INDIA's FORGOTTEN POPULATION

India, when you hear this name you picture an land of 1.2billions, mostly poor and also those who contribute significantly to the global list of multi billionaires- a land of tradition and sprituality and also at the very same time a largest democracy and one of the fasted growing economy in the wworld. You will think about the magesting Ganga, The Great Himalayas, The ghats of Banaras and beaches of Goa. You think of a lake of IT professionals, of the American anxiety of being 'Bangalored', of the emerging superpower on the table of G-20. You believe this narrative persistently sold to us all for the last two decdes- The idea of India Shining.

The above narrative, although true but is one sided. It flushes out the poor, the marginalised and displaced of our minds -The people for whome the euphoria around India Shining has now turned into India's forgotten voters.These are helpless people who make up the sprawling and appaling slum habitat of Indian cities. When heads are counted, they number no less than population of countries like Brazil or Pakistan. They live a wretched life, work in informal sectors, many times are migrants, and often do not exist in any of official records. They are the millions of invisible Indians who are slogging away everyday keeping the cities clean and building infrastructures while living the life of pariahs.

Our country India is replete with paradoxes. Despite its phenomenal economic growth over the last two or three decades, India still remains a land of widespread poverty, illiteracy and ill-health. One ought not to miss the parallel narrative of India as home to world’s largest number of poor, disadvantaged and marginalized people. A staggering around 500 million still defecate in the open. 68.7% of Indians live on less than $2 a day, and 32.7% are below the absolute poverty line of less than $1.25 a day. Currently almost 30% of Indians live in urban areas, a figure that is likely to go up to 40% in next two decades. 160 million Indians live in urban slums, which is 55% of the total urban population of India.

The living conditions in these slums are extremely difficult, to say the least. Vast majority of the slum population do not have access to adequate and fresh water, sanitation and other basic necesseties. There are two kinds of slums, legal and illegal, legality being defined on the basis of having or not having titles to the land on which they exist. Life is hard enough in the legal slums; it is even tougher in the illegal ones. A typical illegal slum looks like a maze of small temporary huts mostly located along the river, along the sewage canals or on abandoned industrial or government land. There is mud, slush and stagnant water all around, some times near the water source, or next to homes. Mosquitoes and flies are everywhere, causing diseases which break the backs of the already indebted slum dwellers. The famous Indian monsoons are extremely hard with not a dry patch in sight, with water entering homes and children wading through the filth and scum.

There are problems galore and there are no simple solutions. One is not here to spring a miracle. One is here to learn from the people who would not survive without the resilience and creativity they possess. And one is here to, hopefully, contribute a little, help a little.

I started playing my part in starting the construction although in little pieces, the parallel narrative of India. As the photographs above testifies, it is not going to be a pretty story. But, I guess, it is going to be a story of the never-say-die spirit of Indian slum dwellers . It is a story that needs to be told by bigger voices than mine, so that these forgotten people do not remain forgotten.

 By: Sunil Bishnoi