Pavement Dwellers
I have chosen India, in specific the Pune Pavement dwellers, for my report on the plight of the urban poor.
Poor people from rural India migrate to cities for various reasons such as the result of famine or drought back home, search of employment, lack of adequate housing, landless status, and lack of irrigational and good agricultural facilities despite owning land. These particular groups of people called pavement dwellers move from the rural areas to the urban areas thinking their chances of surviving will greatly increase. They end up finding it difficult to get space to live in due to the over crowdedness or they are unable to afford space even the slums. They are severely affected by the high competition for survival and the lack of resources. They have to manage with poor housing, nutrition, health, civic amenities and facilities as well as deprivation of many other basic requirements. They become victims of social abuse, physical and mental torture. Their survival is constantly threatened because they cannot pay bribes, nor buy land in the slum nor do anything which requires capital.
They have nothing to be proud of towards the rest of society and they live in constant fear of being harassed.
Food
Permanent pavement dwellers have inadequate food intake and often go through periods of starvation. The quality of food is inadequate and because of lack of proper storage most of their food is contaminated with fungus, bacteria, flies etc which they eat nonetheless because they have no other choice. They have difficulty obtaining safe drinking water in adequate amounts.
Economic
They have economic insecurity because their “small businesses” such as making toys, selling balloons, scraps, peanuts etc. is done on land which does not belong to them and they can be driven away at any time. The high dependency of family members relying on male members earnings is unstable. If they fail to earn on a particular day it impacts the whole family. Income
Poor people from rural India migrate to cities for various reasons such as the result of famine or drought back home, search of employment, lack of adequate housing, landless status, and lack of irrigational and good agricultural facilities despite owning land. These particular groups of people called pavement dwellers move from the rural areas to the urban areas thinking their chances of surviving will greatly increase. They end up finding it difficult to get space to live in due to the over crowdedness or they are unable to afford space even the slums. They are severely affected by the high competition for survival and the lack of resources. They have to manage with poor housing, nutrition, health, civic amenities and facilities as well as deprivation of many other basic requirements. They become victims of social abuse, physical and mental torture. Their survival is constantly threatened because they cannot pay bribes, nor buy land in the slum nor do anything which requires capital.
They have nothing to be proud of towards the rest of society and they live in constant fear of being harassed.
Food
Permanent pavement dwellers have inadequate food intake and often go through periods of starvation. The quality of food is inadequate and because of lack of proper storage most of their food is contaminated with fungus, bacteria, flies etc which they eat nonetheless because they have no other choice. They have difficulty obtaining safe drinking water in adequate amounts.
Economic
They have economic insecurity because their “small businesses” such as making toys, selling balloons, scraps, peanuts etc. is done on land which does not belong to them and they can be driven away at any time. The high dependency of family members relying on male members earnings is unstable. If they fail to earn on a particular day it impacts the whole family. Income