From the slums of Bombay to the housing estates of Britain

This is a report of a visit in August - September 1996 by Sheela Patel to look at tenant participation on housing estates in Britain. Sheela is the Director of SPARC, an NGO working in slum communities, pavement dwellers and other informal settlements in Mumbai, India. The visit aimed to share ideas, offer learning opportunities from the highly developed NGO sector in India and to challenge the conventional notions that the North knows best.. The visit was organised by the Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action with support from the Oxfam-UK Anti-Poverty Programme.