Vellakovil City Development Plan - Municipal

City Development Plan for Vellakoil Municipality SMEC India Pvt Ltd
Final Report TNUDP III
The chapters that follow propose projects needed to ensure efficient delivery of the services.
3.7 STRATEGIES FOR POVERTY REDUCTION AND SLUM UPGRADATION
Towards Building Successful Slum-Upgrading Strategies
• Youth groups can be very effective.
Youth SHGs can be encouraged and made active participants in developmental activities.
Unlike Women SHGs, which are formed originally for social empowerment, Youth SHGs can
aim at both economic empowerment and social empowerment as the primary focus. The
focus can be on skill training for increasing their employability and promotion of economic
activities.
Group formation:
The SHGs can be formed with unemployed youth in the age group of 18 to 35 years. Each
group may comprise 10 to 20 members drawn from the below poverty line population.
Youth SHGs can be beneficial in the following ways
• To engage the communities in development activities through a dialogue with the active
participation of the youth (men and women) with a sense of commitment and integrity
• To equip the youth by building their skills, capacity and capability in managing
development, so that, they can help build the capacity of the citizens to manage the affairs of
the community on their own.
• Infrastructure provision
Infrastructure provision brings indirect social and economic development, particularly for
women. Improved infrastructure reduces women’s work burden and gives them more time,
increased space allows for more home-based economic activity, and lighting and better road
coverage increase mobility and security at night. Infrastructure provision is perceived to have
a significant impact on health, reducing incidence of illnesses which are related to an
unhygienic living environment.
• Community halls are valuable for project work as well as for private and public social
activities, however, halls are prone to capture and maintenance can be a problem. They can
also be used as location for health camps, balwadis (pre-schools), vocational training and
neighborhood committee meetings. They can be used by the community for a variety of
occasion such as religious ceremonies, marriages, political meetings etc. conflicts over use
and maintenance are common, and control over the hall give some individuals power in the
community.
• Balwadis (pre-schools) and Schools
Both these institutions benefit poor and working families, especially working mothers. If
timings of balwadis are appropriate, then they have a positive effect on the lives of working
women, freeing them of childcare and giving more time to women to do paid as well as nonpaid
work.
• Medical facilities
Frequent illnesses and consequent break from work is a major factor that costs the time and
money of the low income group. The availability and accessibility to medical facilities as
necessary needs to be addressed as a priority issue.
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