Aijaz baba / Srinagar, 13 September, 2025: ActionAid Association (India), in collaboration with the department of social work University of Kashmir, inaugurated the Urban Action School (UAS) 2025 at Gandhi Bhawan, Srinagar, on 14 October 2025. The week-long programme brings together students, researchers, activists, and urban practitioners to collectively explore how Indian cities can be made more inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the needs of working people.
The 2025 edition of UAS, themed “Working People and the City: Struggles, Design, and the Right to the City,” marks the first time the initiative is being hosted in Jammu and Kashmir. It follows earlier editions held in Hyderabad, Tezpur, and Thrissur, continuing the School’s mission to bridge urban theory and grassroots practice.
Prof. Nilofer Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir (UoK) was the Chief Guest of the inaugural Session. Professor Shariefuddin Pirzada, Dean, Academic Affairs, UoK, was Guest of Honour, Prof Naseer Iqbal, Registrar, UoK, was Special Guest, and Mr. Iftikhar Hakim, Former Chief Town Planner, Jammu and Kashmir was the Key Note Speaker.
Speakers shared about the need to view informal workers, migrants, and residents of informal settlements with a lens of dignity and rights. Speakers underscored that the “right to the city” was not merely about infrastructure or planning, but about ensuring that urban spaces belong to those who build, clean, and sustain them every day.
Prof. Nilofer Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir said, “Schools like this should come up with concrete observations and action plans which can be taken up both for further research and community action.”
Mr. Iftikhar Hakim, Former Chief Town Planner, Jammu and Kashmir said, “The Right to the City for working people in Srinagar has been systematically undermined by a planning process that ignored local knowledge and ecology leading to displacement, vulnerability and loss of livelihood.”
Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid, said, “Building the protagonisms of working people in the city is essential to build a just and sustainable urban future.”
Over the next five days, the School will feature lectures, seminars, field visits, and interactive sessions on themes such as land, housing, and displacement; urban transport and design; livelihoods and informality; gender and the city; and climate justice in urban contexts. Resource persons include leading scholars, urban planners, and social activists from across India.
The Urban Action School is part of ActionAid’s ongoing effort to build a people-centred vision of urbanisation—one that recognises the struggles and aspirations of working-class communities as central to the future of India’s cities.
