The people of the Hanuman Masdoor slum have enough to worry about already. If the women work at all they are poorly paid cleaners. Most of the men are scavengers, gleaning a pitiful living from recycling the waste of Delhi? 14 million inhabitants. Raw sewage flows past the homes ?built over an open drain in the west of the city ?and children play amid the rubbish and flies.
Now the 1,000 families who live in the shantytown have fresh problems. The national government has announced an unprecedented initiative: mapping India? slums.
Though ministers claim the scheme will make life better for slum-dwellers, the inhabitants of Hanuman Masdoor are worried.
Supporters of the plan say it will allow municipal authorities to provide basic utilities where they are lacking and plan education and health services. But critics say the data gathered by the survey, almost certainly the biggest of its kind anywhere, will simply open up new opportunities for India? notoriously aggressive land mafia.
The plan is ambitious. According to official statistics, one-貞eventh of India? urban population live in shantytowns. In cities such as Mumbai the proportion is much higher.
The country? slums ?the result of huge influxes from poverty-stricken rural areas into the cities ?have seen anarchic and unplanned growth.
Using detailed images shot from satellites, the government aims to establish once and for all where India? slums are and how many people live in them.
The plan is the brainchild of Indian Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja and will use technology developed by the Indian Space Research Organization.
?ost of the time the plans are based on projections rather than hard data,?she told reporters last week. ?e plan to map the whole country so that we know about the slums in each city.?br />
A key aim, the minister said, would be to map the ?on-notified?or unofficial slums.
However, Ramendra Kumar of the Delhi Sramek Segathan organization, which works with slum dwellers across India, said that the survey could serve only two purposes: to benefit the property developers by showing where potentially vacant land was or to show ?here slums are illegal and justify the forced relocation of inhabitants.?br />
Such expulsions have been going on for many years ?the giant Dharavi slum in Mumbai, made famous by the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, has been the subject of successive bids to relocate some or all of its estimated 800,000 inhabitants ?which have accelerated in recent weeks with the approach of the Commonwealth Games to be held in India in October.
In a bid to clean up Delhi, local authorities have intensified a program of razing slums in the center of the city or clearing them from roadsides on key routes.
The Hanuman Masdoor slum, built like an estimated two-thirds of such communities on public land, lies alongside the road leading from the center of Delhi to the international airport.
Last month bulldozers arrived with no warning to demolish a 5m wide strip of houses along one side to clear space for advertising hoardings that will hide the ragged shantytown from passing traffic.
Ka Tanana Nair, who chairs the community council, said that she had been assured by municipal engineers that the slum was not scheduled for demolition. She remained unconvinced, however.
? have been here 20 years. Once we had nothing. No water, no electricity, just wooden shelters. Now we have all that and solid homes too,?she said. ?ut there are slums nearby that have been demolished, so now we are worried.?br />
According to Kumar, more than 300 slums have been relocated in recent years, but only half of the 250,000 people that he estimates have been forcibly moved have been found new homes.
Selja has fueled fears by saying that the new satellite mapping initiative will allow the government to take ?imely?action ?hile relocating slum-dwellers to places closer to their work,?though she added that the campaign would also allow authorities to ?lub two slums into one and free up land.?br />
The minister was not available for an interview last week.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS