Rajendra Joshi—Saath
Shabhana Mayoudiin Kazi at the Godrej Smart Care Centre. She is employed after being trained at SAATH’s Umeed Udaan. Photograph by Prashant Panjiar, courtesy of the American India Foundation
The Organization
Saath is enabling the urban poor to access the financial and livelihood opportunities available in globalized cities.
Based in Ahmedabad, Saath equips residents of poor urban settlements to become willing customers of basic services and access schemes for livelihoods. It aligns the urban poor, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and private companies in win-win partnerships. As a result, the government receives more taxes from the urban slums, the residents come away with better services and private companies report higher profit margins through services developed for the urban poor.
The Innovation
VIDEO: a short profile of Rajendra Joshi and Saath.
Saath is enabling the urban poor to access the financial and livelihood opportunities available in globalized cities. Based in Ahmedabad, Saath equips residents of poor urban settlements to become willing customers of basic services and access schemes for livelihoods. It aligns the urban poor, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and private companies in win-win partnerships. As a result, the government receives more taxes from the urban slums, the residents come away with better services and private companies report higher profit margins through services developed for the urban poor.
Saath works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to ensure that slum residents receive basic sanitation, water and drainage services at the household level and paved roads and street lights at a community level. In exchange, Saath creates mechanisms through which the urban poor can save and pay the user charges. They also monitor the quality of government services with feedback loops. To build trust in the services being provided, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has guaranteed non-eviction to Saath slum residents.
Saath is also demonstrating models of public-private partnership where the urban poor are key stakeholders. For example, it tailored profit-based solutions for electricity supply in Ahmedabad’s slums by altering the user fee, increasing business volumes and bringing in government contribution. As a result, 200,000 slum households today pay for electricity with the business house, Torrent Power, reporting a 30% increase in profits.
The Urban Resource Centers (URCs) of SAATH serve as conduits for other service providers to reach the poor more efficiently. For example, companies like Tata AIG may want to connect to slum residents for financial security products or the government may need a centralized method of distributing voting cards. In the latter case, the government paid Saath INR 10 per voter card distributed. The URCs also have a steering committee with a station ward officer so the government and other important stakeholders have a vested interest.
SAATH runs inventive housing, health and education and micro-finance solutions to ensure integrated social security systems to slum dwellers. It has pioneered UMEED, an initiative that increases the employability of disadvantaged urban youth through trainings in service skills, English language proficiency, and lifeskills to manage wages and improve life. With an 80–85% placement rate, UMEED is now being linked to the JN Urban Renewal Mission and will be scaled to reach 100,000 young people across Gujarat.
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