ATTN: Slum dwellers in IT city need govt focus

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

Kishan, who migrated from Ranchi in 2015 to Bengaluru with his family, now stays in a dingy house in a slum near Ejipura pipeline road. He has three children who don’t go to any school, and his wife works as a domestic helper in the nearby houses.

The condition of his family was terrible during the recent urban flooding in Bengaluru. He said there was no help from civic authorities or the government to provide them with shelter, clothes and even medicines. “In September, my child was very sick. I took him to a doctor and got to know that he was sick because of unhygienic living conditions. The entire area is filled with garbage. 

When the BBMP garbage collection truck comes, they take it from apartments but never clean the slum area. Because of that, it’s always stinking and people fall sick,” said Kishan. His wife, Suman, said that one of her employers suggested her to seek help from civic agencies. “One of the people that I work for on 4th Cross said that NGOs or civic agencies can help me and my children with shelter during rain. My employer gave me a number to call to ask for help. When I called the number, they took my address but never showed up,” said Suman.

She also added that during the flooding, her slum was not visited by any officials. She said there is no BBMP-built toilet in her slum and she often defecates in open. According to a survey by Health Issue India, 1 billion of the 2.5 billion individuals have no access to sanitary facilities and they have to defecate in the open. In another survey by Janaagraha, there are 462 public toilets in the city. Out of which 54 are not functioning. The remaining are unhygienic and lack basic amenities like water and soap.

Recently, BBMP’s annual budget stated that out of Rs 10,478, the civic agency would use 46 percent of that for constructing and maintaining public toilets. This is the horrific reality of 40.50 lakh people living in slum areas in Bengaluru, as per the data provided by the Karnataka Slum Development Board. Pushpanjali Doraiswamy, a member of the Smile Foundation, “It’s a shame that the IT hub of the country can’t cater to the needs of the underprivileged people.

Most of the people rising up in Bengaluru slums are migrants who have come from different states. These people are provided help by NGOs like us. But if we want to see a change, there is a need to formulate state-run policies.”