'Slumming' it in of Bhopal

There are over 360 slums in Bhopal city, we visited two. I'm didn't really know what to expect prior to the visits and I can't really find a comparison in the UK to help explain them to you. I thought that the population here would be more transient but the slums have been around for 30 to 40 years and the people we met had been living there for around 20 years. People there either had no intention of leaving or no ability to leave. The slums have sprung up on pockets of open land which may be owned by the Bhopal Municipal Council (BMC) or by other landowners such as some of the local industrial companies.
The two slums we went to both had built houses in high density on narrow lanes and both had water provided either on standpipes in the lanes or by handpumps. There are many complications living in these 'un-authorised' towns though and there were many slums that we saw driving around Bhopal where the 'houses' were 10 ft by 10ft and made of 'wriggly tin' :

• Electricity - both slums had electricity but in Shiv Nagar everyone had an illegal connection to the supply. The pole that there were connected to had 'blown' when we visited so they had been without lighting for around 5 days. Clearly there won't be any interest from the electricity company to repair the damaged pole so I don't know how long the situation is going to last.
• Land/property ownership - all the people we spoke to had built there own houses on the land and improved them over the years. They didn't pay any rent to anyone as they were un-authorised dwellings but they and their families lived under the threat that they could be cleared out at any time. We heard some stories that on a 3 month cycle the BMC would come into the slums, remove peoples belongings from properties and destroy them without notice.
• Access to support from the authorities - we were told about ration cards that gave those living in poverty access to subsidised food but you need an ID card and an address to get one of these which isn't something that the people in the slums have - they are too poor to be poor !
• Access to water - this is generally only switched on for a couple of hours each morning and there isn't enough to provide the volumes that families actually need - if there are problems then fights can break out and people get hurt.
• Personal safety - most slums don't have toilets and open defecation happens on the outskirts of the slum often near road access points. There is often crime against women here but it seems to be perpetrated by outsiders passing by rather than people within the community. We were told that there had been 3 murders in the last few months in Shiv Nagar.

Shiv Nagar
3000 households, population of 15,000, 250 household toilets, 1 community toilet, no idividual water connections


Outskirts of Shiv Nagar, Bhopal

Babita and Kamal with Alex at their 2 roomed home



Sitting area/bedroom

kitchen

We spent a few hours talking to Babita and other familes that lived nearby. Babita has 3 children, Akash who is 14 and lives with Babita's parents as they can't afford to keep all 3 with them, Sahil who is 10 and Krishna who is 7. The children all go to a Government school which is free of charge. Kamal doesn't have a permanent job but is a 'daily wage labourer', he earns around 150 Rupees a day (8am til 6pm) doing whatever work is required such as cleaning the streets. This kind of work seemed to be all the men had access to. It seemed clear that their level of income won't really allow them to ever move out of the slums. Many of the women work as well in addition to them undertaking the water collection, food preparation and keeping the household going.



Phulwati Thakur (28)

We also spoke to Phulwati Thakur who lived alone in Shiv Nagar, she couldn't afford not to go to work as she needed the money - getting ill from the water or lack of sanitation really wasn't an option, she also thanked us for listening and hoped that something would happen this time !





Arjun Nagar
400 households, population 2000, all households have toilets, 13 public water standpipes, 3 borewells



Bramila, Sagbunisay & Ghita

We spent along time in the house of Bramila in Arjun Nagar and spoke to her, Sagbunisay and Ghita about their daily lives before and after WaterAid had supported the community and got old handpumps back in working order. Prior to this the the nearest water source was 2km away and it could take around 6 hours a day to get enough water to prvovide for the family. The place where they went to the toilet was also around 2km away but on the other side of the slum. They would only go there when it was dark to avoid the embarassement of being seen and teased/harassed.

Now all of the houses have latrines and the handpumps and standpipes are back in use. The slum has formed a Water Management Committee which collects contributions from all the households on a monthly basis to ensure they can maintain their system.

There was a real pride in their homes and you could sense how much better they felt about their lives. We were told that this slum had been targetted by the BMC as part of a scheme to make Bhopal a slum free city. The residents are going to be offered new housing elsewhere but the community is determined that they should stay exactly where they are but have better facilities provided to them.  

The children are no different to anywhere else in the world ... they like to play, are curious and of course like their photo being taken ...

I think our camerman Adam was feeling a bit worried he'd lost his job !