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BEHOLD,
SLUMDOG HOLDS A MIRROR TO OUR FACE! |
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Deep in the Delhi's packed slums of
Seelampur, Nizamuddin runs a bed room size denim factory
with his 12 employees, churning out 2,000 to 3,000 pairs
of jeans a month, down from over 6000 six months ago.
Slumdog Millionaire has given child workers like Rasheed
Alan in Nizamuddin's factory a face but not a way to
wriggle out from the economic slowdown. “What happens to
us is worse than shown in the movie,” he said reacting
to the film winning eight Oscars. “Every hour is battle
for survival.”
The sole bread-earner of his landless family in Bihar,
15-year-old Alam is pinning hope on the government to
save his owner's factory, or else, he would have nowhere
to go. “I have seen hands of children cut so that they
can beg on the streets,” his friend, Shravan said.
“Government intervention is needed to save slum
industries,” said Arjun Sengupta, chairman of the
national commission for the unorganized sector, which
came out with a report last year that said 80 per cent
of workers in unorganized sectors survive on just Rs 20
per day.
The report estimates by 2030 some 50 per cent Indians
will live in cities, up from 28 per cent currently and
of them 30 per cent would be in slums, if the low cost
housing option is not provided.
“The challenge is to provide basic services to the urban
poor and slumdwellers without letting the elite capture
all the benefits,” Minister for Housing and Urban
Poverty Alleviation Selja Kumari.
More than one fifth of all Indians still live below the
official poverty line (subsisting on roughly a dollar a
day); one in six city dwellers lives on less than 25
cents a day and nearly 46 per cent of all children are
malnourished. At the same time, the ranks of dollar
millionaires have swelled to 100000.
Some facts that can hurt us: 62 million slum
dwellers in India more than the population of Great
Britain. (2001 census);; 40 million children live on the
street or work; 9.5 lakh total number of street children
and child laborers in Delhi and Mumbai; 46 per cent of
children in India are malnourished
Every second child under 5 years of age is malnourished.
A third of children under 3 are stunted. Two of every 5
children are underweight. Three-fourths of all infants
(6-35 months) are anemic in 19 states (there are 28
states now). A quarter of girls aged between 15 and 19
are married. Thirty per cent of girls who enter school
do nit complete primary-level education.
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This page
is updated on March 15, 2009 |
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PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
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