Tuesday 15 January 2013

MC New Year(nings)--3

Out of the Slums
Taking a two-minute stroll
through the Nehru Nagar slums of Mumbai
 .
"Globally, there are over 1 billion slum dwellers in informal housing. By 2030, one in four people will be an urban squatter, rising to one in three by 2050, according to United Nations predictions."
 .
"Though scenes of squalor, rubbish and polluted waters look like destitution, shanty towns could provide rich seedlings for the urban revolution."
 .

More excerpts from the online report by Gaia Vince:
 .
"I visited Khulna, a city in southern Bangladesh, where shrimp farming had brought considerable wealth to local landowners and the country as a whole – it was the second most important GDP generator after the garment industry. However, the city's success gathered misery in its outskirts as migrants were drawn to Khulna’s apparently gold-paved streets – around 40,000 people a year were moving there.
 .
In the town’s slums I met some of these fortune seekers. Sleeping seven-to-10 in one-room hovels, many of these people had been forced from their villages by river erosion, by increasing flooding due to sea-level rise, loss of subsistence farming due to increased salinity, and crippling poverty. Everyone came hoping for a better life for themselves and opportunities for their children."
 And on a more positive note, a few urban and rural scenes
from Kuhlna, Bangladesh and the region:

1 comment:

Joanna said...

I am a member care provider for those who live among the poor in the slums of Asia. Thank you for posting this important information about global poverty as the poor are so close to God's heart.

Peace be with you,
joanna