Cochin, the commercial and industrial capital of Kerala State, has a population of over 670,000, about one third of whom live in poverty.The Cochin Urban Poverty Reduction project (CUPRP) aims to ensure better access by the
poor and vulnerable to improved livelihood opportunities and services. The project builds on decentralisation and the People’s Planning programme through developing processes to ensure that the needs of the most poor and vulnerable are reflected in local plans and resource allocation.
To help ensure sustainability, Cochin UPRP has deliberately worked through, and built upon, existing CDS structures by helping them to develop their capacity to ensure that the concerns of the most vulnerable are
heard and addressed. Today for instance,there are more than 1200 active women’s groups in Cochin covering over 41,000 poor families. The Cochin Corporation has over 25 contracts with local NGOs to deliver services to the poor.
Through participatory planning processes, the needs of the most vulnerable are beginning to be reflected
in local plans and their collective capacity to express and demand
their needs has been strengthened. Planning processes at slum level have evolved from ones requiring external support to ones facilitated by teams at the grassroots level.
Through strengthening the capacity of poor people’s organisations, such as the CDS, the quality and sustainability of the planning process has been enhanced. The Cochin CDS has developed a much stronger political and institutional network, enabling it to reach the poorest and most vulnerable, especially poor women. Poor women, through the CDS, are now represented in Ward Committees, where decisions about spending People’s Planning Budgets are made. Neighbourhood Groups have been included and formalised within the city governance system, and three women from the city-level CDS have been elected as councillors in the City Corporation.
Building Capacities,Strengthening Resilience,ReducingVulnerability
The Cochin Urban Poverty Reduction Project shows one city working with partners toimprove opportunities for all its citizens, including poor and disadvantaged people.
Such processes of change are never straightforward; difficulties and tensions areinherent. Drawing poor people into decision-making and generating innovative approaches to urban planning requires officials to question their accepted ways ofworking, which is never an easy task. In Cochin, many of these tensions are being
resolved and confidence in new approaches to participation and partnership is growing. As the project comes to a close, the sustainability of the new processes will depend on women remaining confident that the CDS
system works for them, and on the commitment of the Kerala government to the new institutional arrangements being
developed in Cochin Corporation throughthe project. It is early days yet.
Experience in Cochin indicates that longtermreduction in urban poverty meansworking on three fronts: setting up the institutional frameworks to integrate city development within national strategies and
policies; improving today’s quality of life, and building the skills, capacities andinstitutions to confront the challenges of tomorrow. Social sustainability is a lengthy process. It is not determined in the future
but in the actions, strategies andcommitments made in the present