The First Step in right direction

It is rightly said, if you want to know the real side of a country don’t look at their urban or developed area but have a look at their slums, that’s where the reality lies. A slum shows the true picture of every country. In India, according to census 2011, nearly 17% of the urban households live in slums, which was around 23.5% in 2001. Although the percentage has gone down but the number of households living in slums have gone up from 10.5 million in 2001 to 13.75 million in 2011.

Let’s have a look at the reasons for growing slums in India. First and foremost being the forever growing population of the country. India is the second most populated country in the world and soon it is going to overtake china. The problem with growing population is the lack of equally growing employment opportunity. People in search of better earning opportunity move towards the bigger cities and towns and are trapped there with low earnings and high living costs and the lack of available space for all of them, which in turn give rise to slums.

In my opinion the people in power uses this population for their political gains. They rarely care about the well-being of these people and use them as their vote bank. Government do not provide them with the proper opportunities and space for their resettlement but give them gifts and money to lure them during the time of elections. And even if government provide them with other opportunities, the bureaucrats make sure that those things don’t reach to the needy.

The problem of slums can be tackled by providing the employment opportunities to the people dwelling in that area. Making people employable will increase their earnings and help them raise their standard of living. This can be done by providing them with vocational training and education. At the same time, entrepreneurship should be encouraged in order to create jobs. Government can also regulate the property market and have a check on the prices so as to make houses affordable for the most of the population in the country. These steps would definitely not eradicate the problem but surely would be the first step towards it.

- Ayush Surana