Slums
are considered as the poorest form of life. Unlike insufficient life in rural
areas, slums are much worse though they exist in urban areas. Poverty and lack
of basic needs are the hallmark of slums. It is a painful experience to walk
through a slum witnessing the helplessness and bottom level living standards
that slum-dwellers lead. It would evoke so many questions about our own
existence in the world. Slums, as the name itself sounds awful, are in total a
reality of life which we cannot ignore.
As
said earlier, slums don’t have the basic needs of life or have the pathetic
level of needs. Housing for example, gives the basic picture of the wretched
life in slums. They are often made with plastic sheets, old cloths and whatever
waste material they find to cover the roof. There will be no ventilation and
the floors are dirty like the streets they live in. Slum dwellers are not
protected from rain or storm. They are open to pollution all the time and
suffer a lot with diseases. The saddest part is that it is very difficult for
slum dwellers to get medical aid or help from authorities because they are the
marginalized group in the society.
Most
of the slums are situated near drainage areas. The unhygienic environment makes
their lives much harder and they are always on the shore of health related
issues. They don’t have access to safe water and they use contaminated water
available in their surrounding for household needs. The frequent interaction
with contaminated water not only affects their health but also invites mosquitoes
and other insects which carry harmful viruses. Women and children are more
affected by the scarsity of clean water. Women, as they are in charge of
cooking and cleaning, are always interact with polluted water. Children, being
fed by polluted water everyday succumb to water borne diseases very easily.
Other
than poor housing, sanitation and health related issues, slums face more
vicious aspects of life like lack of education and employment. Most of the
children in slums don’t go to school. Their parents don’t have financial
capacity to provide good education to children. Men in slums wander around in
search of jobs and even if they find one get inadequate income to feed their
family. They never get a chance to develop their skills and find a better
income. The authorities ignore them as they don’t come under the elite urban
population.
Mahatma
Gandhi said, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear
to them except in the form of bread.” But, while it is about slum-dwellers, the
situation is more deeper than finding bread. Poverty is a curse. Every member
of the society has the right to lead a reasonable standard in their lives. But,
ignorance and hatredness makes slum dwellers life miserable. Don’t they have
the right to live happily and safely?
Whom
should they ask about their poor life?
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