What the Underprivileged Need!

What the Underprivileged Need!

( by Suhana Ahmed )

India is a developing country and the major part of the nation thrives to live, struggles to even have a roof to accommodate. There are loads of people living in the swamps without so much as basic amenities.

The life in slums is heart-wrenching. There is no proper place for anyone to even live, let alone having personal space. The people there lack sanitary facilities, water facilities and electricity. It is so difficult for the children growing up there to get access to education, and so many of them are forced to work due to the lack of money. They are usually daily wage workers who are exploited and are pair far less compared to the work extracted from. There also is this social stigma against and they are seen as outcasts by the privileged community.

People seem to forget the importance of these people. They are the builders of the society. They construct buildings, keep the arenas clean. They have enriched our culture and heritage. The tourism that the country gets, it's because these people have given their blood, sweat and tears building it. They work in fields, at garages and factories, give more and get less. It's because of them that we have these privileges. They are forced to let go of their dreams. They don't get the time to think of their future because all they can worry about is surviving today.

Now the question arises, where shall we start? There are a lot of problems in slums in the country. Besides, slums existing in a country is itself a problem. But, with problems comes the scope of improvement. We need to start from the basic; healthy food, clean water, proper health facilities and education. Along with that we need to pay attention on women sexual health and equal rights for everyone in and ex situ.

If we see on the long term basis the only thing that can create a difference is education and specifically education for children. The children who are going to be the next youth; the backbone of the country. We need to empower our backbone with knowledge and morals so that they can break the chain of social and economic constrict and be the next torch-bearers for the society.

We can provide education, food, employment and what not, but the problem doesn’t stop here. It lies inside our mind. The stigma that we are carrying towards the people living in slums has to be removed. We all are aware that many of us, the so called educated and sophisticated class of the society don’t treat them like equals. How many of us have a friend who lives in a slum area? Or when was the last time we went to meet a relative of ours in slum area. This doesn’t stop here, people even see the financial status of a person before ‘loving’ them.

We have to normalize the fact that people living in slums are not animals, goons or thieves but they are as human as we are; and looking at the scenario they are more of a human than us. We need to understand that a poor person can also be knowledgeable and a knowledgeable person can also be immoral and an immoral person can also be rich.

The other major issue is not recognizing the work and labour they do for us. Generally people in offices work for 8-9 hours a day and 5-6 days a week but they work for more than 12 hours a day and they cant have any holiday, no PF, no ESIC and no insurance. And yes, they don’t work on cushion chairs in air conditioned rooms.  They work in chilling cold nights and burning summer days and yet they do not complain about how they are treated. And what do they get? The wage difference in India is unreal. This huge gap between salary of a labourer and some IT personal has created a superiority complex in the minds of people getting adequately paid which later turns into discrimination

Now, who will raise voice for them when they don’t have enough participation at the social and political level. We need to bring them in the working bodies like the village common community, panchayats, wards and then parliament. They need to have somebody from their community to represent them and it is again a long process. Until then, we need to decide ourselves to never discriminate anyone and to provide the right wage for to the work they do. Help them in every minute and large things that they want to do. The lifestyle they have isn't chosen by them,it is the whole society that made them suffer like that by creating unnecessary and unreal boundaries and restrictions-by creating delusional minds. We have created this society and it is now the time to bring the massive change.

And, most importantly if we really want to change the life of an entire generation of slums, we need to use the most powerful weapon. Education.

 

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.