The recent Commonwealth games raised a very big and obvious question about what the govt. is planning to do with the slums at the end of the day. If a big international event cannot help rehabilitate the slum dwellers, then possibly nothing ever will. I had all my hopes pinned on to this one games event that had come our way that finally our honorable govt. will have enough time and resources to elevate these slum dwellers. But unfortunately, as the govt. has it, out of all the aspects of the development of the city, this one they chose to neglect and hide behind banners and billboards.
The question that came to my mind was that precisely what will it take for this segment of the society to be addressed?
Although many NGO’s have dived into the big ocean of ‘being rescuers’ and elevating the poor, not much is being done, mainly because of the lack of funds. The government cannot ignore something that is there on the face.
A movie named, Q2P, addresses the same concern as mine, questioning the sanitation program of the city of Mumbai and particularly in the slum areas. The problems of people living in slums are multi faceted and interlinked they all start and end at their poverty. Getting these people out of the slums or making them shift into a better place may be good on the basis of health but over all I do not believe it to be a remedy of any kind.
