Ms. Smruti J is an urban development professional based in India whose work extends to Asian and Sub-Saharan African cities. Smruti is currently the programme leader at Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre (SPARC), an affiliate of the transnational Slum Dwellers International (SDI) network which spans over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She is currently based at Mumbai and works on projects in India and within the SDI network in South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The network operates on the premise that organized communities of the urban poor are central to creation of inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities. SDI federations organize around daily savings, profiling and enumerating their settlements, and partnering with governments for incremental upgrading of slums. Smurti works closely with the Know Your City campaign which is mapping and creating digital footprints of community-led informal settlement profiling, and supports partnerships between local governments and cities for inclusive urban planning.