posted April 30, 2009
Lately, movies such as "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Born into Brothels" have captured the attention of Western audiences and given them a taste of how cruel the urban slums in India can be. However, it would be a shame if we were to view such films for sheer entertainment value; we should receive statements made by the media regarding the reality of urban slums and choose to research in order to discover the hard facts and see what we can do to change the lives of the people suffering due to their place of residence.
The word "Housing" encompasses more than just the structure of the building that one inhabits; it includes the surrounding community, the environment, and the social aspects of the home. A healthy home is one which is not only structurally sound, but also one which allows it's residents to have personal space, a sense of security, and access to clean water, work, and general facilities and services.
However, there are nearly 1 billion people in the world who have been deprived of the human right that is safe housing, with over a quarter of them living in South and Central Asia. These people are the residents of the slums.
Slums develop when migrants, often times farmers, move into the cities in search of greater economic opportunity, yet the city itself does not experience significant economic growth. Combined with extreme income inequity, such factors contribute to poverty among urban-dwellers living in the slums. If there is poverty in a city and no affordable housing for those who are poor, a slum is eventually formed. Worldwide, urban-dwellers make up anywhere from 6% of a cities' population in developed nations to 72% of a cities' population in Sub-Saharan Africa. That's quite a significant chunk of the community to be forgotten, ignored, and literally pushed aside.
Residents of urban slums usually have extreme difficulty making ends meet. All members of the family, adults and children alike, often have to work all day every day just to earn enough money for simple food. In Hyderabad, India, where my mother is from and where my grandparents live, approximately 40% of girl-children in the slums work as domestic laborers. Girls also complete jobs such as making incense sticks and rolling cigarettes, beedis, while boys do repair work and factory work. On average, these children only earn between 5-10 rupees a day, the American equivalent of 10-20 cents.
However, even though children begin to contribute to their families' income much earlier than individuals in developed nations do, many children still do not receive nutritious food and, in turn end up malnourished. As a result, their bodies are more susceptible to disease and injury.
Given that food itself is hard to come by, vaccinations and preventative measures are generally not top priorities for parents of children living in the slums. Vaccination is one of many precious medical provisions which we take for granted in the United States. American children seldom face the threat of infection or death from illnesses such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, cholera, and other communicable diseases. However, children in the slums die of these diseases everyday, as they do not have access to the preventative measures which are guaranteed to essentially every America child.
There are several risk factors for asthma and other respiratory diseases in slums worldwide as well. Many homes are damp and moldy, or have indoor-air pollution due to the use of solid fuels for cooking or tobacco-smoke. From statistics gathered in 2005 in South and South-East Asia, around 74% of people used solid fuels for cooking in their homes. Respiratory disease, along with heart disease and hypothermia, can also be caused by poor insulation and lack of heating in areas with colder climates.
Water, a substance described as "the elixir of life," one which we as Americans always feel confident will be running out of our kitchen sinks whenever we need it, is not guaranteed to individuals living in areas such as the slums. As disgusting as it sounds, there is often open sewage and "rubbish piles" in these areas. In Asia and the Pacific specifically, in 1998, only 34% of towns and cities had wastewater treatment infrastructure, and only 59% had solid waste disposal. As you can imagine, in this situation, there is a clear and present danger of contamination of water sources, which can lead to the spread of diseases such as cholera and other life-threatening water-borne diseases.
As we just discussed, children, who have relatively weaker immune systems, are virtually defenseless against such illnesses as they have never undergone any preventative measures, and they may not get access to adequate medical care unless an NGO or another health-based program intervenes.
In the city where my mother is from and where my grandparents still live, Hyderabad, several organizations have been advocating for children in the slums. The "Smile Foundation," for example, works to provide girls with opportunities for education, encourage them to stay in school, and spread awareness about issues in the slums. The school in which I spent quite a bit of my time last summer, Nachiketa Tapovan, was created specifically for the kids in the nearby slums to attend, so that they might become empowered and independent through education.
Also, the school is the site of a weekly dispensary. Every Sunday, a doctor comes and sees patients for free in a classroom on the first floor, and then the appropriate medicines are given out to the patient free of charge, effectively combating the allure of "quack" doctors.
There are many more organizations which have programs geared towards empowerment through education and creating sustainable development, and with the spread of such movements, hopefully healthy housing can become increasingly accessible to the current residents of the slums.
I believe that education is the one and only tool that nations can employ in order to grow and strengthen as a whole. Because many slum residents have not had a quality education, it's very likely that most of the people living under such dangerous conditions have no idea about personal hygiene or about how disease spreads, which in turn puts them at great risk. Many individuals are also unaware of the severity or magnitude of certain diseases, and even if they were equipped with the sufficient knowledge of a condition, may be unable to spare a penny on medical treatment, or not know who they could or could not trust.
As a result, many people living within the slums turn to the cheapest option - untrained, unqualified, dangerous "quack" doctors. The medications and medical advice which these doctors give often worsen the patients' condition dramatically; this is entirely unacceptable. Lack of education in general is a major risk factor which I personally feel drawn to address. When I travel back to India this summer, I would like to teach about oral health and personal hygiene in several schools, briefly explaining the nature of germs, the modes of transmission, the severity of disease and how one can avoid it.
Shyama Appareddy
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