How Bhim Nagar’s Youth Used Collective Power To Trigger Change

A group of young girls and boys, called the ‘Power Group’, is determined to change their lives collectively. They live in Bhim Nagar, a marginalised settlement in Mumbai’s Mankhurd area. For them, the lack of basic facilities, such as regular electricity, water, streetlights and an Anganwadi, is not just a daily hardship. It is a failure of governance in India’s financial capital.

Bhim Nagar, on the far edge of Mankhurd, feels cut off from the city it officially belongs to. During the monsoon, it is swallowed by tall grass and slush. Tin-roofed houses spiral inward like a maze, with a drain running alongside. There were no streetlights, public toilets or basic civic amenities; absence itself defines the settlement.

In this basti of nearly 600 households, 6,000–7,000 people live densely. Most residents are Dalit and Muslim daily-wage workers. Until recently, every school-going child in Bhim Nagar walked nearly four kilometres daily to Cheeta Camp to fetch water.

“After school, we changed our clothes and rushed to get water without even eating. With consistent efforts and follow-ups with BMC officials, we finally received tap water connections in 2020,” said Kesar Shah, a young woman leader from Bhim Nagar.

For girls, the task was even more dangerous. “There were no streetlights. Intoxicated men sat on the roads in the evenings. Girls feared sexual violence; boys feared physical attacks and theft. No one could go anywhere alone,” said Shah.But the picture has changed now. With consistent efforts of young girls and boys with the help of community leader Abrar Salmani, they pushed for street lights, uninterrupted electricity supply, tap water connections and Anganwadi for the community.

What moved the needle? 

It was in this environment that a group of young people —Vandana Dongardive, Savita Pradhan, Kesar Shah, Alifiya, Shahjahan, Ruksar Bano, Roli, and their friends Faheem Mohammed, Jaikish Jaiswar and Vishal Chauhan, among others, came together. Aged 14 to 22, they formed what they call the Power Group. Through it, young women began stepping outside their homes and neighbourhoods, supported by their male friends, while collectively learning about gender, equality and leadership.

Around 2016, Ratna Mane, a community leader with CORO India, a non-profit working with marginalised communities through a rights-based approach, initiated dialogue with young girls and boys. She spoke with them about their daily lives and civic issues, encouraging discussions on how they could intervene.The process took years of sustained effort: mobilising youth, holding formal and informal circles, and engaging them on gender stereotypes, patriarchy and student issues. Young people in Bhim Nagar began socialising within their neighbourhood through study circles and small-scale cultural activities.

For the past ten years, the group has been part of CORO’s Yuva Manthan programme, meeting weekly to discuss problems in their settlement. In one such meeting, they realised Bhim Nagar did not have an Anganwadi. The adolescents then conducted a door-to-door survey across 400–500 households, documenting pregnant women, lactating mothers, young children and malnourished adolescent girls. The survey was carried out between 10 and 15 December 2020. Children and teenagers handled everything, from preparing questionnaires to writing to government departments.

Ratna Mane and Rahul Gaware of CORO India’s Yuva Manthan programme supported them where needed, including accompanying them to government offices.They followed this up with letters, meetings, and memoranda to the Women and Child Development Department and ICDS officials. On 1 January 2021, an Anganwadi was finally opened in Bhim Nagar. Now, those young girls and boys who were teenagers back then are in their early twenties; ensure the smooth functioning of the Anganwadi by close monitoring. Their role as watchdogs helps strengthen the community. These actions build leadership and sow a sense of collective conscience among the next generation.

The youth group has also been at the forefront of demanding electricity and water for the settlement. All of them are students from economically weaker households. Yet they juggle studies, civic action, sports, cultural activities, and sustained conversations on gender equality.

The issue of electricity is very different for the youth of Bhim Nagar. “As our settlement was considered as an encroachment, we didn’t get electricity for years from the city civic body. We used private connections given to us by mafias for years. In our humble households we used to consume it for basic usage, tubelight, fan, TV etc. Yet mafias used to charge us heavy money and many times the supply was cut when it was learnt by the civic bodies, or non-payment of heavy money to mafias. Therefore, we started enquiring about the process of getting official connections and pursued it,” said Jaikish Jaiswar, 23, a youth leader from Bhim Nagar. 

Students from the basti who were appearing for SSC and HSC board exams were particularly vulnerable to unstable electricity supply and many of them studied with the kerosene lamps. Jaiswar, Kesar Shah and their friends again mobilised all youth, children, parents from the basti and took a protest march to the civic bodies such as the BMC, BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport). They submitted half a dozen letters, follow up letters and eventually their demand was heard around 2020, when they were provided electricity connections. 

Gender Equity & Mobility

Through weekly meetings and Yuva Manthan activities, young people in Bhim Nagar began to recognise gender inequality in their own lives. Unequal domestic labour and restrictions on girls’ mobility became regular points of discussion. Sessions on gender equality, patriarchy, caste and the Indian Constitution, led by Ratna Mane, Rahul Gaware and others from CORO India, helped turn this understanding into action.

These conversations had visible effects. “We used to mock transgender people because others did. Now we understand they are human beings like us, because we discussed this many times and learnt about their lives,” said Jaiswar, who also takes pride in sharing household chores equally with his mother.

Girls like Roli, who joined the group in 2018, were able to pursue passions such as dance, which their families had earlier discouraged. For Ruksar Bano, the change was transformative. “Earlier, stepping outside meant endless questions: why should a girl go out at all? Now our parents trust us because of Ratna Tai, Abrar khalu. When we went to Matheran, it was the first time we spent the whole day out with friends. That day, I felt truly free,” she said.

Girls of Bhim Nagar began stepping out in search of azaadi-freedom. The first step was just outside their doors, then their neighbourhood lanes and later to police stations, government offices. This freedom still constrained by parental fears, safety concerns and patriarchy. But those curtailing chains soon became chains of solidarity. Those who were permitted visited homes of friends to build trust with their parents.

Between 2016 and 2021, moving in groups became a key strategy, making families feel safer and enabling girls to access public space. In the process, they realised freedom could not remain individual; it had to be collective. “Now almost everyone has become independent in terms of mobility in public spaces,” said Kesar Shah.

Abrar Salmani, fondly called Abrar khalu by the youth of Bhim Nagar, has been a pillar of support. Through the Ekta Welfare Association, he works on civic issues and has long been associated with CORO India. He keeps his home and office open to children. “When I came here, there was nothing but mud. We fought for everything and still do. I see hope in these young children,” said Salmani.

Young girls in Bhim Nagar navigate poverty, lack of basic services, safety concerns and patriarchy at home. Yet their aspirations remain strong. They dream of becoming doctors, teachers and social workers, and seek spaces that nurture creativity and learning.

“We focus on enabling young people to take leadership into their own hands- whether on civic issues or personal ambitions. Instead of lectures, we use games, songs, cultural activities and lived experiences, keeping the values of the Indian Constitution at the centre,” said Rahul Gaware of CORO India.

At CORO India’s ‘Dastan-E-Jindagi’ programme on 7 February 2026, youth leaders Jaikish Jaiswar and Kesar Shah presented their year’s work through an unusual form of storytelling. Instead of speaking from a podium, they led groups through their homes and basti in Bhim Nagar, sharing their lives and leadership on site.