Defying NGO-ization?: Lessons in Livelihood Resilience Observed Among Involuntarily Displaced Women in Mumbai, India

This article focuses on how a group of women involuntarily displaced from Mumbai’s slums managed the resulting sizeable disruptions to their livelihoods. One hundred and twenty women—relocated to a resettlement site chosen by a nongovernmental organization (NGO)—are the primary data source. The concept of sensemaking/sensegiving provides a framework for analyzing how these particular women reconstructed their livelihoods in new surroundings independent of directives from NGOs, government agencies, or private developers. The article identifies four strategies that the women utilized to make sense of changes in their livelihood—positive reappraisal, radical change, incremental steps, and restraint—depending on their age, marital status, length of time widowed, family-size, past employment experience, education, ethnicity, and/or religion. Once women had individually and retrospectively made sense of their new environment and circumstances, they attempted to influence others present to consider an alternate vision for livelihood generation. This article captures the micro-level dynamics operating in these early moments of livelihood envisioning, dynamics that might otherwise escape the attention of government, business, and civil society actors with a stake in the project’s future. Such early-stage envisioning by residents could serve as a valuable guide for all concerned stakeholders and must be factored in to strengthen national and international policy for urban resettlement and rehabilitation.