This is the third report from our Nagar Nadi Fellowship Report Series and explores the state of the Musi river in Hyderabad. It is written by Sanjeev who has been involved in the development sector since 2014. Started his journey as a social worker with research projects on the Right to Information Act. He has worked with livelihood projects under the guidance of Dr Narasimha Reddy at CHETANA organisation and moved towards rights-based work, especially housing rights of the urban poor, the homeless community and labour rights. The author is associated with the Human Rights Forum for many years. As a Hyderabadi and as an urban rights activist, he gained knowledge on planning and implementation issues regarding the development of Musi and slums located on the banks of Musi river while working with Montfort Social Institute, CHATRI ( Campaign for Housing and Teurial Rights). At present, he is working for the Amanvedika organisation on urban homeless and underprivileged youth.
To encourage more in-depth data collection and research on upcoming and ongoing riverfront development projects in cities across India, People’s Resource Centre started the Nagar-Nadi Fellowship – which sought to improve the understanding of the current state of urban stretches of rivers in India. Through this research, we hope to initiate more informed discussion on the ongoing and upcoming infrastructural developments on urban rivers and bring attention to more ecological and socially just approaches to better manage the river-city relationship.
