Life Has Educated Me: Building Interpersonal Networks through the Jadibanagar Slum Upgrading Project

This report forms a part of the reflections and information sharing by participants at the Exposure and Dialogue Programme (EDP) titled Member-based organizations of poor women, carried out by Cornell University and Women in informal employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) at Self Employed Women Association (SEWA). The EDP took place at Jadibanagar slum upgrading project, Gujarat, India.

The EDP aimed to offer practitioners and researchers an opportunity to learn first-hand about the condition of poverty by living at their host ladies’ homes and experiencing their working lives. This report is about one host lady, Hansaben, who is self-employed as a street vendor and runs a small shop out of her home. Her role in upgrading her slum had been to organize and lead the community-based organization (CBO). The CBO and the Mahila Housing Trust form a linkage between Jadibanagar and the Government.

The report highlights the commitment of SEWA leaders, and the human element in the institutional structure of SEWA.