TISS goes to micro level to transform M-Ward (East)

To transform M-Ward (East) comprising 80 slums, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is planning at the micro level.

The plan will cover health, education and livelihood, specifically curbing infant and maternal mortality, school dropout rate, checking employment status and developing training facilities and skills of people.

"There are over 200 communities in M-Ward. Of the 1,12,347 houses enumerated, 20,535 at 256 locations have been surveyed. We are now drawing up micro-level plans for 80 slums in six areas of the ward," said professor Amita Bhide.

The areas in M-ward include Deonar, Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd, Anushakti Nagar, Cheeta Camp, Trombay and Govandi.

The ward with the lowest human development index at 0.2 is located on the north-east edge of Mumbai.

A TISS study shows while 77.50 per cent of M-Ward population lives in slums, it has the highest infant mortality rate of 66.47 per 1,000 live births. Further, access to healthcare is extremely weak — the population per hospital is 66,881, per dispensary 27,438 and per anganwadi centre 2,175.

This phase of the project focuses on micro planning through a series of community meetings from lane to ward level to identify issues, prioritise, possible solutions and needs for development.

"We have identified various communities, which include the homeless, vulnerable to eviction, newly resettled and those that get few benefits of development. The needs and difficulties of each are unique. So, we are going to each community and holding a series of exercises to understand its history, vocations of choice, livelihood opportunities, available resources, dropout rates and accessibility to healthcare," Bhide said.

While the exercises and multi-stakeholder consultations have already been conducted in Shivaji Nagar and Baiganwadi, the next area to be covered is Cheeta camp, followed by Govandi and Mankhurd. Actionable programmes and intervention plans will be implemented in the next couple of months.

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