Postcard from our Slum

So Jaipur. But not the Pink City and its stunning architecture but rather those cute black pigs walking around behind your window – welcome to Jagathpura Slum. Not that kind of a slum like from Slum Dog Millionaire but simply shabby settlement on the outskirts of the city, where the poor people live. There are quite some differences among the areas commonly called slums.

  There are mobile camps constructed from a few wooden poles with a tarp put over them – these are homes for tribal people. They deal with many different professions and they move around from one place to another, in order to get customers of their services. During one of my investigations three years ago I met a tribe of traveling magicians, who make their living by performing magic shows around the places they decide to camp. It was a very educating experience, something you don’t forget. I spoke with the main magician, who was also the manager of that small community. He was also the only person who had some reading and writing skills and due to that fact he used to teach the kids from time to time. What surprised me the most at that time was those people’s way of thinking that in the land of white people there is no poverty, everybody is rich and happy. I tried to explain that it wasn’t true, I mentioned the homeless people I met in Copenhagen just before leaving to India, but I wasn’t believed. They nodded their heads and they smiled but they couldn’t believe. At that time I had been in India only for two weeks therefore this way of thinking was totally new for me. With the time passing I realized this is a typical way of looking at Western foreigners, not only in India. In Malawi people used to burst out laughing when – “azungu” - a white person, told them he didn’t have any money. And even if that happened be true, everybody just took it as a joke – “azungu” without money? But that’s not possible!

   Another type of slum is a slum of migrant workers. In these people for example are working at the building sites and they also settle around their working places. When the work is done they move to another building site together with them their wives and children. Due to the constant migration the kids usually do not attend the school and as they are not registered anywhere and for the governmental schools they simply do not exist.

 And there is also our slum, where a variety of people live in various ways. Academy for Working Children was opened there for the slum children and their parents (with tailoring club, literacy classes, computer course). There are no public schools in the area as that place is not on the official map of the city, so there is no even a future plan to build a school there. The Academy, one Main Centre and four satellites, is attended by about 300 children, that’s the official number.  The school is for free, uniforms are not obligatory, children don’t have to be registered anywhere so most of the students are those who otherwise couldn’t afford education. There is also a mini camp of tribal people in the area one of their kids attends the school but the others spend their time on scavenging the surroundings. The second Academy was opened in the neighboring slum in a distance of 5 kilometers. Jaipur is a city of over 6 million people and 324 slums.