In 1987, women slumdwellers in the Mumbai organization Mahila Milan began to design houses in which they would like to live, and which combined financial viability and ability for self-construction. An exhibition of four optional designs was made as life-sized wooden structures covered with cloth. This practice has spread throughout the city. The alliance of which Mahila Milan and the National Slumdwellers Federation are a part uses housing exhibitions to: (1) educate and mobilize communities concerning affordable housing; (2) establsih a dialogue and negotiate with the State and its various institutions on issues of housing for the urban poor; and (3) build capacity to manage, host and participate in such processes.