Savda

Savda JJ Colony is a resettlement colony, which came into existence in the year 2006 and comprises of 25,000 families with a population of more than one lakh. Every year thousands of new families are added to the community as J.J colony is the area marked by Delhi Corporation to rehabilitate slum dwellers evacuated from the city. The migrants belong to states like Rajasthan, Bihar, U.P, Bengal, Gujrat and Maharashtra. The entire settlement is divided into 12 blocks. As the case of other slums, the dwellers here also survive by taking up menial jobs in and around. Rickshaw pulling, running petty shops, auto rickshaw driving, street vending, domestic work and construction work are some other occupation they take up. Women also have to work to support the family but they are paid much less than men. Surging of small scale industries had caused an increase in child labour. Many social problems like poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, poor health and sanitation etc are also happening in this colony. Chetanalaya empowered community through Self Help Groups, Children Parliament, conducted capacity building programmes to the community, skill development initiatives and Income generation activities for the women.

Narela

Narela sub-city is a tehsil located in the North West Delhi district of NCT of Delhi, and forms the border of the Delhi state with Haryana. The area had a population about 501511. After independence, Narela was still a satellite township of Delhi, separated from the built-up area of the Delhi city by several miles of green area. It functioned under separate local bodies, though soon it was to be part of the Metropolitan District of Delhi. Over the years, its population-density grew rapidly as Delhi saw a large influx of population as the result of partition. In 1961, Narela was incorporated into Municipal Corporation of Delhi zone. Narela Market was regularized in 1959, under the Bombay Agricultural Produce Marketing Act, 1939, and in the 1960s, it had a jurisdictional radius of 5 miles, yet produce from at least 40 villages was brought into the market, despite octroi charges, thus the effective transactional radius was about 15 miles. Thereafter under the Delhi Agricultural Produce Marketing Act, 1976, the first marketing committee of Narela was established by the Administrator of Delhi. Due to the city beautification drive in Delhi in the recent years, many small scale industries from different part of Delhi has shifted to this Narela which hitherto remained as a waste land in the outskirts of Delhi. The sudden growth of industries in the area caused large scale migration to these areas and several new settlements have come up. Many of these are slum clusters and resettlements devoid of proper infrastructure and basic amenities. The Education facility provided by the Government is also very marginal. There are Government run primary schools in each blocks, still only few children attend them. The condition of these schools is deplorable and the system is biased. Girls are not encouraged to attend school and are forced to sit back at home. Children who do not attend school also go out to work with their parents or go out for rag-picking while the others waste time doing other activities. The living condition is uncongenial. Various types of diseases are prevalent here like tuberculosis (especially among the rag pickers) cancer, diabetes, mental retardation, polio etc. The socio economic condition of the people is deplorable. Chetanalaya introduced various programmes for the empowerment of women, promotion of the educational rights of children, development of skills of youth etc in Narela. Currently the area is having the interventions focusing the majorly affected JJ cluster colonies.

Bawana

Bawana JJ Colony is a resettlement colony, which came into existence in the year 2004-05 and comprises of 9200 families with a population of nearly 65300 People. Every year thousands of new families are added to the community as J.J Colony is the area marked by Delhi Corporation to rehabilitate slum dwellers evacuated from the City. People live in slum clusters comprising largely of juggies and semi concrete buildings. The migrants belong to states like Rajasthan, Bihar, U. P, Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is a heterogeneous community with 50 % Dalits, 30 % OBCs, 15 % Upper Caste and 5% Tribal. It is a migrant population of about 55 % Hindus, 40% Muslims, and 5% of other religions. The socio, economic condition of all the categories are the same. Many social problems like poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, poor health and sanitation, child labour, theft. etc. prevails here along with it poor drainage and sanitation, unavailability of safe drinking water, poor health and hygiene, increasing school dropouts, unavailability of proper medical care shows their misery. The current situation is relatively improved after the hard work by Chetanalaya together with the community, a few other NGOs and Government departments. So far the intervention has helped the people to settle down to a normal life and overcome the mental stress that they underwent due to displacement. Most of the people realized that it is important to educate children, to earn better livelihood and to maintain good health. Now some of them have started to support their family, or started some small income generation activity with the help of loan from their SHGs. The intervention has benefited the individuals and his/her family and also the community through their efforts. The youth are motivated to become self-reliant and to build a suitable career, which will support them to live a standard life.The SHG programme of Chetanalaya has nearly one thousand five hundred families above poverty line. Educational and Health status have improved through Chetanalaya’s interventions. The housing programme introduced by Chetanalaya made more than 400 people to own a house of their own. A larger section of the Bawana community is on the path of sustainable development assisted and facilitated by Chetanalaya.

Holambikalan

Holambikalan J.J colony is situated on the out skirts of northwest Delhi. The population of this area is above 1, 00,000 with as many as 13,000 families. Majority of the people are internally displaced families and resettled there. The economic condition of the people dwelling here is very poor. Most of them fall below the poverty line. Men here primarily work as daily laborers in shops or in the nearby industrial area of Narela. Women generally stay at home, but some work as domestic workers or as daily laborers. The living condition of people here is very poor and filthy. There is just one health centre run by Government in the block, but the health and medication facility provided here is very poor. The Government hospitals are also very far, which makes them totally inaccessible for the residents of Holambikalan. Chetanalaya began its development intervention in Holambikalan in 2005 when the internally displaced population started resettling there. Several programmes for the empowerment of women, promotion of the educational rights of children, development of skills of youth etc. were launched in Holambikalan.