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Journalism of Courage
Of Delhi8217;s 13 million people, 40 per cent live in slums. Living on the fringe, they have no access to basic facilities like medicare, education, electricity and even potable water. My experience with DRAG has shown that educating them makes a difference, for education can be used as an entry point to take up issues related to basic facilities like health and sanitation. Since achieving 100 per cent literacy in the Capital is such a colossal task, the Government and the NGOs need all the help they can get.
That8217;s where people come in. The middle-class has become very dynamic and aware. Rather than a one-off donation, they would rather support self-help development projects which have bigger and long-term benefits. They all want to help and are willing to volunteer for different projects, but the problem is that the help most volunteers give is sporadic, making it very difficult for us to depend on them.
According to the Delhi Administration, there are three types of slums or migrant colonies. There are jhuggi-jhopries or squatter settlements that have sprung up on Government land and comprise 1,080 of the over 1,100 in the Capital; the resettlement colonies to which the Government moves squatters when they reclaim land; and the urbanised villages, which are really the worst off, with no electricity, sewerage and water facilities, simply because the Municipal Corporation does not recognise it.
People living in all three need help, and DRAG has been doing waste-management projects, education and adult education programmes with all of them. Of the three, we found the people in urbanised villages the most self-motivated and eager to help themselves. One such village we went to was Mohan Garden, where a worker set up ten centres in a month when her target was just four or five!
Our adult education programme evolved out of a project to educate slum children. We found that mothers often accompanied their children to school, and waited outside till the class got over. Since most of them were uneducated and yet eager to learn, adult education seemed a good idea. Now we have centres at Mohan Garden and Kusumpur Pahari, where volunteers are always welcome to help. Their support is vital as it gives us a fresh perspective and additional inputs.
