The Slums of India
7 billion live in the slums around the world
Slums are suffering from neglect. The Indian government does not do enough for the poor and homeless. They make promises, especially regarding public latrines, but nothing seems to materialize for those that need them the most. Defecation outside on the street in public is normal in the slums.
People have died from the slum toilets from the ground subsiding and falling into the pits. They are in disrepair and unfit for animals, least we subject our fellow humans to such atrocities. 4 billion around the world have no sanitation of any kind.
The Indian slum/family home can literally be a room like a child's den, made up of bits of corrugated iron or cardboard. Not warm, not cool, not sturdy, not private, not dry, no amenities and not safe.
With education being low on the list of priorities for the average Indian slum family, they often force children into labour camps. Forced to carry bricks or fetch drinking water for the workers, often walking miles to carry it back on their heads. Minor siblings minding siblings while mum works is normal, and so is child labour and illiteracy amongst the children.
There is an economic side to the slums. They provide jobs as city dwellers pay them to provide products that are much cheaper than the city provides, so the exploitation of the poor is still a money-saving scheme for many.
Handmade leather briefcases for banking customers, and handmade sweets for high-end hotel guests. The city and the Indian government benefit from the slum dwellers, and the surf from our history books still exists in the modern-day world. The capitalist still prevails over the poor.
The land the slum dwellers live on is not owned by them, with past projects being mismanaged, corrupted, and with no one held accountable and failing, the large amount of these slums are without hospitals, surgery, a school, industry or basic amenities. They often overcrowd these slums with ten to one small room and no basic amenities. The heat in the Indian summers is unbearable, and the smell of the open raw sewage and piles of decomposing rubbish and dead animals is enough to knock you out. The corrugated roofs absorb the Indian heat and with no ventilation or fan, the families exist in constant fear of eviction from the landowners or death.
These people are being treated less than humans, with mainstream work being out of reach for them. With no frameworks or policies set in place to support these poor souls that dwell in the slums, it is near impossible for them to find a way out. Social exclusion and discrimination are commonplace, they ostracised children at school for where they live if they reach school at all. With 10,000 children dying daily because of poor housing, TB, cholera, malaria, meningitis and leprosy.
With 100,000 sprawling slums unfit for human habitation across India, mainly full of rural migrants looking for work, food and water. Water is one of India's biggest concerns since recent reports from National Institution for Transforming India warn 21 cities, including Delhi, will run out of groundwater if they do not moderate their irrigation.
There is no doubt that India has come on a long way, Since the 2000s, India has made remarkable progress in reducing absolute poverty. Between 2011 and 2015, more than 90 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty.
But with climate change and deadly heatwaves similar to 2015 that killed thousands in India and Pakistan, expected to be normal in the future. It is obvious that developing countries need some support for their future, so they are ahead of the climate issues that are evermore apparent.
India has 7,500km of coastline and is the second-largest coastal population at risk due to the sea levels rising. IPCC state that India can expect a regular cyclone like the one in 2015 killing thousands more. The negative impact of climate change and the Great Waves of Change has already started to take place. We are just hiding our heads in our phones, notepads, jobs, and media. Take a look around you, people don’t engage anymore, kids ride their bikes while glued to their phones, and couples on dates sit opposite each other reading their phones. Groups of mates in the pub on a Saturday after work all sat around a bar table on their phones. Its quite pathetic in all honesty.
