ALLIANCE
 CITIES ALLIANCE
CITIES
    ACTION
 IN ACTION
IN


 Sparking a Transformation of Agra’s Slums                                           73750
                                                Project: City Development Strategy and Slum
                                                Upgrading Plan for the Heritage City of Agra (India)

                                                Key Partners: Agra Municipal Corporation, Centre
                                                for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE), USAID,
                                                National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), Water and
                                                Sanitation Programme – South Asia (WSP-SA)

                                                Duration: 2006 – ongoing

                                                Cities Alliance Financing: USD 740,000

                                                Key Results:
                                                   Leveraging initial grant to attract USD 22 million in
                                                     additional investments
                                                   Engaging residents in actively improving their
                                                     communities
                                                   Developing a city-wide slum upgrading plan based
                                                     on an inclusive city development strategy




 “This is the first time I have seen a
 development project engaging people
 through discussions, resource maps
 and various other techniques. It has          Building on the early successes
 led people to have an ownership of
 their problems and also their solutions.�




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Meera’s Story

“Having a home toilet was considered a luxury that only the wealthy could
afford,� says Meera Devi, who lives with her husband and three children in a
one-room, mud-brick house in Kuchpura. Until a few years ago, Meera would
rise before dawn each day and walk half a mile to a vegetable patch. Looking
out for leering men and piles of faeces, she would find a spot to crouch and
defecate.

Today she only needs to walk a few steps to her own latrine, the first of its kind
in Kuchpura. She acquired it with a loan from USAID’s Crosscutting Agra
Project (which laid the foundation for the Cities Alliance work in Agra) and
repaid it with income from a new job promoting hygiene and sanitation to other
residents. “After seeing my toilet, all others in my street wanted a home toilet
too,� she says. “The place is beginning to look so much cleaner.�

The effects are much more than cosmetic. “Having a toilet has changed everyone’s lives,� she says, “but
especially for women. Now they have more time to get their children ready for school or do more work or just
rest longer.� And Meera no longer worries about her eldest daughter suffering the same indignities and
infections she herself endured due to the lack of a toilet. “All three of my children are studying. My eldest
daughter is taking computer, accounting, and English classes and says she will become better than me.�




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