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As the New India Rises, So Do Slums Of Laborers

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As the New India Rises, So Do Slums Of Laborers PH2008100402326.jpg
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 5, 2008; Page A01

GURGAON, India -- Rubbing the cement dust from her eyes, Gudiya, a 10-year-old girl with braids and a torn frilly dress, weaved her way through a column of women in tattered cotton saris hauling bricks on their heads. She slipped into a labyrinth of ramshackle shelters in this New Delhi suburb, her tiny legs sprinting over stacks of 10-foot-long steel rods.

It was dusk, and the air was heavy with the fog of cooking fires. Gudiya, whose name means doll in Hindi, boiled a pot of lentils for her family on what passes here for a stove -- a pile of kindling surrounded by rocks.

That's because this is Gudiya's home: a construction site.

Gudiya has grown used to being shuttled from one such site to another. Two years ago, her parents gave up farming for jobs spawned by New Delhi's construction bonanza. They have helped build shopping malls, houses and highways, aspiring to one day be part of a new, more prosperous India.

But with every glass-and-steel skyscraper and high-tech call center that goes up, a slum also rises. And efforts to demolish those slums have only pushed thousands of migrant worker families like Gudiya's to squat in the very structures they are building, hanging their laundry on clotheslines strung between support beams.

"I don't always like it here. My parents are always working, and it's lonely," Gudiya said, sitting on a mound of earth dug up to make way for a condominium and shopping complex near her family's shanty.

Her mother, Vimal, 35, stared at the ground. "We were hoping that if we came here, things would be easier than in the village," she said. "At least here we can get work."

Gudiya and her parents are among an estimated 40 million people, mainly unskilled porters, bricklayers and other low-caste laborers, who have left poor and remote areas to build the new India in emerging towns such as Gurgaon, just outside India's capital. By contrast, an estimated 2 million people work in software jobs. The construction industry is one of India's largest employers, and it is growing at a rate of 15 percent a year.


The work sites are often dangerous. India has the world's highest accident rate among construction workers, according to a recent study by the International Labor Organization that cited one survey by a local aid group showing that 165 out of every 1,000 workers are injured on the job.

Anil Swarup, director of labor and welfare at the Ministry of Labor and Employment in New Delhi, has said the government is "very concerned about the accidents that are taking place, and we are looking into ways to do better." Builders associations also say they are improving conditions.

Still, workers rarely wear helmets, and work sites often lack fire extinguishers or first-aid kits. In India, multistory buildings are demolished not with explosives or wrecking balls, but by dozens of laborers with pickaxes and sledgehammers. Since most families live on-site, children and toddlers often wander unsupervised amid the rubble and scaffolding, raising accident rates, labor rights groups say.

In the absence of clean drinking water and flush latrines, cholera and other diseases spread quickly, and many people suffer hacking coughs caused by inhaled paint fumes and cement particles. About 70 percent of the children at construction sites suffer from malnutrition, compared with the national average of 21 percent, according to a study last year by Mobile Creches, a nonprofit group that provides day care and schooling for an estimated 1,800 children at 24 construction sites in New Delhi.
Today the outward story of India is one of a boom, of new construction projects, of growth. But that boom is on the backs of the poor and lower castes who are building this new India," said Mridula Bajaj, former executive director of Mobile Creches. "Does a new India want to live with thousands of worker slums next to five-star hotels and offices?"


Pay for many migrant workers hovers around 50 cents a day, far below the official minimum wage of about $2 a day. And since the workers are often paid by the day and stay only a few months, they have little or no access to government-backed health and retirement benefits.

"The larger problem is there is a very deliberate effort to keep labor cheap, and because of the poverty and population density in India it can be done easily," said Subhash Bhatnagar, a lawyer with the National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector Workers. He has been pressing the government to enforce a 1996 law that protects construction workers. "Lack of dignity for manual labor and very low pay has always been a truth in India. It is part of the caste system, part of our history," he said.

Under India's ancient caste system, manual labor such as cleaning latrines, sweeping streets, hauling loads and firing cooking bricks is stigmatized as work performed by those at the bottom of the hierarchy. Members of lower castes make up 70 percent of India's 1.1 billion people, and millions of them are flocking to the cities, hoping for better jobs and better standards of living -- if not for them, then for their children.

"In India, the caste system has always made it so the haves don't have a sense of the have-nots," said T.K. Mathew, chief executive of Deepalaya, a nonprofit organization that educates children who live in slums. "Most people are not emotional about the living conditions of construction workers. Without a change in public opinion, the conditions will not change."

For most migrant workers in India, like Gudiya's parents, the decision to work in construction is born of a lack of options. For a few, it offers a chance for social mobility. In Gudiya's case, she is able to attend a Mobile Creches primary school, a small concrete structure on the dusty Gurgaon construction site.


For a few hours each morning, after she finishes washing the family laundry, she and other children learn to spell their names and practice basic math skills. They sing, draw in coloring books and dance.

"I enjoy being a learner so much. Math is my favorite," said Gudiya, whose tiny ribs show through her dress. She looks several years younger than her age.

She spends much of her time babysitting her siblings. She said she misses her grandparents, back home in the village, and fresh milk from the village cows. Because of crime at the construction site, parents often tell their girls to stay indoors.

"It's not as safe as the village. But at least here she has some schooling," said Vimal, her mother. "I will stay working under the sun's hot fires to see my child get even a little learning done, so she won't be dumb like me and have to carry loads for the rich people."

Despite recent record economic growth, more than half of India's people still live below the poverty line, according to the World Health Organization.

"Conditions are less than ideal, but they are improving," said H.S. Pasricha, chairman of the Builders Association of India, which represents construction firms.

Many of his members are considering funding more on-site day-care centers, and several have started building tented worker camps, with proper latrines, clean water and electricity, he said.

"We hope that will be the trend. We know the unskilled workers can't afford better housing," he said. "They want to sleep on-site since it saves them rent and commuting costs. For many of them, just getting employment is a dream come true."

At the site in Gurgaon, many often work past sunset, by the light of naked fluorescent tubes. Hindi songs booming scratchily from radios keep them awake.

On a recent morning, Gudiya reported to her teacher that her family's one-room metal-and-brick shanty had been burglarized; her notebooks were stolen, along with some cash and clothing. Although she had long aspired to be a teacher, she now wants to be a policewoman, trained to guard construction workers.

"I want to catch the bad guys," she said, flashing her friends a tough face. "I want to defend us. We don't always feel safe here."


© 2008 The Washington Post.com
 
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This article draws a very clear picture of current India. Even I am working with ---foundation from last 4-5 years and know ground reality, its not different than written here. Hope gov should make some regulations for construction workers. There are some NGOs doing their work but thats not enough.
 
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As the New India Rises, So Do Slums Of Laborers

Its a global phenomena, almost every developped country including USA and EU has witnessed the surge in slums and now India is going thru same transition.

The reason for growing slums is slow pace of agricultural growth which is growing by merely 2.5-3.0% per annum vs double digit fugures in LSM industry, SME, construction, transport and infrastructure which usually attacts low skilled labor and ecourages exodus from farms to urban area's. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it only reflects the dynamics of Indian potential. Tough I must confess that it will be a tremendous challenge for GoI to tackle the problem and to prevent it becoming Brasil (largest slum population in the world) of Asia. :coffee:
 
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Yes Neo bhai, these slums are nothing for our Indian friends to be ashamed of.

Like the caste system, untouchability, female infanticide, female featal abortion, farmer suicide, minority discrimination, corruption, religiously motivated lynch mobs are anything to be ashamed of...
 
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To understand this phenomenon you have to understand who are the slum dwellers -
more often than not, slum dwellers are people who come to big cities in search of a better life and that is why slums are a phenomenon of big cities. You would not find slums in small cities and rural areas now... would you. Slum dwellers doubling or tripling is directly related to how much does the city has to offer. Biiger the city, bigger the dreams, bigger the slums. To a large extent this hypothesis will hold true to developing coutries

Educted people who come to big cities end up finding jobs and a decent living space while the uneductaed lot end up in slums primarily cause they are unable to make a decent living. and there lies the key for ending slums....literacy... unfortunately, that takes atleast a generation change for a slum dweller.

Now the government has very less control on people migrating from other states. GOI has introduced many schemes to better teh situation but due to economic boom being more visible in the big cities, hordes of people keep on migrating. An i agree with Neo that this willl require tremendous effort from GOI to resolve. I would say it would require atleast a generation change to tackle this
 
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SmashJ

you're right about the causes of slum dwelling. I would say that in Pakistan, this phenomenon has also started to grow, although it is less acute due to the fact that farming is still a very profitable and sustainable occupation in Punjab and Sindh.

If it is seen as a priority, I'm sure something can be done about it... But it's the sheer numbers which make it extremely difficult.
 
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:D guys why are you pi.ssin them. Go easy

What is there to be pissed about? Slums are a reality in any developing economy (with certain exceptions, notably China, which puts strict restrictions on migrant workers).
As the less-developed parts of the country catch up with the more-developed regions, and as rural prosperity grows, the slums will gradually die down.

The only thing mildly pissing-off is the thread poster putting up irritating smilies as if he's just accomplished something marvelous.
 
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Yes Neo bhai, these slums are nothing for our Indian friends to be ashamed of.

Like the caste system, untouchability, female infanticide, female featal abortion, farmer suicide, minority discrimination, corruption, religiously motivated lynch mobs are anything to be ashamed of...

I am surprised at the level of intellect.

Do labourers in Pakistan or any other 3rd world country for that matter live in the Sheraton ?

Is there no Shia - Sunni problem ? are females not buried alive in Pak ? On the corruption scale Pak is higher that most in S Asia, are minorities given their due in Ismaic Pak ? ... C'mon get real.

As Neo said, this is a part of " growing up pangs" & is a huge concern.
 
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Slums are a reality in any developing economy (with certain exceptions, notably China, which puts strict restrictions on migrant workers).

don't presume that Chinese migrant workers have to sleep in streets, in outskirts or on the Mars.

during the course of urbanization in China,there emerges many villages-in-town. real estate and development zones lead the city expansion which engulfs adjacent villages, and then purchase land from the former villagers for commercial development.

the unsold land of villages-in-town are full of speculative buildings by the villagers with their land compensation of the sold-out part of land. those houses are not of any unified planning and usually not decorated, and of course with much cheaper rental. but they are real houses rather than any slum.

that's how Chinese migrant workers are accommodated.

I'm not looking down on slums but things in China are kinda different.
 
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Its a global phenomena, almost every developped country including USA and EU has witnessed the surge in slums and now India is going thru same transition.

The reason for growing slums is slow pace of agricultural growth which is growing by merely 2.5-3.0% per annum vs double digit fugures in LSM industry, SME, construction, transport and infrastructure which usually attacts low skilled labor and ecourages exodus from farms to urban area's. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it only reflects the dynamics of Indian potential. Tough I must confess that it will be a tremendous challenge for GoI to tackle the problem and to prevent it becoming Brasil (largest slum population in the world) of Asia. :coffee:

Dear Neo;sir
Sory sir, i would like to differ with you on the issue, & i would like to introduce to you the real reason behind india's booming hunger & its huge slums.
the biggst reason of the booming hunger & largest (slum population in the world) & in india ! was the unjustifyed cast system in the existing indian hindu culture, where a vast of majorty of lower class hindus forced to live in the unhuman conditions throughout india, its not just only the bigger cites, where the lower class are living in the slums, even in villages, and small towns the have the same pattren of life as they are having in thier bigger cites.

it is a open reality, that upper class, midlle class , lower middile class indian hindus cant eat, drink or sit together with lowest class indian hindus, even they cant share the same area of living.

its not agricultural growth ,LSM industry, SME, construction, transport and infrastructure which usually attacts low skilled labor and ecourages exodus from farms to urban area's, its only unjustifyed hindu cast culture , which every indian should be ashamed off?:smokin::azn::agree:
 
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Dear Neo;sir
Sory sir, i would like to differ with you on the issue, & i would like to introduce to you the real reason behind india's booming hunger & its huge slums.
the biggst reason of the booming hunger & largest (slum population in the world) & in india ! was the unjustifyed cast system in the existing indian hindu culture, where a vast of majorty of lower class hindus forced to live in the unhuman conditions throughout india, its not just only the bigger cites, where the lower class are living in the slums, even in villages, and small towns the have the same pattren of life as they are having in thier bigger cites.

it is a open reality, that upper class, midlle class , lower middile class indian hindus cant eat, drink or sit together with lowest class indian hindus, even they cant share the same area of living.

its not agricultural growth ,LSM industry, SME, construction, transport and infrastructure which usually attacts low skilled labor and ecourages exodus from farms to urban area's, its only unjustifyed hindu cast culture , which every indian should be ashamed off?:smokin::azn::agree:

Wow what a logic !!! Have visited and seen any slum area in India ?

The only thing mildly pissing-off is the thread poster putting up irritating smilies as if he's just accomplished something marvelous.

True, Some never learn.
 
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Wow what a logic !!! Have visited and seen any slum area in India ?



True, Some never learn.

yes, my dear sir, i had visted india already more than six times, and i find slums every where, each and every city in india, can you name just one city in india, where you dont have slums?
even , just after ALLAHBAD in UP there is a small village name , doodhi and it also , got a slum:lol:
 
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