PEOPLE'S VOICES IN DEMOCRATIZING CITIES: A CASE OF MUMBAI

This paper critically analyzes people's empowerment, civil society groups, and urbanization process in a city like Mumbai. It explores the impact of varied layers of civil society groups on housing rights for local communities. This paper has critically examined the issues of empowerment in India's context and empowerment through democratic participation development in urbanization process. The framework of the paper classified into various sections to answer questions like what are the issues of urban disadvantaged communities living in urban areas? What are the interventions by civil society? How effective is the space for Dalits and other minorities to communicate with various stakeholders? The civil society groups are engaged in representing the voices of people living in slums. In this context, paper highlights the process of empowering this important section that represents more than half of city's population that is slum dwellers. And further this paper attempts to answer the question about who are getting empowered and for what?