SA/Baandhani work together on community empowerment, especially women. We have always stressed on communities being aware of legalities, their rights and ways of negotiating for their rights. Data from the PMC, regarding slums was outdated. SA realised that no planning for basic needs, land availability for housing or recognising and prioritising the most vulnerable slums in terms of location could be done without:
i. Information of how many slum dwellers there are in the city
ii. Integrating this information into current city development plans.

The initiative was to create a methodology for using spatial and statistical data as tool for inclusive planning and validation of the poor in the city.

SA had been developing collecting and processing  spatial and social information of slum settlements. In 1997, the city was flooded. Many slums were submerged. SA/Baandhani surveyed 6 settlements and produced a document which showed exactly how many houses had been affected. The civic chiefs found it  had potential and in  2000, commissioned SA to do poverty mapping for all the slums in Pune. This was the first time, the local government would have data collected by the communities, detailed settlement maps which would be processed and analysed using computerized databases and GIS to integrate spatial and socio-economic data . This was an ideal CBO/NGO/ULB partnership. (  Refer Attachment 1)

SA used this data to:
i. prioritise building of infrastructure in Sangli,
ii. negotiate for flood affected people for alternate land in Pune
iii. built over 500 individual toilets in slums in Sangli, on the demand of the community for individual facilities.
iv. created an efficient electricity distribution in 2 settlements in Pune, and convinced the Electricity Department to implement it.
v. Networked constantly with other institutions, NGOs and citizens about the potential of an initiative which  brings planning for slums into mainstream city planning since housing, tenure and infrastructure has to be part of public policy. Slums can me superimposed on land use maps, development plan maps, land record maps and infrastructure routes.
vi. Constantly advocated for slum dwellers to dispel popular myths.