Inclusive Cities: Why Redefining Slums Matter? | Smruti Jukur | TEDxYouth@OIS

Since childhood, Smruti has been closely working with the under-developed slum areas of Mumbai, helping her father, a doctor, treat the poor. Her passion to help the poor brought her to becoming an architect and urban planner. In this insightful talk, Smruti challenges us to think outside the box to help “redefine” a city, because informal settlements are ecosystems of their own. By narrating her own experience, Smruti hopes to encourage others to follow their calling to help world problems and not just to support a lifestyle Smruti is an Architect and practicing Urban Planner specialising in urban informal settlements, referred as 'slums'. She has followed her calling from her formative age to work for the development sector to improve the habitats of the poor. She works with two large social movements, National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan with SPARC, together known as “the Indian Alliance”, India's largest NGO. Smruti believes in "real" practical solutions for informal settlements. Her work extends to Asia and Africa with (SDI) Slum Dwellers International, across 33 countries. creating new innovative solutions that works for people in the local context, are affordable, scalable and replicable. She has worked with various universities National and International to sensitise academia and train young to-be professionals to work with challenging realities in Informal settlements. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx