LUCKNOW, May 14 -- A month ago, residents of the Vikas Nagar slum were still coming to grips after flames lapped up their humble dwellings, reducing them to ashes on the evening of April 15.

Today, along the banks of the drain, tea stalls are operating again, grocery kiosks have reopened, children have begun going to school, people can be seen cooking on small stove-cylinders: all signs of a settlement slowly rebuilding itself after the devastating blaze that killed two children and displaced over 1,000 people.

What had initially emerged as emergency shelters made of sarees, plastic sheets and salvaged cloth have gradually transformed into comparatively sturdier bamboo-framed structures given to them as charity, covered with thick tarpa...