Authors: Dr. Manisha V. Nain
Abstract: Background: The swiftly growing cities of India have not shown an even growth. Lying between commercial corridors and institutional campuses, there lies an informal settlement area named Ekta Village in Pitampura, a part of North- West Delhi which attract migrant labour workforce but receives very limited attention from public support systems. There are overlapping vulnerabilities in these settlements which includes broken sanitation chains, irregular income, women devoid of skilled pathways and communities that have limited knowledge of the welfare programes available to them. Though there are NGO but they are operating with limited budget and short intervention windows , deciding where to start is not a minor problem. A structured gap analysis can bring prolific results to resolve this issue. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted over a time period of 4 consecutive days amongst 25 houses of Ekta Village ( each house has an average of 5 people), Data was collected through direct field observation and face-to-face structured interviews. Three dimensions namely severity, feasibility for NGO-led resolution within 60 days, and likely community were taken to be rated on likert 5 point rating scale to identify each problem and result in composite Problem Prioritisation Matrix scores (maximum 15). Three analysis – Root cause analysis, SWOT analysis, and SDG mapping were applied in sequence. Results: The analysis of household data resulted in identification of five important problems- inadequate sanitations (72% of households), unemployment (60%), a decrease in women's vocational skills (52%), limited healthcare awareness (44%), and weak educational support (36%). The problem prioritization Matrix revealed Women Skill Development (14/15) receiving the highest concern on the basis of secerity, feasibility and impact whereas educational support(10/15) is least priority area. Conclusions: A 60-day Women Skill Development and Livelihood programme is proposed with budget of ₹11,000 which will focus on community awareness sessions, vocational workshops, government scheme registration support, and the seeding of at least one Self-Help Group. The design closely maps to Sustainable Development Goals of 1, 5, 8, and 10. The methodology of this study could be replicated for community-level NGO scoping in peri-urban Delhi and comparable contexts.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21484336
