1. Ram Tekdi, Hadapsar - Pune
Community Composition: Heterogeneous - majority of the residents are
Maharashtrians (Hindus), there is a sizeable cluster of Muslim population interspersed
in the area.
General Description: There are about 300-400 houses in this location. Many of the women
work as maids, and the men are a mix of laborers, drivers, policemen, etc. There are mostly
pucca houses. In this location, the government is working to try to relocate people off this land,
so they can tear down the homes and build high-rise apartments in their place. To facilitate
this, they are offering to relocate people into new residences, complete with multiple bedrooms,
living rooms, a kitchen and private toilet. Despite these buildings being better than their current
residences, locals are reluctant to move - they would rather the government given them the new
buildings in the area they’re already living in. There is an aanganwadi, a gov’t secondary school
and a madarsa in the same area. The main in-charge of the community (called “Nagar Sewaks”)
is a Maharashtrian lady.
Sanitation Situation: There are two toilets in this location, one of which is a two story
community toilet a short distance down from the main road. Families pay 20 rupees a
month for a pass to use it. Our cultural guide, a local NGO worker, said it was “too dirty”
for us to go inside of. The stench of the toilet was apparent from 10 meters away. We
saw kids defecating in the gully between homes.
Top Reasons to Choose This Location/Unique Aspects:
1. The community toilet was the dirtiest one we saw in Pune. Even after a lot of
intervention by the Mahila milan and after having a woman counselor as the local area
in-charge, there doesn’t seem to be any success with regards to health and sanitation
2. The government’s relocation efforts are a unique situation we found, out of all of the
locations we visited.
3. Although there is a strong presence of a women’s self help group, it seemed like
most of their efforts were channelized to the upliftment of the women of their religion/
community.
4. There is an absence of children's toilet here, which we saw was a common thing in
most Pune community toilets.