Posted by Ranu Mandal Sarkar
As a team of Socio-development, India Gives Foundation a non –profitable organization, members had the privilege to be a part of the team that visited the refugee slums of Bangalore to interact with people living there and to know about their lives. We were all excited for new Journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. We have already started about the noble cause.
Slums are not so rare in Indian metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Bombay. And we had chosen one nearby areas. As public bus stopped near slum area, swarms of slum children came hovering around bus stand. Hardly anyone cared to stop for them, so this was one odd thing for these children. They were surprised for why did a school bus going by their house. Of course, none of them went to schools. Most of the slum children didn’t have cloths like us. Cloths, if they had, were tattered and torn. They were half naked and starved – their skeleton peeping out of their pale skin. This was the first glimpse of the poverty. We distributed all of them biscuits and chocolates that we had brought for them. They were all ecstatic.
Then we proceeded to interact with refugee slum people. Houses here were very clumsy and congested. Once into the slums, you couldn’t see the cleaned to sit and eat -only slums and slums everywhere. Few houses were made up of bricks and mud with roof made up of bamboo and leaves, while others just had V-shaped plastic roof and nothing else. To our amazement, most of the house had a single small room, which served the purpose of kitchen, bed-room, dining room, living room and everything else. In fact, this was the small horrible world of every slum dweller. Horrible because there was no water, slum dwellers used to take bath since two or three days once or no electricity supply. Slum was built over a government garbage place and it was stinking. These small rooms had to fit in dozens and scores of members. Even if they could not ensure proper shelter and food for themselves, every family had dozens and dozens of children. Parents considered kids as extra earning hands. They were hand to mouth. One could not have asked them to send their children to school, not unless basic needs, such as food. Shelter and cloth, were fulfilled. India Gives Foundation team members have asked them to send their children to school they were happily response that YES! YES! We want to send them to school.
What we observed at refugee slums was a vicious circle of poverty, population, illiteracy and exploitation. Most of the men were under-paid laborers, Rangoli power seller or vendors. They worked whole day and whatever small they earned, they squandered it over drinking, gambling and merry making. But one couldn’t blame them. This is what they had seen right from childhood. This is what their grandparents did. This is what their children are to do. None of them ever thought that they could break this chain. They had stopped dreaming and even if
anyone dared to, dreams hardly came true in want of money, power and opportunities. They didn’t complain. They appeared quite content. Even otherwise, they had no other option but to accept the bitter truth. One of the kids complained that he had not eaten from three days. He had fever and vomiting sensation. But, when food is beyond reach, medicines are day- dreams.
We felt privileged that we were not born in a slum family. Can anyone point out a single fault of the slum children for which they are forced to live such a hellish life! Don’t they have right to play and read like us! Isn’t right to food, cloth and shelter as fundamental as right to freedom of expression or freedom of speech
They are no different from us. They too can feel pains and pangs of life. Don’t they have right to live? A visit to slums can move anyone to pity. We can’t survive in such conditions even for a day. But there is some form of human life that exists in such traumatic conditions day in and day out. What tolerance and fortitude!
What have we done for them? It is so easy to comment sitting comfortably in your living-room. Just try to step into their shoes for a day and you would know that this world is not the best place to live in. We just need to strike the right balance. What they want is a bit of space in this world. We need to try and uplift them.
India Gives Foundation team visit to slums was of no great significance. It was just one of the slums in one corner of Bangalore. There are innumerable slums and so are poor in India and the picture becomes graver when we take entire world into account. But this visit to slums helped all of us understand the dire need of support that these people need.
We need to teach them and provide them education, confidence and means to achieve. We just need to spare some time from our daily schedule and devote it in teaching those who are not as privileged as us educators. We need to educate them and above all make them enlightened and aware enough to distinguish between good and bad.
If we are educated, it is our moral obligation to volunteer, promote and participate in programmes like ‘each one-teach one’. We can’t just sit idle and wait for government to do even our share of job. It can be anyone, you, school students, college students, your maid servant, driver etc. Just choose anyone around you who are and ensure not only that you have taught him/her but also that he passes on this knowledge to someone around him/her. India Gives Foundation starts a new journey along with refugee slum children to teach, to send school and to teach what is meaning of life and dreams and how to achieve that. This way we would create an unending and ever-growing chain.
