A tale of two realities
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Shanpatti, who makes and sells flower baskets for a living, lives opposite Rajarajeswari Hospital. |
By Desiree Alemao
BANGALORE (Dec. 1)—Shanpatti is about 60—she doesn’t know her exact age. She’s from a small village in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and has been living in Bangalore for the last 10 years, making and selling flower baskets.
She didn’t have anything left in UP—no fields, no shelter and no livelihood. She thought life would get better for her if she moving to Bangalore, India’s IT capital. She was sure she would be able to provide for her family and slowly inch toward a better life.
But since she moved to Bangalore, not much has changed from what her life was in Lucknow. She and a few others like her struggle to make ends meet, making anywhere between Rs. 25 to Rs. 100 a day. Many nights there is just enough food for the children—sometimes not even that.
A few years ago her husband fell seriously ill. As they live in a makeshift encampment opposite Rajarajeshwari Hospital on the Mysore Road they decided to go there.
When he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the cost for the medication prescribed was way more than what they could afford. So they decided to get the treatment done back in their village.
The travel and medication expenses were so huge that they were left with only Rs. 10 a day for food. Business suffered as well, since her husband wasn’t in town for long, and production of the flower baskets had almost dwindled down to half.
This is the grim reality for some families of migrants like Shanpatti’s. Yet there are other realities presented to the slum dwellers of the EWS (economically weaker section) Quarters at Vivek Nagar who have access to two hospitals and free health checkups conducted regularly.
Most people in the EWS Quarters have steady jobs, their children attend school and they have a a proper roof over their heads, unlike the residents of the Rajarajeshwari slum.
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Most slum dwellers who are registered under the economically weaker section have access to free health checkups.
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So what makes these two areas so starkly different?
Is it the fact that the EWS Quarters are located close to town and the residents are more aware of what they are entitled to and know where to go looking for it?
Mr. Rayappa, law officer at the Karnataka Slum Development Board, says few slum resident have registered themselves with the board and hence their chances of regularization and access to benefits are slim.
The residents of Rajarajeshwari slum are unaware of the registration process and its benefits and seem to have no other option but to live with dreams of a better future someday—a day when there is clean water and they don’t have to drink water from the polluted stream that runs behind their stream; a day when they have a square meal and need not sleep to hope that the next day brings food along with it; a day when healthcare is within reach and lives aren’t lost due to lack of facilities.
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