* REPORT : 82

A small step towards confederation in India

Leh, Ladhak 17-20th July, 06 . a short note on my visit to the old town.

Objective of Visit: 

The Tibetan Heritage Foundation (THF) in Ladhak has been working in Tibet, Beijing, Mongolia and now in Ladhak with a focus on restoring heritage structures both private and public. Andre Alexander who heads this foundation made a request to ACHR to help them start a savings scheme. This is when Somsook put me in touch with the group with the objective of starting a savings group in Leh.

Introduction to Leh:

 I spent the first morning visiting some of the structures that were being restored. This group has been working since many (how many) years in the Himalayan region restoring old monasteries and heritage structures. They have mastered the design and the use of traditional material like clay and sand for construction of these old structures in the region. THF have trained local people with traditional skills which if neglected have the possibility of being lost in the near future. This way they are able to restore and save some of the old part of Leh Town which is decaying out of total neglect. Many owners have abandoned their structures and moved to the more modern part of the city constructed with conventional building material like cement, brick and RCC.

THF works in the old town of Leh that has a population of about 25,000 people. It was interesting for me to enter the community through the lenses of these professionals and consider it alternately through my own community and federation building lenses. It was the old and the new, both at play with each other. Understanding this relationship is therefore very important as it is distinct from some of our experiences in organizing communities in other cities of Africa and Asia. What is common is the transition that many of these communities face as they move from old to new arrangements (from being rural to becoming more urban and modern) with different forces affecting them in the new context. Like all changes, there is something good as well as challenging about this transition.

The team comprises of both restoration professionals and architects, many of whom were students from abroad. They were there for a short assignment from their universities.

Meeting the local women:

I met a group of community women working on construction in some of these sites. I began to chat with them about their migration histories and their individual and family stories. It was a déjà vu as it was like talking to Mahila Milan in Bombay. The same old struggles inside and outside the home. Most of them were farm workers and migrated into the old town of Leh for a job. The tourism business flourishes in the summer months and it is a good time for them to make some money as they have no jobs in the winter months. They prefer to work in the city as they earn more than working on the farm. They work really hard on the construction site carrying heavy rubble on their backs up and down the mountain. They were mostly single women headed households.

I told them the story about the pavement dwellers in Bombay, how they started with nothing and have now moved into their new homes after 20 years. This was possible because they were able to organize themselves and do their homework towards a creating a strategy to find a house in the city. Mahila Milan, as I continued to explain, is also a space for these women to come together to define and articulate their problems and find answers   On that note we ended the meeting with a plan that we would meet again  to discuss the possibility of staring a savings group.

Preparation for the Inauguration of Shankar House:

Shankar house is a small one storey structure nearly under completion. The team plans to turn it into an art center after restoration. The construction team was busy with the finishing touches before inauguration which was to take place in two days. The team Andre, Dikshit and Dolkar were involved with giving invitations to different government offices. It was a big event for the team and they all worked hard to take care of the details for planning the event.

The Local NGO team:
 
Dikshit is an urban planner; she worked with THF for a short while before taking a job with Government. She now works part time with this team. Dolkar described her job as that of an accountant but she was surely playing more than a role of an accountant. She is the bridge between the THF team and the local construction team.

The idea of THF is to create a local NGO in Leh of young professionals who can take over the local process and plays a complimentary role to THF which are mostly made up of professionals from outside the country. The local NGO is very young and nascent and has yet to take off the ground. It will take sometime for them to get FCRA and become a full fledged NGO.

THF have got small amounts of money from individual donors for the restoration of specific structures. This time they put up a proposal to the Finnish Embassy who was ready to fund the installation of local drainage in the old town. They will have to route this money through a local NGO and the Leh Nutrition Foundation has agreed to do it for them.

The Beginning of Savings: 

On the day before my departure the women met again. This time there was a dense energy and one of the women seemed to be telling the others that the savings was a waste of time and that they did not need it. It was interesting for me to see the dynamics change. They said that they had no problems. They all had land, a house and had no sanitation problem. Yet, what one saw around was urban decay and poor sanitation. Many temporary migrants enter the city in the summer for jobs. These are mostly Bihari and Kashmiri Laborers who work from May to September and leave before winter. These migrants rent houses in the old town as they are cheaper and easily available. However, one of the biggest problems is that of overcrowding. Sometimes, there are 15-16 persons renting a house and have no access to toilets as a result they squat in the open spaces through the settlement. The growth of the tourism industry will lead to many more migrants to Leh.

There is much more construction going on. Mostly guest houses, which have the potential to make money due to tourism. The one thing that will stop outsiders from buying houses in the old town is the poor sanitary conditions. This also turns out to be an advantage. However, the load from the existing migrants will surely add to further decay in housing and sanitation conditions. There is a need to do something about this and surely THF can only do so much and after a point they see the need to engage the city in these discussions. The previous CEC?  Showed interest and passed an order to say that those with inadequate toilets were not allowed to rent their homes. However, it was not possible to enforce this after he left office.  

The women were right in a way, they were not affected directly.  However, there is interplay between them and the new migrants. This pressure affects the quality of their environment which is gradually disintegrating. They need to do something about this before it is too late and the problem gets out of hand. However, getting this across to the women will need to be done over several discussions.

Meanwhile, one woman put a spoke in the wheel and discouraged the group from saving. At this point I gave up and felt that if there was no need from their side then they should not waste time talking about this. I checked how they presently got loans. They said, they borrow from each other. On this note, the meeting ended. We all left feeling incomplete. Somehow, the discussion had not come to a proper closure.  

On the way down hill, two women said that they would like to meet up again at 5 that evening as they wanted to start the savings. They said that it was only that one woman who came in the way but the rest of them had no problem.

At 5 pm that evening we met at Shankar house. Three women came to the meeting. I started by putting twenty rupees on the table and said that was my contribution to the first savings. The other three women followed suite and saved 20 rupees each and began the first savings group. Soon after, the other women arrived and made their first savings. This was very encouraging. I explained to them how they as women worked like dogs but at the end of the day had nothing to show for it. This way they will have some money kept aside during winter. As this money grows they could decide it they want to put money aside for giving small loans to each other for consumption and for small business. Suddenly, a whole new world opened up for them and they were able to see the potential of this money growing and becoming useful to them. Like one woman said, “If I put twenty every day I will have 600 at the end of every month”. The meeting ended on a very good note and an air of celebration on the beginning of the first savings group. I promised them at the end of one year if they save consistently we would double their savings either through THF resources or through Mahila Milan in Bombay. We also planned that if they save regularly we could organize an exchange between Bombay Mahila Milan and the women of Leh.

Some Reflections: 

Leh is a growing town. Its economy is based mainly on tourism and attracts many migrants both from the villages of Ladhak as well as from Bihar and Kashmir. If ignored, there is a possibility of the old town and the area around it turning into a large slum in the next couple of years.  The scale of problems is still small and there is scope to make change especially in the area of sanitation and housing.

Savings is not part of the present mandate of THF but it surely compliments what they are doing as the two processes should go hand in hand. Restoring the old structures has to go hand in hand with the management and maintenance of these structures. This is only possible if the old town is seen as a single unit and a strategy is designed for the whole of the old town of Leh. This will set a precedent that will help the city to create a strategy for the new settlements growing on the periphery of the old town as well.

The way that THF is going about this is to create a local NGO who will take over the local processes. This makes eminent sense as THF’s skill lies mostly in the area of restoration and not in the area of community organizing. This role can be taken up by the local NGO.

The savings scheme is a good way to initiate the formation of the local community organization. This can be managed by the local NGO and be a full-fledged program which has a life of its own.  

One of the challenges of the local NGO is to make sure that the savings includes the very poor in the area. If not there is a chance that it can be restricted to only those who are now the construction workers. They earn regularly and can afford to save. The objective is to reach out to those who do not have a regular income.

There is a possibility to start a separate savings for the men if they ask for this. This has to be managed separately from the women’s savings. This way you create a separate space for women that is not dominated by the male leadership. This way they have a life of their own and support each other as women. As they develop the confidence to articulate their position they will be in a better position to negotiate with city authorities and with the men in their community. Till such time they should have their own identity separate from the men in their community.

THF has to support the local NGO till such time they can stand on their feet. SPARC and NSDF in Bombay along with Mahila Milan will be ready to support THF and the local team to do this.