All houses, barring six or seven of the total 829, have individual toilets.

No cases of cholera or malaria have been reported here in the past one year; incidences of other water-borne diseases were almost nil.

The health of women and children here has shown marked improvement over a two-year period.

About 90 per cent of the community residents are members of a savings and credit association.

Water-logging, illnesses, violence and misery may be part of life in most city slums, but Ramdev Nagar is an exception to the rule. Socio-economic development has smiled upon the slum ever since the Baroda Citizens' Council organisations took it upon themselves to combine community participation with infrastructural inputs.

Floated in 1994 by the BCC in association with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, Engineering Sewa Trust and UNICEF, the `Community-Based Sanitation and Environmental Improvement Programme' seeks to reduce the infrastructural imbalance between slum and non-slum urban areas.

``Its principal objective was to explode the myth that slum-dwellers are not willing or able to contribute towards their own development. This project shows that slum-dwellers give such high priority to improving their environment -- particularly individual water supply and toilets -- that they are even willing to mobilise resources for this'', said project co-ordinator Ami Rawat.

Adopting the principle of convergence applied in the Centre's Urban Basic Services for the Poor programme, the project pooled the available resources. While the slum-dwellers themselves raised 50 per cent of the cost of the physical works (estimated at more than Rs 44 lakhs), the rest came from the UNICEF, the VMC and other agencies.

``Each house was required to make an initial contribution of Rs 3,500. But many requested short-term credit facilities. So, each family was enrolled into the BCC's Community Savings and Loan Association with an initial deposit of Rs 500, against which they were provided one-year loans,'' said BCC community worker Jayantibhai Chauhan.

The environmental improvement plan covered house-to-house water supply, underground sewerage, storm water drains, filling of low-lying areas, roads and landscaping.

Apart from the running water and individual toilets and bathrooms, the underground sewage system has made a major difference in the slum by eliminating the slush and the stink. Nandaben, who's been living here for the past 15 years, said, ``Earlier, we had to queue up for two hours to fill water. There would often be quarrels, sometimes violent ones. All this has stopped now; the community's much more amicable now.''

Area pramukh Keshavbhai agreed that lifestyles had changed. ``With the water problem solved, the women have more time to spend with their children. The anganwadi also allows them to seek employment as domestics. Naturally, the community has become more affluent. The various community programmes have also made them more aware, circumspect and healthy'', he said.

The construction of roads, however, has been delayed by a year because of defaulters, Rawat said. ``At least Rs 10 lakhs need to be collected from them''.

She added, ``While the project has been a success, we realise it is unwise to expect 100 per cent co-operation from slum-dwellers.

"However, those who have put up the cash are now convincing the defaulters to do the same and ensuring that the defaulters don't get the facilities for free''.

But the most positive upshot of the project, Rawat said, was the sense of belonging and security it had given the Ramdev Nagar residents. ``More and more people are investing in pukka houses,'' she said.

Nandaben, too, was confident that the Vadodara Municipal Corporation would not displace them. ``Not after they have spent so much money on us,'' she said with an air of triumph.