Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC)
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) formed in 1984 is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. Since 1986, SPARC has been working in partnership with two community-based organizations the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan. Together, they are known as the Alliance. SPARC supports the mobilization and organization of communities of the urban poor in India and throughout the developing world. The organization aspires to empower the urban poor in India gain access to the resources they need to upgrade and formalize their settlements. This network’s long term goal is to create and support such organizations in their work primarily towards improving access to basic infrastructure and tenure security. Through its core activities, the network builds support and mobilizes communities that begin reflecting on their conditions, and through a long term engagement with state and non-state actors begin negotiating for the change. The Alliance will continue to support this network to seek change through a bottom up process, where organized communities do not become beneficiaries of change, but actively pursue, lead and partner with the state and non state actors in the process leading up to the change.
Webpage: www.sparcindia.org