Former women slumdwellers resettled as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project now run the MMRDA’s official canteen

When the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) resettled Chetna Chavan (29), a slumdweller, in a colony for Project Affected People (PAP) at Vashi Naka, it was indeed a difficult move for the mother of two. Her house, along the railway tracks at Bhandup, had been demolished for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and it meant not just an uphill adjustment for her family with the new place of residence, but also the challenge of finding a new income generating avenue to support her family.

Today, Chavan is a part of Sankalp, which means a resolution in Marathi, a society that now manages the MMRDA’s official canteen in their Bandra Kurla Complex headoffice. She is not only the secretary of the society, but is now a proud earning member of her family, with a monthly salary of Rs 3500 that helps supplements her husband’s income. Her husband works as a security guard.

“Giving them the opportunity to run our canteen was MMRDA’s push for these people, an effort to help empower the women here,” says an MMRDA official.

What’s more, ever since the women from Sankalp have taken over the canteen, there has been a marked difference in the quality of the food and the approach to serving and maintaining the kitchen, say MMRDA officials.

Apart from snacks, the canteen now also provides lunch to more than 800 people on weekdays, including non-vegetarian fare on Wednesdays and Fridays.

... contd.