Teens photograph life in city’s slums

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: A young girl sits inside her makeshift home, stoking a fire atop which sits an old, blackened pot. In another photograph, another teen crouches near a water tap, scrubbing vessels. When Devika R., a PU student, was given a camera for the first time, this is what she saw, wandering through the streets of the slum in Kuntigrama, near Hebbal, where she lives. “I wanted to convey to society how girls are compelled to do household chores, instead of attending school,” said Devika.

Ritesh A, lives in Jyothipura, near Ramamurthy Nagar. Here, water is scarce. In his photos, people wait for their bi-weekly quota, lining up at the communal water taps. In another picture, a young boy is hard at work chopping wood, there are no people in the third picture, just a large pile of garbage. This is his Bengaluru, short on water, with an abundance of waste. “I have learned so much during these two days,” says Ritesh. “I took pictures of houses without toilets.”I have also taken pictures of people struggling to draw water from taps. We get water twice a week here,” he told News Trail.

Devika, Ritesh and Mallikarjun are among a group of 10 children from waste-picking families. Last week, as part of a two-day workshop by Save the Children India, they were given cameras to take home. Save the Children, in collaboration with Samagra Shishana and the Department of Women and Child Development is implementing a project on addressing learning needs and healthy-lifestyles for children from waste-picking families.

Thirteen-year-old Mallikarjun from Banashankari is on top of the world. “Holding a new camera is a dream come true,” he says. “I used to borrow a mobile phone from my friends to take photos. Now, I have my camera, which was given to me by Save the Children. I want to take meaningful pictures on Child Rights and I hope to see some change take place in our lives,” he says.

The children showed immense creative talents and enormous potential to bring about changes on ground, says N.M. Chandrasekara, Senior Programme Manager for Save the Children’s Karnataka and Tamil Nadu chapters. “Photojournalism is a creative way to help children learn and use their imagination to view the world. I am happy that we organized this programme. This is the most marginalized community in Bengaluru,” Chandrasekara said.