When Indian women negotiate with local authorities to improve lives in slum

There are about 13.7 million slum households in all of India, of which 4.9 million are neither recognised nor notified

How do you convince your local municipality officer that yes, you have every right to access clean water, walk on paved streets or have streetlights at night so you can feel safe? And how do you do that when you are not only living in an Indian slum, but you’re also a woman with no formal education?

This is exactly the case we studied in Indore, the most populous city of Madhya Pradesh, a western-central state of India. According to the census of India, the population of Indore was 2 million in 2011 and has since increased to 2.8 million