Making human rights real

Meanwhile, we were able to gain the attention of Mrs Sonia Gandhi through hectic lobbying with a number of Members of Parliament, and she instructed the city’s authorities to rehabilitate the residents with Asha’s help. Every family was given land titles at another location called Savda.

Savda is now a well established neighbourhood where thousands of residents, who would have become homeless because of the Commonwealth Games, now have a home of their own and lead a life of dignity.

In January of 2008, the then Finance Minister of India, Mr P Chidambaram, now India’s Home Minister, accepted my invitation to visit an Asha area. He was deeply moved by the diversity and extent of the transformation that he witnessed. However, when he found out that barely anyone had bank accounts, he realised that his government’s policy of financial inclusion found no expression among urban poor communities that made up over 30 per cent of the population of every town and city in the country. He facilitated a relationship between Asha, the nine largest public sector banks of India, and with the Ministry of Finance, and requested us to design a loan scheme for the urban poor.

Mr Chidambaram formally launched the project in June of 2008. Thousands of zero balance accounts were opened, with banks competing with each other to open the most accounts.

Since the launch, millions of rupees have been given by the banks as low interest loans for businesses, home renovation, transportation, and so on. The residents are able to access the entire range of banking services. The loan repayment rate, with trust as the only collateral, is an astonishing 99 per cent, and many families have significantly enhanced their incomes, and taken second or third loans.

When banks opened their doors to the urban poor of our nation for the first time, I began to realise that higher education for slum children was no longer a distant dream. It could become a reality, as banks were willing to come forward with higher education loans.

Higher Education is viewed by slum families as a process that delays their children's ability to contribute to the family income. Most families have no money to spare for college tuition and other expenses. Children struggle with the lack of space, the noise of the slum environment, and unreliable power supplies. They have no role models, and nobody takes the time to talk to them about their career options. They end up doing the same unskilled and poorly paid jobs as their parents.

Asha's Higher Education Programme is a pioneering effort: for the first time in its history, in July 2009, India witnessed the acceptance of 106 slum children to one of the nation's most renowned centres of higher learning, Delhi University.

The opportunities for enhanced learning have been seized with great enthusiasm. Children, who would have once been working in roadside stalls, shining shoes, or picking rags, now have the confidence to attend university with much more privileged youngsters. The process of their integration into the rest of society has begun. After spending years longing for equality, they are finally experiencing it.

So what does an established Asha slum look like today?

Asha health professionals provide quality care to every one of its residents. Community Health Volunteers and midwives chosen by the community, and trained by Asha, administer simple but highly effective means of primary health care.

The Child Mortality Rate has fallen from 149 to 28. The average for India as a whole is 69. Maternal deaths are extremely rare. Almost every pregnant woman has a skilled attendant at delivery. 95 per cent of children under five have received all their vaccinations, and vaccine preventable diseases are hardly ever seen. Most couples have two or three children, and women are realising their reproductive rights. The majority of people, including children, are healthy, and an entire generation has become more aware of health issues.