Pune-based Mashaal, awarded the contract to conduct the baseline socio-economic survey of the 70,000-odd families of Dharavi slums a year ago, will start with the distribution of ‘family identity cards’ on Saturday. The preliminary identification poof, followed by government-issued ID cards, forms a crucial component of the ambitious Rs 9,250-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

“We are ready with 6,000 cards covering 15 clusters and will be completing 40,000 for the remaining 76 clusters within a month,” said Sharad Mahajan, head of Mashaal and Architect-Planner, Maharashtra Social Housing & Action League. Of the 60,000-odd families at Dharavi, cards would be issued to about 46,000 by January, while the remaining would be covered in the next two months, after completing the survey in other pockets of Dharavi.

Mahajan said the ID cards would solve the ownership dispute for at least 90 per cent of the populace; the problems of the remaining 10 per cent would be manageable for the DRP authorities.

“The cards will be part of our resolution to maintain transparency in the project and put everything in the public domain,” said Gautam Chaterjee, MHADA vice-president and CEO and also officer on special duty for the DRP.

Mashaal bagged the GIS-based biometric survey of all Dharavi slum-dwellers in October 2007. But with the DRP evoking vehement opposition from several NGOs, political parties and pockets of residents themselves, it was only six months later that the survey could start properly, said Mahajan. “We completed biometric survey of 90 per cent of the slum dwellers there. Ten per cent of them, who were not available for garnering information, are left. We hope the distribution of cards from tomorrow will motivate them to come forward and give us the requisite information,” said Mahajan, adding that the card distribution will continue up to January 15.

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