The not-a-millionaire slumdog

The dust appears to have settled on oscar winning film slumdog millionaire. The euphoria of many Indians making it to the coveted prize has mellowed. For a brief moment inhabitants of slums across the country had turned ectatic believing their condition would improve. Memories will soon fade . And its buisiness as usual in the slums of India. In all the applaud of the winnings at the Kodak theatre in California, we lost sight of the fact that we are home to Asia's biggest slum Dharavi Mumbai. Recently Hindustan Times carried an article citing an UN report on the plight of slumdwellers in India and blamed the condition in slums on the absense of a political vision rather than insufficient resources. The report also states that by 2030, 50% of the population will live in cities (up from 28% now) and of that 30% ill live in slums. This is a very disturbing scenario. For, as it is, our cities are bursting at the seams , with the civic amenities just not being able to cope with the demands. And with continued migration to cities, which is accelerating at a fast pace, things can only get worse .
What is the way out . Slums are where cities are. And if the everincreasing population continue to migrate to cities, slums will get bigger and bigger. So we have to make the cities bigger and if that doesn't suffice, catalyse towns to grow into cities and smaller towns to grow into bigger towns. But most importantly address the problem of why people leave villages. Let our villages have comparable facilities and with improved facilities people will have increased means of livelihood. Its the search for a livelihood that not only drives people to cities but also force them to accept subhuman conditions of living. We have no doubt made progress in this direction but it has been slow and a lot more needs to be done.