[Reader-list] India - the way it is

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear all

I had earlier too commented that we are discussing only identity based
issues, which is not right. I had earlier also put up an article. Now I am
putting up my 2nd effort in this direction. This is an article from
countercurrents.org which talks about our attitudes towards rich and poor,
and probably I have read an incident in Gandhi's auto-biography regarding an
incident which also speaks of the same.

http://www.countercurrents.org/date270309.htm


*Pampering The Rich, Insuling The Poor*

*By Vidyadhar Date*

27 March, 2009
*Countercurrents.org*

London and New York are tackling serious problems of urban poverty. In
Mumbai though poverty is on a much larger scale it is nowhere on the agenda
of the ruling class. India's politicians and upper class remain obsessed
with making Mumbai and other metropolises into world class cities with
glamorous projects, never mind the neglect of basic needs of the people.

They are talking of making Mumbai into an international financial centre
even as London has taken a severe beating as the financial capital because
of the greed and corruption of bankers. So much so that British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown recently wrote a signed article in the Observer saying
the government should serve the interests of common people, not of bankers.

But Mumbai's planners are talking of building an iconic 101 storey tower in
Mumbai to rival higherises in other parts of the world neglecting the basic
function to provide decent primary education, sanitation and water and
security to people.

Adding insult to injury a fancy sports complex is to be built in Dharavi,
for long a symbol of urban poverty and neglect which has now attracted
international attention with the Oscar award winning film Slumdog
Millionaire.

This at a time when 184 municipal schools are in a dilapidated condition and
88 are considered extremely unsafe for children.
What Dharavi needs is sanitation and basic infrastructure, not fancy
redevelopment projects. It will not cost much to provide toilets so that
several areas are not litterd with human excreta as outside the Dharavi bus
depot opposite the Mahim Nature Park.

Attention to basicsis important. That is why a presentation on improving the
slums of Caracas in Venezuela got a big applause at an international
conference of architects, engineers, designers and scholars organised by the
journal Indian Architect & Builder in Mumbai on March 22.

Alfredo Brillembourg, architect of Urban Think Tank, who made the
presentation, showed how a sprawling slum in Caracas rises on a hilltop
equivalent to 23 floors and is served by a cable car to connect it to the
formal city. It is the slum dominated informal city that deserves most
attention of authorities but it is this very majority of the population
which is ignored, he pointed out.
Give power to people and we can bridge the divide between the upper class
and the poor, he said.

There was also a big applause when Dr Joachim Krause of the Anhalt
University of Applied Sciences in Germany, described much of contemporary
architecture as ugly and nothing to be proud of.

One thing is clear now. Ordinary people are being marginalised because the
upper class corners many of the benefits. There is also poor city planning
and poorer land management. So, the poor suffer for no fault of theirs.Urban
poverty is not so much a matter of economic deprivation as of lack of access
to basic amenities. This is the main conclusion of a recent report on urban
povertyh prepared by UNDP in collaboration with Amitabh Kundu, professor in
JNU, Jawaharlal Nehru university.
The challenge is to provide basic services to slumd wellers without letting
the elite capture all the benefits, according to Kumari Selja, minister of
state for urban poverty alleviation.

Our elite's fascination with financial centres like New York and London does
not take not take account of the fact that these have a big problem of
poverty with a widening gap between the rich and the poor.

New York Mayor Bloomberg, one of the richest men in the US, has declared a
war on poverty in the city and is giving cash to parents to keep children in
school and healthy. London plans to halve child poverty by 2010 and
eradicate it by 2020.

In London while the bankers have snapped up yachts and huge bonuses,
millions struggled to make ends meet. London, the centre of capitalism, has
always had widespread poverty. Life and Labour in London 1886-1903 is a
monumental 17-volume study conducted by Charles Booth, a businessman with
interests in shipping and leather, but with great concern for the poor. It
is an early example of social cartography. It shows each street coloured to
indicate income and social class of inhabitants.

We clearly need such dedicated souls, not academics confined to their ivory
towers. Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor in Columbia university, is an
exceptinal social scientist, who has spent years working among the poor and
studying their life.

Sadly in Mumbai while the administration is going all out to provide
facilities for the rich, it is treating ordinary people with absolute
contempt. Nothing shows this attitude than the new steel bus shelters
erected in Mumbai which are an insult to commuters. they are very badly
designed, it is a torture to sit even for a while on the narrow strip and
one cannot stand comfortably either. They seem to serve the interests of
only the advertisers. In the evenings diesel generators light up the
advertisements emitting unbearable heat, noise and foul odour. In a hot and
humid city where millions have to walk quite a distance, a little place to
sit down is desperately needed. But even this little courtsey is denied to
the masses. And imagine these bus stops are built as part of an exercise of
Mumbai Makeover, a shining Mumbai.. Plenty of sitting places in public
spaces is a common sight in much of the Western world. But our ruling class
seems to think that ordinary people here do not deserve even basic
amenities.


Regards

Rakesh