STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
This project is based on the social and cultural
problems faced in India. The objective of this project is
to bring light on the issues that’s is being faced by a
majority section of the people in the country who live in
devastating conditions and face the difficulties of
unemployment, discrimination etc midst the minor
section of the prosperous and wealthy individuals.
ACTION PLAN
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While India’s economy continues to boom since the last
so many decades and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean
India Mission) entering into ninth year, it’s 360 million
poorest citizens remain among those living in some of
the most dilapidated conditions in the world. The slums
have become the indispensable and dark side of our
country, which we can’t boast of.
It’s so ironical that the urban slums (like Mumbai and
Delhi as examples) are the abode of lakhs of people
whose work makes the lives of its better-off citizens
easier and comfortable but they themselves are forced
to live in worst of conditions. They don’t even have
access to a basic need like functional toilets, breeding
indignity and infections in their daily lives.
The world doesn’t look like what you think it looks like:
It’s so strange that just a few kilometres can make a
place so different from our normal world.
India is a country where tens of millions are born into
poverty. - India's blooming only for the rich, not for the
poor.
The following talks about the problems of the
developing India, how some sections of the country are
benefitted with the boom and the others are left out in
devasting conditions.
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Primary Source:
Dharavi: A Slum in the centre of India’s Financial
Capital, Stories from the Hidden Worlds: India
Mumbai, India's financial capital and a driving force
behind the country's economic miracle. In the 20th
century, India was just another struggling third world
country. Now its economy is growing at an incredible
9% a year. The second fastest in the world. This is a
country with more billionaires than anywhere else in
Asia.
India's boom has been knowledge driven. One of the
most important new growth areas is biotechnology. The
documentary talks about the growth of Biotechnology
field in India and The Government support towards this
new emerging field. India's high-tech high-skill
approach is powering the country's economic success
Millions of Indians knew that India was shining, but not
on all.
Dharavi, a slum in the centre of Mumbai, that's home to
more than 700,000 people. Across the city, millions
more live in places like this. While many of India's rich
are getting richer, many of these people are getting left
behind. People have been living here for generations. In
which way is India booming? It might be booming for
the rich people but not for them. Travelling to Punjab,
the breadbasket of India unfolds the devastating
conditions of farmers trapped in the cycle of debt. In
several parts of the country,there's been a wave of
suicides where farmer after farmer has been unable to
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see a way out. Every day individual tragedies are
unfolding. India's economic boom has transformed the
nation's cities. They're expanding at a momentous rate,
but that's causing thousands to lose their land.
Gurgaon, a new town on the outskirts of India's capital.
This is where you really see the incredible economic
growth in India because just for mile after mile here is
all brand new industrial sprawl, just outside Delhi and
it's not attractive, but it shows you the kind of wealth
there is here. And if you'd have been here just a couple
of years ago all of this was farmland. And that's the
problem. There's a penalty being paid for all of this
growth by those who used to work this land and have
now been forced out. As the builders move in, farmers
on the edges of India's cities are losing their ancestral
livelihood.
One section of the community are so affluent, they can
spend thousands of rupees for one dinner, one
marriage cost the rich people cost so much money
while millions of people are starving, undernourished.
Victims of discrimination, prejudice, religious
inequalities few of the reasons for the wide case of
unemployment thus resulting in poverty and social
backwardness of those communities
Students involved in the protest at one of the
prestigious Indian institutes of technology, or IITs, the
powerhouses of India's high-tech revolution. - The IITs in
India are a dream for most of the science students at
the school level. And with this new quota being
introduced, the number of seats becomes very limited.
Students who couldn't make it - People who really
deserved to get into places like this simply could not
because of the competition. The vast majority of people
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from lower castes still have terrible opportunities.
Breaking down the injustices of the caste system will
take generations.
Caste continues to be a problem. A politics driven by
caste consideration continues to be a challenge to our
democracy. The fact is that thousands of years of
civilization and history is confronting modern India. And
in that interface, hope that modern and progressive
India will prevail because that is where India's future
lies. Large parts of the Indian population are being left
out of this economic boom though. behind in this great
Indian miracle and the poverty has been shocking and
the discrimination painful to witness at times, the
economic boom is very real. This is becoming one of
the world's great powers.
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Secondary Sources :
A Visit to the Lal Bagh Slum
This article talks about the experience of Keep India
Beautiful Team(KIB)’s visit to the Lal Bagh Slum.
Dirty stagnant water, clogged drains, narrow lanes,
cramped houses, heaps of garbage and strong stink
welcomed us. This all was very overwhelming as we
could feel thousands of eyes staring at us with
suspicion as well as some hope. But soon we realised
that all of them are very friendly as they gathered
around us sharing their grievances and how each &
every single day for them is filled with so much struggle
for small and basic things.
Dumps of garbage everywhere, children playing
unaware the diseases and infection that could be
caused. Miserable community toilets, deplorable
condition of the local municipality School, public park
used as dump yard, cramped Houses were the sights
witnessed by them. Just a few hours in those slums
made them feel suffocated and nauseated. Imagining
how anyone could spend their whole life there, which
was the case with majority of them. To make and keep
India beautiful, first of all, we need to improve the living
conditions in Slums like Lal Bagh. It’s a humongous task
and would require humongous efforts from Government
as well as active and equal participation from
communities.
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Hunger, poverty and disease stalk India’s slum
population as sustainable development goals ignored.
While some head to their respective homes to finish
their chores for the day, a few of them head to a
meeting arranged by officials of a civil society
organization who apprise them of their rights in the city.
India is a signatory to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development but a recent study highlighted India is
faltering at 19 of the 33 indicators of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), including health, hunger,
poverty, and gender equality. India’s commitment to
eradicating poverty and hunger remains a pipe dream
at the ground level where workers live under deplorable
conditions and are struggling to make ends meet. A few
tents away from the meeting called by the non-profit
Ajeevika Bureau Trust, Naresh, with the help of two of
his neighbours, tries to rebuild their makeshift home by
fixing the tarpaulin before sunset. This one collapsed
yesterday. If you ask about our lives, there are only
problems,” says Naresh, a migrant worker from
Rajasthan state’s Banswara district. His wife Sannu
talks about the challenges they negotiate in the slums
— lack of access to toilets, and sanitation, and how
they had to leave the city during the Covid-19
lockdown. For a country trying to achieve its SDG
target, the basics are being ignored and the large
floating population comprising migrant workers suffers
the most. Access to food, water, sanitation, and
healthcare is a challenge for them. They mention
“When it comes to the children of migrant workers, a
large number do not attend school.” The living
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conditions and lack of facilities are challenging for
everyone but there is a need to see it through the
gendered lens as well. “Women are typically not
involved in the decision-making process when they
migrate to the cities yet the extra burden of the
household like looking for water always falls on them,”
says one of them.
“The workers need governmental support. The
database of recording migrant workers’ footfall in the
cities needs to be updated rigorously. The urban areas
are unable to predict footfall and vulnerable people are
left out of urban planning.
“They are typically pushed to the city’s margins. While
migrant workers are agents who are indirectly
contributing to the growth of the city, they can never
enjoy the infrastructure of cities.” hose who have not
been evicted from other slums live in fear because they
don’t know when the eviction notice will come.
Ramila, a middle-aged woman, wonders aloud how her
children will go to school when they are not sure about
housing. “We lost everything when we got evicted.
Children do not have their books anymore. How will
they attend school?” she poses.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY :
Dharavi: A Slum In The Centre Of India's Financial Capital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEVWL4o95cw&t=2260s
World's Largest Slum: Dharavi, India
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InlHyErPtls&t=396s
Ugly face of India
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/keep-india-beautiful/
life-in-a-slum-ugly-face-of-india/
Slum Dwellers in India- Fulfilling Daily Need is a Challenge
https://hindrise.org/resources/slum-dwellers-in-india/
Hunger, poverty and disease stalk India’s slum population as
sustainable development goals ignored
https://allianceforscience.org/blog/2023/05/hunger-poverty-and-
disease-stalk-indias-slum-population-as-sustainable-
development-goals-ignored/
Richest 1% own 40.5% of India's wealth
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64286673
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