The Other India

In 2014, Neel Ghose and a couple of his friends spent an evening distributing excess food that they had collected from local restaurants to the under privileged living under the Hauz Khas flyover in South Delhi. Four years later in 2018, that little act of kindness form Neel and friends laid the foundation of “The Robin Hood Army”, an organization entirely supported by volunteer work that used the act of food redistribution to bring out the simplest in humanity. By the start of 2019, the Robin Hood Army was present in twelve countries, was serving over 500,000 meals per month, and had helped around 750 children enroll in public schools. All of it without raising one rupee, in line with their “golden rule” of being a zero-funds organization. The Robinhood army is now a Harvard Case study: This case explores the challenges and opportunities related to fast growth and international expansion of a start-up organization that operates with no monetary assets. The discussion of this case offe...

I was 16 when I joined an NGO that gave education to underprivileged students. My very first day was in Dharavi - Mumbai. As my taxi went through the road deeper and inside the lanes of Dharavi, I could feel the Mumbai which is shown in movies and which is written in books is gone far away. The place I was in was full of life. It looked like the scene where ants are working together in places everywhere. Every house had ladders and life built upon life, families lived upon families. I was directed to a room where I was supposed to teach the kids. I passed door after door. Doors that were open wide. Houses had women working on sewing machines, creaking table fans, swings made of saree for just born kids, piles of vessels filled with water and small photographs on the walls with garland on them. In the rooms of 10*10 square feet, people created homes. The room I entered had no roof. Walls were broken. It had a black board and a chair. One hour went by, nobody showed up. Just when I was...

Pursuit of Happiness What is it that gives you joy? For some its power, while others say its pride. For some, it’s money while for some, its wisdom. But for the people of Basanti slum, S urvival made them happy. The Dual Disaster Basanti slum, Kolkata , the city of joy had been home to approximately 6625 according to 2011 census but this was in 2019 and people around the globe were struggling with Covid-19. But for the people of the slum, another disaster was in line. It was when Amphan hit. This dual disaster shook West Bengal and Orissa to its core but the severely affected were the slums. The Fateful Survival “Wind blowing at a speed of 115km/h blew off the houses made of vinyl sheets, scarp, tarpaulin and cardboards leaving just the skeletal roof. The cyclone left the narrow streets clogged with filth, fallen trees and broken electric wires. Amidst the howling winds and incessant rainfalls, those who survived considered themselves to be lucky. Hunger and fear started t...

    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 avai...

  What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think about slums? Do we know what deplorable health and environmental conditions exist in slums? Every now and then we come across news that reports eviction of slum dwellers due to encroachment? Their houses are demolished and asked to leave. Do we ever wonder where would they go after getting evicted? They just get settled in another government or private land only to get evicted again just when they think that they have a home now. The cycle just keeps occurring again and again. Why aren't we able to solve this problem and help them to give a sense of belonging? Slums are the other India that we should focus on. Ok, let's understand the cycle first before thinking about a plausible solution. Due to rapid urbanization more and more people come to cities with a dream to improve their lives. They get settled on lands that are open and unclaimed what we call slums. These slums have people who work as daily wagers, dr...

  The Gully Boys: Naved Shaikh or Naezy is the torchbearer of Indian rap from Mumbai. He was born and bought up in a Ram Bachan Chawl in Mumbai. Coming from a lower middle class family and living in impoverished living conditions, Naved’s rise to success was through his unique music - rapping. Naezy got interested in hip-hop when he heard Sean Paul's 'Temperature' playing at a wedding in his society. His music concentrated on the struggles faced by himself and others. He made his Bollywood debut in the movie “Hey Bro” with the song ‘Birju’ that starred superstars like Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, and many more. His inspirations were Seal Paul, Lil Wayne etc. His single debut was done through “Aafat” in 2014 and the video garnered many views making it viral.  “I come from an orthodox Muslim family and I grew up in Kurla, a Mumbai neighbourhood known for all things bad. Growing up, no one wanted me to pursue rap as a career. There were a lot of problems, lo...

Ranjitsinh Disale, a Government School Teacher from Paritewadi, Maharashtra, had made history and made India proud. This is not because he won the 1 million USD Global Teacher Prize 2020 which brings incredible honour and glory in itself, but because in a never-before-seen instance, he decided to share half of his Rs 7.4 crore winnings with the rest of the nine finalists for the Global Teacher Prize to support their work. “The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed education and the communities it serves in a multitude of ways. But in this hard time, teachers are giving their best to make sure every student has access to their birth right of a good education," said Disale, as per PTI. Disale aspired to become an IT engineer but it didn’t turn out to be the way he wanted to that’s when his father suggested him teaching as a career. However, his experience in a teacher training college changed him as a person completely. He started off with his incredible work in Zila Parishad Primary Scho...