Born, educated and bought up in Bombay, I was surprised to read Agnes Chan's Sept. 6 article, "Bombay's innocent victims of destitution" in a Japanese newspaper. It is noteworthy that UNICEF and the nongovernment organization AMRAE are starting a "Micro-Planning" project in Asia's biggest urban slum. That's a good start, as the basics of poverty reduction are hygiene and free education with food for children.
All of Bombay is undergoing infrastructural change. There is no proper planning as authorities try to relocate slum-dwellers. Because of corruption, the government gives the green light to all development projects, even if they don't pass safety standards.
Conditions are not going to change as quickly as hoped for with the Micro-Planning project. People will tend to revert to the same way of living as before. Areas are battered by a lack of planning and illegal construction undertaken by ganglords, and no one says anything. Land fraud is common as there is no information-technology system for tracking as in Japan. IT is a mirage for most people because computers are used primarily for offshoring and to earn dollars.
The truth is that the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer, and as soon as UNICEF leaves an area, the normal routine will return. A community center as a permanent fixture that reports directly to UNICEF would help.
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