Geetanjali Krishna: Training for self-help

It all began with hope. The stage was Kalkaji Slum, Delhi's largest slum cluster with over 40,000 residents. Circa 1992. Living conditions were just short of hellish "" there were no toilets, no drains. No tubewells and no power transformers.

A heartbreakingly high infant mortality rate, and an even higher under-five mortality rate. Almost 80 per cent of slum children were malnourished, and merely 10 per cent of the burgeoning population used family planning techniques.

Slum dwellers were stoned when they tried to make use of the nearby railway track as a makeshift toilet, and a woman was gang-raped when she went there alone early one morning.

That's when Asha, a Christian outreach programme entered the picture. Founded by Kiran Martin, an idealistic medical student from Maulana Azad Medical College who'd never really seen urban poverty up close, it changed the face of the Kalkaji slum.

Walking through its narrow lanes last week, I noticed many things that set it apart from other slums. People's (especially women's) confidence levels, for one thing.

I commented on the police check post in the middle of the slum, and a woman said proudly, "there were several thefts, some at knifepoint, over here, and many men who returned home late after work were robbed of their week's wages. So we convinced the deputy commissioner of police to open a post right here!"

When I asked about the water situation, I was told there were 17 tube wells in the slum "" all installed by the government at the insistence of the slum dwellers.

Power lines criss-crossed overhead, as the slum dwellers had taken up power distribution within the slum on contract from the electricity department.

I asked Martin how she'd managed to instil so much confidence and enthusiasm for change amongst the women. "It's taken a long time," said she, "I began here in a small room in the only toilet within the slum. Gradually, we began training local women in paramedical skills."

Today, there are 200 trained lane volunteers, who treat common ailments, follow immunisation records of all under-fives, administer TB medicine and deliver babies.

Martin then urged the slum women to create their own societies, the mahila mandals, so that they could sort out their own problems.

Seventeen such mandals now operate within this one slum, which tackle issues ranging from requesting senior government officials for civic amenities to sorting out interpersonal problems.

"When I see how willing these poor people are to help each other, and support those who are even less fortunate, I feel they set a very great moral example for the rest of the world," said Martin.

Today, the statistics from the 45 slums with 2,25,000 people that Asha has adopted in Delhi, speak for themselves. The infant mortality rate in Asha slums is 37 per 1,000 live births, while in other Delhi slums, it is as high as 100 per 1,000 (national average "" 67 per 1,000).

Eighty-five per cent children in Asha slums are healthy, only 4 per cent are severely malnourished, while the statistics are reversed for other Delhi slums (80 per cent children are malnourished).

Deaths due to diarrhoea, measles and lower respiratory tract infections are unheard of today in Asha slums, whilst earlier they were the chief causes of child mortality.

The UN Habitat declared the Asha model to be one of the Best Practices for the year 2004.

Awarded the Padmashri in 2002, Martin has no plans to rest on her laurels. For there are many more people like them who need some Asha, hope, of improving their lives and living standards.