Slum Supports City Essay Samples

Indian slum areas in cities are least serviced areas. Sanitation problems – particularly of defecation in open spaces – are rampant. Initiatives by social entrepreneurs like Pratima Joshi are helping poorer slum residents get private toilets for each house instead of community toilets which are more expensive and needs longer time for construction, let alone corruption and bad governance issues. Joshi has tapped into geographic information systems (GIS) for more data about poorly serviced slums. Fusing her experience as an architect and her networking skills as a public advocacy champion, Joshi approaches state authorities in order to use gathered data for better sanitation and health services. In spite of growing disparities between posh, urban areas and poor slums in city, slums are not only important for city but are also fundamental to her existence.
The slum life and city life are not, in fact, separable. According to Joshi, all city's informal sector employment is from slums. The slum-city relationship is an interdependent and very much a reciprocal one. Typically, slums are areas which are inhabited by disenfranchised workers in service sector. These workers need have decent living conditions, including adequate sanitation and healthcare access. Indeed, cities are much dependent on slum dwellers for basic services which, if not provided, will not probably be met at all. Although complaining of disrupting urban life, city dwellers need slum dwellers as much. Significantly, Joshi's course of "A Building Designs for Developing Countries" in London has helped her spur her professional interest into social action. Her knowledge of city life has been, in fact, exploited not only for conventional service upgrades but also for more citizen equality and resource optimum distribution. "If our slums vanish," warns Joshi, "our cities will collapse."