Urban Health Resource Centre strengthens communities of 425,000 slum dwellers in Agra & Indore in India to access to maternal/child health services, address proof, education, improved living environment, Govt services. UHRC forms women's groups in slums and provides technical & confidence building training, enabling them to "pull" govt. resources & services from different departments through negotiation skills they learn, thus steadily developing collective self-efficacy & self-reliance.
Deprived urban communities face poor access to healthcare, healthy living environment, infrastructure, picture ID, proof of address, & government welfare schemes. Children often forgo education for labor to contribute to family income. A lack of social cohesion, knowledge, and confidence to demand for services keeps communities vulnerable and neglected by municipal service providers.
In Agra/Indore UHRC facilitates formation of women's groups, educates them on health, govt entitlements, write petitions/reminders to civic authorities. Women generate, administer social needs funds. In Agra during Apr 2017 - Mar 2019, 30000 persons obtained picture ID/address proof, 12500 women delivered at hospital, 8500 children got full vaccination. Paved lanes with govt funds benefited 90,000 slum population. 4600 loans were disbursed in slums for health, education, livelihood, other needs
By engaging with communities through samitis (women's groups), the UHRC seeks to deprojectize development and set an example for what sustainable development should look like. Through partnership and participation the UHRC helps the communities of the 435,000 slum dwellers it wishes to serve build a strong collective voice. This allows women to actively lead the movement to demand for inclusion instead of being relegated to the sidelines.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
