India’s poor losing out to the nation’s global ambitions

[Neo]

Saturday, March 03, 2007

India’s poor losing out to the nation’s global ambitions

By Muneeza Naqvi

Across India there is a chaotic and congested urban landscape, where the poor often squat within view of gleaming glass towers

FOR Pramila Singh, the lucky mornings are the ones she spends elbowing her way through a throng of women, all of them fighting for a few buckets and cans of water.

On the unlucky mornings - that is, the vast majority of them - the 45-year-old just sits and waits outside her one-room shack for a municipal water truck to show up in the new shantytown she calls home on the edge of India’s capital.

Singh is among the hundreds of thousands of slum dwellers displaced over the past year as New Delhi officials set about razing the slums and shantytowns that dot the city after the country’s Supreme Court ordered authorities to tear down illegally constructed buildings.

The idea is to create a showcase capital that matches India’s global ambitions. And as has often been the case in recent years in booming India, the visibly poor aren’t meant to be a part of the picture. That’s not to say New Delhi authorities have gone after only the poor in their demolition drive - everything from glitzy malls to grimy shops have been torn down since the court started ordering the demolitions in 2005.

But those demolitions have sparked repeated protests and an intense public debate. In contrast, few here have taken much notice or raised serious objections to the destruction of at least five sprawling slums and shantytowns and the forced relocation of their inhabitants - no one can say exactly how many people - to isolated patches of land miles from New Delhi.

Singh, along with her five children and husband, were packed off last August from Nangla Machi, the slum where they lived on the banks of the ****** Yamuna river, to an undeveloped piece of dusty land owned by the government near this village 40 kilometres west of New Delhi. “In all my life my neighbours had never heard me raise my voice, and now this is what I’m reduced to,” Singh said as she was pushed back from her place in the water line.

In the eyes of the law, Singh’s family and thousands of others are now legally resettled. Officials even say they have helped the former slum dwellers by giving them the right to buy handkerchief-size plots of land.

In reality, most like Singh are now unemployed because their new houses are too far from their old jobs, and even if they wanted to buy the land - which most don’t - many could not afford it. So again they squat.

Singh’s misfortune is in many ways a reflection of India’s failure to meet the demands of a fast urbanizing country.

A lack of planning in dozens of Indian cities - from small regional centres to major metropolises, such as New Delhi - coupled with the pressure of a growing population has led in the past few decades to a complete disregard for zoning or building laws.

The result across India is chaotic and congested urban landscapes, where the poor often squat within view of gleaming glass towers.

In New Delhi, it’s estimated that nearly half the city’s 14 million people live in illegally built neighbourhoods.

Some are essentially posh suburbs built on what was once farmland, most of which have so far been spared the wrecking ball. But many are slums, and they are being torn down.

“There is a certain image of an urban aesthetic, a look a city should have and the courts seem to have an impatience to achieve this,” says Shveta Sarda, who ran a computer centre for children in the slum. She now goes once a week to residents’ new settlement.

The courts “seem to be in a hurry to create a certain kind of city,” she added.

The slums torn down were hardly transitory weigh stations for the newly arrived rural poor. Nangla Machi was built on the fly ash deposit behind a power plant and the older residents had lived there since the late 1970s. A fairly big settlement, it had about 6,000 homes and a population of nearly 70,000.

The homes were modest but permanent - some had a second story, and most had electricity and running water.

“It was a community. I knew my neighbours and their children,” says Yajvendra Nagar, 22, a community worker who also lived in the area.

Now Singh’s home is some rolled bamboo mats hung off bamboo poles. Over this makeshift hut she has plastered a mixture of mud and cow dung to keep out the winter chill.

All around the huge, dusty compound are clusters of other such homes, the best that anyone here can afford.

When they have water, residents use open patches of land for washing clothes and dirty dishes and bathing.

But other activities can’t be put off for times when there is water, and the smell from the makeshift toilets is overwhelming.

Singh and her new neighbours are luckier than others. Only those who can provide proof they’ve lived in a slum since before 1998 are relocated. Many can’t, but they often move to the new resettlement area anyway, preferring to tough it out with family and friends.

The government acknowledges that the relocation program is flawed.

“The orders to shift a squatter population come first and facilities are only put in place gradually later, so there is a mismatch,” says SK Mahajan, a senior official in the municipal department’s slum relocation wing.

The government has promised loans to those resettled so they can build new homes, but almost no one has received one.

“They are often without documents and can just disappear,” says Mahajan, explaining why the loans aren’t forthcoming.

Having spent a winter with temperatures dipping to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and looking ahead to north India’s brutal summer, that’s little comfort to families like the Singhs.

“If the government doesn’t give us loans, how will people like us build houses?” says Singh’s husband, Surendra Kumar Singh, who had to leave his job as a clerk in a travel agency when his family was relocated.

“Soon only the beautiful Delhi will remain,” he says. “The rest of the city will be made to disappear like us. That’s how Delhi will become Paris.” ap

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\03\story_3-3-2007_pg4_19

 

[alamgir]

corruption in indian establishment, social unjustice,will create more poors,today its fine for governing class but in long term it will be disaster for india

 

[Contrarian]

Actually i think Alagmir, that this boom will definitely have a trickle down effect on the poor. just 1 IT job gives indirect employement to 4 people. Obviously India is not a manufacturing hub for the globe now, it is a knowledge hub. Knowledge based processing jobs are not employement intensive, whereas Manufacturing is very emplyement intensive, something in which China dominates.

So what should we do? India cannot just start making factories if there is no demand. Now the KPO industry has created a LOT of jobs in India, this is and will continue to give employement to the middle class, and they in turn will demand more products and lead to the manufacturing jobs. India is trying VERY hard to be the manufacturing base also, but its a slow process as the infrastructure is not enough for that.

So the money gained from KPO, etc is going towards building infrastructure and agri industries that will create a demand, but its a slow process, as in India, infrsatructure is being created after huge demand, whereas China created infrastrcuture before demand picked up.

The only way is to continue what we are doing, the economic boom will automatically lift people out of poverty, apart from that social scehemes from the government will help, and thus you see the budget this time.

I dont see any other route apart from suddenly rejuvinising the agriculture sector, and there are SEVERE repricussions in that also. Imagine, right now, 60% of people are emplyed in agriculture, imagine in US only 4% of the employed work in agriculture because they are modernized. If this started in India, many people will not need to work in the fields as they will be using modern equipments and lead to MASS unemplyement. So unless there is an alternate place or demand for people, there cannot be forward movement. Its a vicious circle, and the only way to break it is to continue on the chosen path.

 

[dabong1]

Actually i think Alagmir, that this boom will definitely have a trickle down effect on the poor.

The trickle down economic theory does not work.The rich get more richer and the gap between rich and poor increases.
The trickle up theory is better where the government gives the money to the poor who make up the majority in many nations.The poor will go out and spend thus creating more jobs.

 

[Adux]

People are getting oppertunities, I stand Testimonial to that; Poverty reduced from 35% to 22.5% in the last 12 years, I am happy with that, And it is continuing.Thank God

 

[Contrarian]

The trickle up theory is better where the government gives the money to the poor who make up the majority in many nations.The poor will go out and spend thus creating more jobs.

Chk the new budget.

 

[Bull]

All those who brag about rich-poor gap and all other crap, let us know the alternative.

 

[Goodperson]

All those who brag about rich-poor gap and all other crap, let us know the alternative.

Why would they worry about India's poor ? they are just worried about India's progress and trying to find chinks in growth.

Yes there are chinks in growth but Nobody has alternatives.

 

[alamgir]

All those who brag about rich-poor gap and all other crap, let us know the alternative.

create more jobs for poors, give them free medical service,give better education oppertunities to their childerns. but doing all this need honest,a sincere,establishment

 

[Goodperson]

create more jobs for poors, give them free medical service,give better education oppertunities to their childerns. but doing all this need honest,a sincere,establishment

Excellent response alamgir, Let me try to reply I see that poverty in India is reducing each year, GOI is already leving 2 % cess on Taxes for education they have increaded by 1 % this year, In addition they are providing free meals for school going children in school this is to lure children to school.
ALL Public hospitals provide free service to the poor, But there is much to be done to transport them to these hospitals. Muncipal schools are offer free education to poor.
About honest and sincere establishment yes India can improve there we do have corrupt officials but now they are made more accountable.
But still there are limitations of Public schools if you compare to private schools.

 

[Contrarian]

create more jobs for poors, give them free medical service,give better education oppertunities to their childerns. but doing all this need honest,a sincere,establishment

The question is what can be DONE to achieve the above mentioned things. We all know that jobs need to be created, the question is HOW? Read my previous post to know about the job creation dilemma!!

And go read the main pts of the Indian Budget this time, you wil find your answers.

 

[Keysersoze]

Man even a kid could have given a reply like this, the question is what can be DONE to achieve the above mentioned things. We all know that jobs need to be created, the question is HOW? Read my previous post to know about the job creation dilemma!!

And go read the main pts of the Indian Budget this time, you wil find your answers.

I think think the major problem is that there is no industry that the lower classes can enter easily....for example China's economic upturn has been from production (amongst other things) of goods that can manufactured by poorly educated person thus allowing them to raise themselves.
In India the surge in jobs has been in many things but generally it has been in mid level jobs which creates a new middle class. The key is to create jobs that will benefit the poor. (Such as low level manufacturing etc etc)

 

[HASEEB66]

Chk the new budget.

the new budget promises are not enough to make any big changes..until and unless and unless a large portion of the budget is spend for the least 25% of the people for a few years things don't change much...deep down we know we cannot save 1 billion people...

 

[dabong1]

All those who brag about rich-poor gap and all other crap, let us know the alternative.

What is there to brag about?
This is not just about india,pakistan follows the same economic model which does not work.
The gap betwen rich and poor is increasing in pakistan also.
The The Human Development Index (HDI) is a better system to measure how happy and wealthy a nation is rather then GDP.
There are plenty of alternative to a capitalist system.
Of all forms of government and society, capitalisim is the worst. It gives the fullest freedom for activities of private persons and groups who often identify their own interests, essentially selfish, with the general welfare of the people.

 

[sigatoka]

All those who brag about rich-poor gap and all other crap, let us know the alternative.

Firstly the rich poor gap is not friviolous when you have indian billionaires and then indians pooing in the railway lines because they have no housing or sanitation (situation mirrored in Pakistan minus billionaires.)

The alternative is for the government to tighten taxation, reduce the subsidies and tax benefits aimed at middle class and lower middle class, tighten the noose on corporate tax evasion and initiate a concerted targetted campaign against the extreme poverty that is so visible in India.

Unfortuanetly your attitude is common, you firstly deny that people living in terrible poverty is a problem even when the defacate in the streets and then secondly you follow up with the argument that even if it were a problem then there is nothing that can be done about it. Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil have all at least initiated targetted campaigns against extreme poverty, sadly the same is lacking in India and Pakistan and with such attitutes is not going to change soon.