slum settlements within a city.

My own experience indicates, as those of us who have worked in different slums within a city may have noticed, that each slum is unique and different slums have different priorities. Some slums have small informal but thriving business. Therefore for them earning a livelihood is not a concern, but schools for their children is an issue or medical help for the sick is top priority since they do not have an access to it. In some other slums located next to a flowing nullah or open drainage, sanitation and water may not be that big an issue as is access to electricity and therefore a means to earn livelihood. Yet another slum may have everything but getting loans at low interest rates for short durations like a day or two for running their small businesses may be a problem.

Thus if we define ability to earn livelihood as human capital, ability to have adequate infrastructure as physical capital, access to school and health services as social capital and access to short term loans as financial capital, we can list the ranking of these capital deprivations. This would allow us to have specific interventions relevant to the slum instead of the current generic interventions for poverty alleviation. The Journal “Habitat International” Vol 33 Issue 4 October 2009 has an article “Matching Deprivation mapping to Urban Governance in three Indian Mega Cities” (pp 365-377,  Authors: Isa S A Baud, Karin Pfeffer Namperumal Sidharan and Navtej Nainan). It talks of new ways to map poverty in  three Indian mega cities, including Delhi, based on ward level data. It uses four criteria of social capital, physical capital, human capital and financial capital to create an index to differentiate between ward level slums. Census data at ward level is used.

An ideal inclusive growth strategy for the poor in the cities would be that each one gets services that they want rather than what they need as determined by someone else.  What is missing for the poor households is freedom to choose freely and being acknowledged that they can make smart and responsibly choices for themselves and their future. The paper is an attempt towards this ideal.

Following is an excerpt from City Improbable writing on Delhi, a Delhi anthology edited by Khushwant Singh. The book is a complete rendezvous with Delhi, its historical as well as recent past and its present and is aptly reviewed by the Telegraph as, “Anyone who has ever had anything to do with Delhi, or is interested in the history of cities, should take a look at this collection”.

Needless to say, it is a collector’s item that has tried to capture the mystical majesty of the city of cities in a wonderfully comprehensive manner!

But you don’t see that kind of thing as often as you used to. Delhi has become a very polluted and congested city. It has more cars than Bombay, Calcutta and Madras put together. So there is more poison on the air than in the other cities. That and the reckless use of pesticides has taken a heavy toll of insect, amphibian and bird life. In the rainy season, no frogs croak, no fireflies or moths are to be seen. Vultures have disappeared, sparrows have become scarce. The incidence of asthma and bronchial ailments has shown an alarming increase, and if residents of Delhi mange to survive it is because of the greenery around them.

The not-so-loveable aspect of Delhi is entirely manmade. Delhiwalas are about the most inconsiderate of the human species you can encounter. They think nothing of throwing their garbage into their neighbour’s homes or on the road. they observe no road rules and are ever eager to overtake others, blow their horns and get into violent arguments. On an average four to six people are killed every day by cars and buses. About the same number are murdered in cold blood. Thefts and burglaries  are a daily feature. Molesting women in buses is a common practice.

Also Read:

• Delhi

The Taj Mahal: A resource curse in the ‘heart’ of India?

Mention or lack of mention of just one word makes a difference. Thank you for appreciating the film review with ‘Beautiful.’

I had the privilege of being present in an awesome event in Agra. Empirical facts indicated that of the 378 settlements that can be classified as slums, one slum settlement with about 400 households was successful in having 94 twin pit latrine with pour flush in the city. It took the community and the NGO working with them together over three year to achieve this. So the question is, whether it is worth the time, money and efforts that went into this project?

The short answer: the context that this community comes from is what is makes the effort totally worth it.

The long answer requires a brief peek into history. Villages in Utter Pradesh easily cover over a 5 to 7 km radius and are relatively spread out. They have three to five satellite settlements typically inhabited by the Scheduled Castes. The ‘East of Yamuna’ whether it was for Delhi or Agra, is where the Mughal Empire never ‘looked.’ This continues to be the situation with the present day city governance in Agra. Benefits of international tourism do not reach these settlements, and only causes major problems of transport and housing. The relative difference in the lifestyle of visiting national or international tourists and the inhabitants of Agra is very stark. Additionally the city benefits very little from their revenues and their spending. So the people of Agra look upon the Taj Mahal as a curse rather than beauty.

Slums in the east of Agra are not really ‘the urban slums’ created by first generation migrants coming into the city in search of livelihood, but a village satellite that has got included in the expanding city of Agra. And unlike urban slums, where the land ownership is with the city, 87% the house owners own the land too. The Cross Cutting Agra Project facilitated the setting up of 94 toilets in the households, paved roads within the settlement and cleaning up of the lanes to make it more walkable and tourist friendly. The livelihood generation activities set up by Self Help Groups (SHGs) over the last three years, are now paying off. The village is on the ‘tourist map.’ Tourists visit the village, shop and have tea here. They spend time appreciating the rural view of Taj Mahal, across the river, through the forest. For once, lack of mention of just one word “caste” makes a difference.

Toxics Link’s Environment & Health Public Lecture Series

The Final Tide

Impact of Climate Change on Urbanscape: Sustainability Issue

Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no longer just one of many environmental and regulatory concerns. As the United Nations Secretary General has said, it is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions that include designing sustainable city forms.

Coastal zones are particularly vulnerable to climate variability and change. Key concerns include sea level rise, land loss, changes in maritime storms and flooding, responses to sea level rise and implications for water resources. Rising sea levels inundate wetlands and other low-lying lands, erode beaches, intensify flooding, and increase the salinity of rivers, bays, and groundwater tables. The impacts of climate change in small islands like the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea manifests itself in myriad forms.

Today’s crop of city planners and designers strive to achieve sustainable urban development. In other words they try to achieve a balance between the development of the urban areas and protection of the environment with an eye to equity in employment, shelter, infrastructure, transportation and various basic amenities

Toxics Link invites you for a screening of the film on 11 February at India International Centre.

Screening: The Final Tide; duration 10 minutes, By Vikram Mishra

Panelist:

• Dr A.K. Gosain, Head Of Department, Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi
• Dr K.T. Ravindran, Head of Department, Department of Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi
• Mr Vikrm Mishra, Environmental Filmmaker

Date: 20th Nov 2009, Friday
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Conference Room 1, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi (In collaboration with India International Centre)

For further information, please contact:
Suparna Dutta: suparna@toxicslink.org
Nitin Jain: nitin@toxicslink.org
E: info@toxicslink.org