Urban Slum : The Harsh Reality Of Metro Cities

Mrs and Mr Tiwari moved to Gurugram as a result of a company transfer but it was tension all around. The family was worried about living in the new community. It was obvious for them to be anxious about living in a new locality and that too in crime prone Gurugram, but the reason for the anxiousness was not that obvious. 

The couple was worried about getting a good "bai" or maid in the new society.

The locality in which they moved belonged to one of the most urbanized areas of Gurugram but this does not restrict them to get a good maid. On the other hand, it was very easy to get a good maid at reasonable salary because 100% of the residents employed at least one maid. Lot of people were even having drivers, gardeners, babysitters etc.  It was equally important and mandatory to have domestic helps as to drink water to survive. 

    Now what made easy for Tiwari family 

 to find maid in the most urbanized societies

      of a metro city?

It was the availability of an 

"urban slum" 

very near to their society. 

This is not a story of Gurugram but a common site for all metro cities like Mumbai, Pune, Noida etc.. These "urban slums" are developed to cater to the requirements of the upper middle class section of the society and people living there are employed as domestic helps, drivers, gardeners, ironing shops, security guards etc. From one point of view, it cannot be ignored that people living in these areas are doing some kind of job to manage their livelihood but the fact that these jobs are restricted to only low profile and low paying jobs needs attention as well. 

Any developed society will surely have some kind of slum nearby acting as a source of human resources for low profile jobs. It is a matter of great study and also a surprise that people living in huge bungalows, spacious flats with all amenities will surely like to have a low profile, under-developed community nearby. This will ensure that they find good people for daily routine jobs. Consider any urbanized society/colony of a developed city and observe that most of people working in this society on household jobs belong to nearby marginalized area which mainly constitutes immigrants from under-developed cities of our country. The houses locally called as "kholis" or "Jhuggis" will mainly include 1 room or sometimes 2 smaller rooms but mostly without the toilet. These informal settlements are mainly build using waste materials like cardboard, tin, waste steel etc. 
Builders or owners of the area will very smartly build a shared toilet facility and will also put a small charge on the usage. This in turn discourage the residents to use it and stick to open defecation. Also another amazing fact is that these slums keep on expanding without much interference from police authorities. 

So can we say the urbanization of cities will also increase slum dwellers, increase in migrant population, illegally occupied communities and exploitation. If we go with what we see around, then it may be the "harsh reality". 

Main reasons why these slums prevails in metro cities:

• Poverty: Probably the most important reason resulting in large urban slums is Poverty. People not able to build an appropriate housing for themselves or afford rented place starts living in these settlements as they are cheaper. If proper measures are not taken to alleviate poverty then these people will spend most of their life in these slums. 
• To cater to requirements of upper middle class: As urbanization increases, the demand for domestic helps and other household jobs also increases which in turn lead to urban slums. 
• Less employment opportunities in their home town and more employment opportunities in metro cities: Post independence, one thing which has hurt India immensely is the unequal concentration of job to fewer states/cities. The reasons for this has been mainly political and sometimes social but it has lead to people migrating to areas with more job opportunities. 
• Illegal migration: Illegal migration from neighboring countries like Bangladesh also results in informal settlements in metro cities. These people, mainly prevailing from undeveloped countries, come to India in search of jobs and settle themselves in urban slums. 
• Poor living conditions at their home town: Lot of cities in India are not having suitable living conditions such as crime prone, vulnerable to floods, famine, epidemics etc. This result in people leaving their home town and migrate to metro cities in search of a better life. People with skills may get good opportunities whereas people with low or no skills will find themselves trapped again into poor living conditions but in metro cities. 
• Poor educational level and unskilled labor:Lack of education enables people to pick up unskilled jobs which does not offer much remuneration and are not enough to live a comfortable life
• Miscellaneous Causes:
• Minimum wage laws of India
• Exploitation of labors by builders 
• Poor execution of government schemes for slums
• Corruption in land deals and housing schemes 

These urban slums are deprived of almost all kinds of basic facilities which result in numerous difficulties. Some of them are listed below:

• Lack of safe drinking water: As a SNEH Foundation (www.snehfoundationindia.org) volunteer, I have seen that most of these areas will not have access to safe drinking water. Reason mainly be that builders/owners of the jhuggis cannot get proper municipal water pipeline for the locality as it will require authorization and audit by respective government units. 
• Unhygienic living conditions: These slums are far away from decent living conditions as they are unorganized. Most of the people living in these areas are migrant so the volatility of movement is very high. And due to this volatility, most of the people do not give much focus to hygiene and cleanliness. The waste collection and management is also poor. 
• Prone to epidemics like Dengue etc.: It has been observed that these areas are more prone to epidemics like dengue, chikungunya etc as the sanitation and drainage facilities are not great. 
• Non-availability of government schemes like ICDS, Mohalla clinics etc. : As these urban slums are mostly illegally developed by builders, number of government schemes such as ICDS, mohalla clinics may not operate in these areas. This makes the kids living in these areas completely deprived of the benefits provided by these schemes like free meals, free vaccination etc. 
• Lack of schools, education centers: These areas lack good government schools and education centers, which will lead to illiteracy and other issues arising out of it. 
• Lack of proper drainage system: Drainage system is not up to standards, sewer systems are not planned which make the area unhygienic. 
• Lack of toilets and defecation facilities: As mentioned above, most of the houses built in these areas are not government approved and hence lack proper toilets. Families living here always consider these as temporary homes so lot of times they do not spend much on having private toilet facilities. It has been observed that most of these communities will have public toilets set up by the government (if the area is under corporation) or set up by NGOs. These public toilets will often charge a minimum amount of money for the maintenance which sometimes causes issues mainly to larger families. Consider that it charge Rs.2/- for urinal per person, then if a family of 8 people uses the toilet for 2 times a day then it will be Rs.32/- per day. I have seen lot of people switching to open defecation to avoid this expense.
• Prone to drug/alcohol: People living in these areas are easily exposed to low quality alcohol. As per my experience, most of the people get access to alcohol through their employers who would like to retain them till the project is not completed. This is nothing but a trap and exploitation. Also the youth living in these areas are exposed to drug usage resulting from frustration, lack of education/employment, acceptance in the society etc. I have seen lot of young people totally into drug addiction and number of organizations are running drug rehabilitation centers. Alcohol and drug in turn lead to domestic violence in these areas. Please check with your maid if her husband has ever beaten her, and if yes, then if he did this in his senses or with effect of alcohol. 
• Prone to sexual abuses: This may not be an issue in all such communities, but it has been found that number of girls suffer sexual abuses in these areas due to the lack of safety and privacy.
• Lack of security: As most the homes are temporary huts or building shanties, security is less and most of the people are exposed to different types of crimes. Cases of fire causing huge damages in such communities are also common. 
• Lack of proper playing area for kids: These areas will not have appropriate playing space for the kids which forbid them to learn different skills like sports etc.. 
• Lack of proper roads: As these areas are mainly illegally occupied, conditions of roads in these areas are not great and often increases risk of water logging which also results in epidemics such as malaria and dengue. 

We as the civilized urban citizens should give more respect to people living in these areas so that they feel to be a part of urbanization and not just the tool to support it. 

It should be taken into consideration that these slums need not to be eradicated permanently, but, measures should be taken by the government authorities to improve living conditions, provide proper drinking water and improve sewer systems , proper education infrastructure, adequate health facilities etc. Also government, NGOs, Corporate should come together to work to eliminate poverty by providing more jobs, educational and skilled based training and implementing schemes like MNREGA. Also disparity in job opportunities in different part of the country needs to be improved. This will prevent migration of unskilled labor from one state to another and eventually results in better housing and standard of living. 

These measures will ensure that the people living in these areas take up jobs other than low profile household jobs ,which will eventually improve their standard of living. Also, appropriate actions should be taken for the  people living in illegal encroachments and planning should be done for permanent habitation for these people. There should be plan to make these "urban slums" into organized, structured and safe residential communities.

So, plan a visit to your maid's or driver's community some day and observe if you can help them in anyway. Even a small help can make big difference in their life. 

Regards

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