The Slums of India, over Population Around the World — Climate Change

7 billion live in the slums around the world

The high proportion of people in India, Nigeria, Egypt, and Brazil saying their national population is too large is unsurprising considering all four countries have more than quadrupled in size since 1950 and are struggling to provide sufficient services, infrastructure, and jobs for their booming cohorts.

The slums of India are viewed as a result of partition and population influx into cramped areas. Considered an epidemic to be eradicated. Connected to spatial constraints and health issues, ignoring socio-economic factors. The introduction of the Slum Areas Act of 1956 made government intervention possible.

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 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 are various other 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, the surf from our history books still exists in the modern-day world. The capitalist still prevails over the poor.

Large amounts of these slums are without hospitals, surgery, schools, industry or basic amenities. The heat in the Indian summers is unbearable, the smell of the open raw sewage, piles of decomposing rubbish and dead animals is enough to knock you out. The corrugated roofs absorb the Indian heat with no ventilation or fans.

These people are being treated less than human, 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. With 10,000 children dying daily because of poor housing, TB, cholera, malaria, meningitis and leprosy, is this not a living hell?

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. India has made remarkable progress in reducing absolute poverty. Between 2011 and 2015, where 90 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty.

But with climate change and deadly heatwaves such as 2015 that killed thousands in India and Pakistan. We should prepare for the future, that climate change will inevitably bring. Other developing countries will need 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 because of the sea levels rising. IPCC state that India can expect regular cyclones like the one in 2015 killing thousands more.

The negative impact of climate change, known to some as 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 do not engage no more. Kids ride their bikes while glued to their phones, couples on dates sit opposite each other reading their phones. Groups of mates in the pub after work all sit around a bar table on their phones. It's quite pathetic. No community spirit, no engaging with each other, talking about the day-to-day happenings in their lives.

Ocean Acidification Is Increasing

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.13, 14 This increase is because of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).

Snow Cover Is Decreasing

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting earlier.

Sea Level Is Rising

Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimetres) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and accelerating slightly every year.

Arctic Sea Ice Is Declining

Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

Extreme Events Are Increasing in Frequency

The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

Climate change is a crisis for everyone, but the most impoverished people in the world are feeling its effects first and worst. And the poorest countries most affected by climate change are paying a high price for the greenhouse gases emitted by wealthier people in polluting countries. This article will show you which countries are most affected by climate change, why some countries are more vulnerable than others, and what we can do together to protect the human rights and livelihoods of people least responsible for climate change, yet who still suffer the most.

Why are some countries more vulnerable to climate change?

Countries that rely on agriculture, and are in the warmer parts of the world, are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. As the world heats up, and weather patterns shift and become less predictable, there is a higher likelihood of crop failures, making food more expensive. People in low- and middle-income countries, who frequently have a larger proportion of the workforce engaged in agricultural labour, are more likely to be affected by extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods, and higher temperatures.

In most of these places, women are amongst the most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change: They represent nearly half the agricultural workforce in low- and middle-income countries, but are routinely excluded from training, access to credit and extension services, and other measures that could help low-income women farmers adapt to and survive climate change.