Mumbai is home to about 22 million people, and over 70% live in slums. People living in the slums have limited access to electricity, clean water, food, and educational opportunities. The environment itself is often dirty, unhygienic and without waste disposal networks.

 

The Naya initiative is located in Kalwa, a slum on the outskirts of Mumbai that is home to 200,000 people. Most migrants to Kalwa come from the villages in Maharashtra and the surrounding states, where life is even more of a struggle and hope lies in a slum near Mumbai.

​

Almost 30% of workers in India are casual workers and only 10% of the workforce is in regular employment. As work is scarce and the need for families to pool their resources for survival is great, there is tremendous pressure on children (even as young as four years old) to work. Slum children work as rag pickers, sewage cleaners and other unhealthy and dangerous jobs all around Mumbai, earning a few rupees a day in order to stave off their families’ hunger. Education and literacy are put off as parents struggle to balance the immediate needs for food over the need of a child to grow, develop, and study in order to build a different life.

​

In Kalwa most women cannot commute into the city or work for a full day as they are expected to stay close to their families and have other commitments at home. As a result, employment opportunities for them are extremely limited. Thus, women have very little control over their own income and being reliant on their husbands or other male family members for household income, grants them lower power within the home.

 

Naya was developed through accessing an established network of local NGOs who have in-depth knowledge and long-standing experience in the field. It is supervised and supported by The Gabriel Project Mumbai. GPM cares for vulneable communities, advancing communal development through a range of local initiatives that have positive ripple effects in the slums. 

 

Working together we were able to address some of the issues faced by families living in Kalwa; the waste and lack of recycling opportunities, as well as the extremely limited employment opportunities for women and the impact of this on their families.

​