Skip to main content

The First Step in right direction

 

 

It is rightly said, if you want to know the real side of a country don’t look at their urban or developed area but have a look at their slums, that’s where the reality lies.  A slum shows the true picture of every country. In India, according to census 2011, nearly 17% of the urban households live in slums, which was around 23.5% in 2001. Although the percentage has gone down but the number of households living in slums have gone up from 10.5 million in 2001 to 13.75 million in 2011.

Let’s have a look at the reasons for growing slums in India. First and foremost being the forever growing population of the country. India is the second most populated country in the world and soon it is going to overtake china. The problem with growing population is the lack of equally growing employment opportunity. People in search of better earning opportunity move towards the bigger cities and towns and are trapped there with low earnings and high living costs and the lack of available space for all of them, which in turn give rise to slums. 

In my opinion the people in power uses this population for their political gains. They rarely care about the well-being of these people and use them as their vote bank. Government do not provide them with the proper opportunities and space for their resettlement but give them gifts and money to lure them during the time of elections. And even if government provide them with other opportunities, the bureaucrats make sure that those things don’t reach to the needy.  

The problem of slums can be tackled by providing the employment opportunities to the people dwelling in that area. Making people employable will increase their earnings and help them raise their standard of living. This can be done by providing them with vocational training and education. At the same time, entrepreneurship should be encouraged in order to create jobs. Government can also regulate the property market and have a check on the prices so as to make houses affordable for the most of the population in the country. These steps would definitely not eradicate the problem but surely would be the first step towards it.

                                                                                                                                            -  Ayush Surana

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Slums : The Past, Present and Future

The Past, Present and Future :  Slums in the Indian context is a place that came as a part of colonial invention, that sprouted from the leftovers of the dirt and stench at the backdrop of its flamboyant towns and cities. The advent of industrial revolution brought about a paradigm shift in the world by eventually reducing the grip of agricultural activities in the socio-economic realm. The destruction of the rural industries and agriculture by virtue of the innumerable British policies, and persuaded by the false prospects of better employment and livelihood in the industrial establishments of colonial India, forced the rural poor, burdened by famine and deprived of livelihood , to migrate in large numbers to towns and cities . This migration that remained consistent and increasing since its inception led to the formation of slums, that accommodate large number of population in the small discrete pockets spread at indiscrete parts of cities and towns where people subsist on mini...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hollywood Colony : A Memory

      The Hollywood Colony - A Memory :  One fine noon post lunch I took my go pro and started into the streets of Ahmedabad. The sun was soaring up high over my head. Camels were resting on the either side of the roads and I could see a couple of tea shops here and there .My throat had dried up and my goal for the day was still not accomplished. It was to visit a home in a slum from one of those streets. Grabbing my slippers from the backpack I kept moving forward until I reached the streets of the famous Hollywood Colony, one of  Ahmedabad’s famous slum. Still unsure how that place got such a name , but it is believed that it came from the inspirational works of a photographer named ' Kannagi Khanna'  who framed a woman from this village as a movie actress. I sauntered through the narrow walk ways of the Hollywood colony where houses and small businesses occupy two sides of the cluttered path. One thing that amazed me (Which we do not get to see in most...
Post a Comment
Read more