Kalpana Sharma, the author of ‘Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asian’s Largest Slum,’ in The Indian Express:
So what about our slums – constituting half of Mumbai and more than one third of most other cities in this country? Is it a bad thing that they are now the subject of films that go on to win awards? Perhaps not. Is there only one way of looking at the life of those who live in these wretched conditions? Or is it possible to show the worst but also appreciate the difference, the grit? If an “outsider” like Boyle depicts this difference, should we celebrate? Or be critical?
Slumdog Millionaire is a story, a gripping one we are told. And if through it the world gets a peek at an India inhabited by millions of people who continue to live their lives without clean water, or sanitation, or electricity, what is the problem? After all, everyone knows that even as we concentrate on fraud at the highest level in our most “shining” sector, and write about the recession that will affect the salaried class, the majority of Indians inhabit another space without the Sensex or job security.
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In Tehelka, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen tells Tusha Mittal that the global slowdown will hit India’s economy and the worst sufferers will be the country’s underprivileged
What are the principal challenges India faces in the new year?
There are traditional challenges and new ones. The traditional challenges include keeping our democracy functioning. The [general] election is coming; it is very important that there be wide participation. It is also important that our concerns about secularism, security, economic progress, and the removal of poverty and illiteracy be kept in focus. Election is a good time to focus on these issues rather than one caste battling another.
Another old challenge is removing deprivation. Huge numbers of people suffer from chronic hunger, malnutrition, lack of schooling and healthcare. Political parties should focus more on these issues. When I gave a lecture in Parliament last August, I mentioned that I am sometimes disappointed that the pressure on the government comes more on issues that concern a few people, like the Indo- US nuclear deal or rise in petrol prices, and the huge deprivation of the underprivileged masses tends to get neglected.
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India has always been a land of extremes. After 16 years of reforms, India has the most billionaires of any nation in Asia, another 100,000 millionaires and a growing middle class estimated to be anything between 200 million and 250 millioin. But 700 million Indians still live on less than $2 a day. Amelia Gentleman has the story for the International Herald Tribune.
There is a kind woman who parks her car near my gate once a day to distribute parcels of rice, neatly wrapped in newspaper, to the wild and possibly rabid dogs who roam the quiet street in this rich part of central Delhi. She caresses them and addresses them by name. One mangy yellow, malevolent animal she calls Bruno.
It is an act of generosity that I still find confusing. Around the corner, sitting by the traffic lights, is a family of four, which receives no rice parcels. The mother, Sayari, is bony thin, and the children’s matted hair has a dull orange tint, a sign of the malnutrition affecting nearly half of all under-fives in India.
Sayari, who goes by only one name, has spent most of her life selling flowers (bracelets made of jasmine, bunches of wilting roses) at this junction. Unable to make a living in his Rajasthan village, where there was neither work nor water, her father brought her here when she was a baby, about 25 years ago.
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