Out of the Slums
Taking a two-minute stroll
through the Nehru Nagar slums of Mumbai
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"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."
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"Though scenes of squalor, rubbish
and polluted waters look like destitution, shanty towns could provide rich
seedlings for the urban revolution."
.
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More excerpts from the online report by Gaia Vince:
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"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.
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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."
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And on a more positive note, a few urban and rural scenes
from Kuhlna, Bangladesh and the region:
1 comment:
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
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