Livelihoods in Slums

Every individual that resides inside a slum is employed in some constructive activity or the other. These activities bring income to the individual's household provide sustenance to the members of his or her family. Some residents work within the slum area while others go outside to earn a living. Individuals that cater to the needs of the slum residents generally utilise the facilities available within the slum. Some slum dewellers provide service to the outside world depending on the specific type of skills they possess.

The classification of livelihoods as internal livelihood and external livelihood. Internal livelihood is the outcome of services rendered by slum dewellers to residents of the slum itself. Individuals such as barber, launderer, vegetable vendor, repairman are included in this category since they earn their living without needing to venture outside their immediate surroundings.

A BARBER SHOP IN THE SLUM 

A VEGETABLE VENDOR IN THE SLUM

External livelihood is the outcome of services rendered by slum residents  in workplaces situated outside the slum. But sometimes these workplaces are situated close to the slum areas. Individuals such as mill and factory workers, auto mechanics, delivery boys, etc are included in this mode of livelihood.

Life in Slums

The parts of the cities, where these slums are located, are quit congested as they are over populated. The conditions of the slum areas in metropolitan cities have deteriorated to such an extent due to the high density of population.

The lanes are narrow and the houses are nothing but a single room tenement without the facilities of an open courtyard or an enclosure, thus depriving the people of natural gifts like sunshine and air.
In such areas, people use common latrines and water taps. Some of the slum areas do not even have single rooms, they are thick clusters of small, the roofs.

Sometimes 10 to 12 people live, eat and sleep in the same room. The streets are narrow and the sewage water stagnates in open surface drains. Living conditions in many urban slums are worse than those in the poorest rural areas of the country.
Slum life is animated by a strong sense of joie de vivre. 

SLUMS

Delhi is all about the glits and glamour- what with the fast emerging metro networks, malls, muliplexes, restaurants and brands. However the underbelly shows the other side too where a large number of people live in inhuman conditions and are seen fighting for survival. 

It has no water supply in many of its areas and the people here struggle day and night for the basic amenities of life. On entering, you will see the lanes are mostly untidy and extremely crowded and buzzing with activity with streets surrounded by small brick houses on both sides. Women can be seen washing clothes and dishes, sewing garments or simply chit-chatting away to glory.

This is the other side of delhi which cannot be ignored, some slums still exist while others are destroyed in the wake of the common wealth games, upcoming malls and buildings.
So, I think we should be grateful for the roof over our head. 

EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA

The School System-

There is a national organization that plays a key role in developing policies and programmes, called the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that prepares a National Curriculum Framework. Each state has its counterpart called the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT). These are the bodies that essentially propose educational strategies, curricula, pedagogical schemes and evaluation methodologies to the states' departments of education. The SCERTs generally follow guidelines established by the NCERT. But the states have considerable freedom in implementing the education system.

The National Policy on Education, 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA) 1992 envisaged free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality for all children below 14 years before the 21st Century. The government committed to earmark 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for education, half of which would be spent on primary education. The expenditure on Education as a percentage of GDP also rose from 0.7 per cent in 1951-52 to about 3.6 per cent in 1997-98.

The school system in India has four levels: lower primary (age 6 to 10), upper primary (11 and 12), high (13 to 15) and higher secondary (17 and 18). The lower primary school is divided into five “standards”, upper primary school into two, high school into three and higher secondary into two. Students have to learn a common curriculum largely (except for regional changes in mother tongue) till the end of high school. There is some amount of specialization possible at the higher secondary level. Students throughout the country have to learn three languages (namely, English, Hindi and their mother tongue) except in regions where Hindi is the mother tongue and in some streams as discussed below.

The second central scheme is the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). It seems that this was started as a replacement for the Cambridge School Certificate. The idea was mooted in a conference held in 1952 under the Chairmanship of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister for Education. The main purpose of the conference was to consider the replacement of the overseas Cambridge School Certificate Examination by an All India Examination. In October 1956 at the meeting of the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education, a proposal was adopted for the setting up of an Indian Council to administer the University of Cambridge, Local Examinations Syndicate's Examination in India and to advise the Syndicate on the best way to adapt its examination to the needs of the country. The inaugural meeting of the Council was held on 3rd November, 1958. In December 1967, the Council was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The Council was listed in the Delhi School Education Act 1973, as a body conducting public examinations. Now a large number of schools across the country are affiliated to this Council. All these are private schools and generally cater to children from wealthy families.

Both the CBSE and the ICSE council conduct their own examinations in schools across the country that are affiliated to them at the end of 10 years of schooling (after high school) and again at the end of 12 years (after higher secondary). Admission to the 11th class is normally based on the performance in this all-India examination. Since this puts a lot of pressure on the child to perform well, there have been suggestions to remove the examination at the end of 10 years.

SLUMS IN DELHI

New Delhi is all about the glitz and the glamour─ what with the fast-emerging metro networks, malls, multiplexes, restaurants and brands however the underbelly shows the other side too where a large number of people live in inhuman conditions and are seen fighting for survival. We discuss such habitats in and around Delhi.

Madanpur Khadar-

Located about a kilometre away from the Sarita Vihar Metro Station, Madanpur Khadar is a resettlement colony on the outskirts of Delhi. It was selected by the govt as the site to relocate large groups of slum-dwellers from different parts of the city back then in the year 2000. The majority of residents found here are rag-pickers. On entering this area, the scenery you will come across, is dominated by mud and brick houses, narrow streets, trash/second-hand material selling markets and a sewer line running through the slum. While the slum-dwellers here suffer from the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation problems, care has been taken in some departments, as many NGOs for Women Welfare or HIV affected have opened in the area.

Sangam Vihar-

Sangam Vihar is a slum colony and is known to be one of the biggest ones in India. It has no water supply in many of its areas and the people here struggle day & night for the basic amenities of life.

Paharganj Slums-

Paharganj Street, located in the vicinity of the New Delhi Railway Station, other than being a backpacker’s zone houses a large slum community. It is one of the more developed slums of Delhi due to revenue flowing in from cheap guesthouses for train passengers deboarding at the Paharganj side of the New Delhi Railway Station. Most of the dwellers here do menial jobs or are pickpockets. It is largely an Old Delhi-style settlement, with narrow streets and 2-3 floor buildings and shops. On entering, you will see the lanes are mostly untidy and extremely crowded and buzzing with activity with streets surrounded by small brick houses on both sides. Women can be seeing washing dishes and clothes, sewing garments or simply chit-chatting away to glory.

Kathputli Colony-

It is one of the most remarkable slums located near Shadipur Depot, Patel Nagar which is in the process of being relocated. The dwellers here are magicians, puppeteers, acrobats, dancers and other artists who have been living in this area for hundreds of years. This slum area is all about narrow mud roads, colourful houses and streets overflowing with performers. The Indian Government deemed the community's greatest puppeteers and magicians around the world any time they need to showcase the cultural excellence of India.

Kusumpur Pahari-

The largest slum in New Delhi and housing around more than 10,000 slums, Kusumpur Pahari is home mostly to poor migrants from UP, Bihar, Orissa and Assam etc. Located in Vasant Vihar, one of the most posh areas in Delhi, this slum gives a tough contrast to the area’s posh bungalows. The majority of this slum has servants, drivers, gardeners, sweepers who work for the wealthy people living in Vasant Vihar.

EDUCATION LEVEL OF SLUM IN INDIA

Various surveys of slum areas show that only over half the children are in school. It also showsthat a high over-age and dropout ratio exists among slum children. Over-age is often the outcomeof late admission to school. Late admission is caused both by demand side i.e. migration fromrural areas to slums and by supply side i.e. lack of school capacity for all children, a short periodof admission, requirement of birth certificate etc. Economic problems are one of the mainreasons why children do not attend school.However various educational schemes have been applied by government to increase the literacyrate. Some of them are as follows:

Operation Blackboard

The Operation Blackboard scheme, started in 1987-88, which aimed at improving the classroom  environment by providing infrastructural facilities, additional teachers and teaching-learning material to primary schools and by provision of a third teacher to schools where enrolment exceeded 100, has been extended to upper primary schools.

Restructuring and Reorganization of Teacher Education

The scheme of Restructuring and Reorganization of Teacher Education, started in 1987, aims tostrengthen the institutional base of teacher training by taking up special programs for training of teachers in specified areas and other non-institutional training programs.

District Primary Education Program (DPEP)

The District Primary Education Program (DPEP), launched in 1994, is assisted by the WorldBank, European Commission, and Department for International Development (DFID) of theUnited Kingdom, the Netherlands and

the United Nations International Children’s Emergency

Fund (UNICEF).

Shiksha Karmi Project and Lok Jumbish Project in Rajasthan

Two externally-aided projects for basic education are the Shiksha Karmi and Lok Jumbish projects in Rajasthan. Both are innovative projects aimed at the universalization of elementaryeducation together with a qualitative improvement in remote and socially backward villages witha primary focus on gender.

EDUCATION IN SLUMS

Education plays a vital role in economic growth of any economy. With increasing urbanization,urban migration has led to a serious problem of increase in urban slums. These urban poor usually consist of semi-skilled or unskilled labor. The poor condition of these urban poor in slumareas is mainly due to their inability to compete with skilled labor class and afford a decent  standard of living.

Slums: residence of urban poor

For billions of people, the urban experience is one of poverty and exclusion. Often, studies over look those residents of a city whose homes and work are unofficial or unregistered precisely those most likely to be poor or suffer discrimination i.e. the slums. Difficult urbanliving conditions reflect and are exacerbated by factors such as illegality, limited voice indecision-making and lack of secure tenure, assets and legal protection. Exclusion is oftenreinforced by discrimination on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, race or disability. In addition,cities often expand beyond the capacity of the authorities to provide the infrastructure and

services needed to ensure people’s health and well

-being.A significant proportion of urban population growth is occurring in the most unplanned anddeprived areas. These factors combine to push essential services especially education beyond thereach of children and families living in poor urban neighborhoods. However, By no means do allof the urban poor live in slums and by no means is every inhabitant of a slum poor. Nevertheless, slums are an expression of, and a practical response to, deprivation and exclusion