Dwelling in Slums - Article Example

of the Topic Immersion/Reportage Dwelling in slums is an experience most of us don't want to have. But there was a lot tolearn about it and the difficulties the dwellers face and the discrimination they receive from others. Even the people who offer services like doctors, lawyers will show difference in treating them. Even the other service offering people like barbers and milk men also will treat the people living in those areas with lenience. Barbara Ehrenreich's experience in a hospital regarding her delivery of a baby made her a feminist.1 She was induced labor to speedup delivery because the doctor wanted to go home. That experience was horrible and embarrassing for any lady and these types of experiences were common for slum dwellers. The experiences of the slum dwellers will shock the readers and make them feel shame. They will a world apart, a beleaguered service sector, work force that surrounds new economy, which remains feeling bad about the unmet needs and desires. The health of those people should be taken care by some others like social service organizations or by the governments as they don't have enough money to spend lavishly on quality health services. Most of the medical facilities which are available with five star facilities and costly were just a dream for the people living in slums. The way the doctors, nurses and midwives deal with patients resemble class politics. Though some of nurses and midwives were part of the slums they treat their co dwellers as second grade citizens. The difference that has been shown and being shown was a result of the discrimination shown by the people who employ them. The homes of the people in the slums are not comfortable, forget about spaciousness. The myriad physical activities between the adults during night will not have any privacy and there is very much chance of exposed to children. This makes both adults and children psychologically depressed. This depression results in pessimism in many people and determination in only a few of people. So majority of the slum dwellers do not enjoy or achieve much in their life. If one or two achieve their stories will be an example to study. This shows that success is not common in slums as it was in other areas. The main reason for this is not only the psychological depression caused due to living in uncomfortable houses but also the economical inability to join their children in the schools that offer quality education. The schools which accommodate slum children do not have qualified teachers or a play ground for the children to play. The class rooms can be considered as prison type and the children will feel quarantined rather than getting a learning experience. All the twenty four hours in the day will make the children to feel discomfort in one or the other way. The lack of satisfaction in them makes them vulnerable for various temptations of wrong doings. Majority of the children grow as youngsters to be attracted towards the illegal activities or towards the low wage jobs. This makes them again living in slums. Only the candidates who are meritorious congenitally will thrive in the education and get scholarships or lift in the society. The income of those people will hardly meet with the expenses of the comforts. When they go out they look for the facility which will give less expenditure. They do not bother about the comforts or in one sense they invite discomfort for the sake of saving money. They prefer to stay in the car or a bus for the night instead of taking a room in the hotel when they are outdoors. This is due to their financial inability to meet the expenses of both boarding and lodging when they go out. If one is met the other must be sacrificed. Generally they choose for meeting the boarding expenses and just adjust with the lodging facilities. The people in urban slums live in a type of settlement environment. This makes them insecure as they are supposed to evict at any time. The housing is not durable and precarious. As more number of people live in less space, it will be always overcrowding and filled with sound pollution. The most intriguing thing is that the people there will be habituated to pollutions like that of sound within one or two months of dwelling there. 1 The slum neighborhoods will be made up of squatter settlements. Even in the wealthy districts of the different countries, they exist in immediate neighborhood of the wealthy and comfortable buildings. Moreover these people have varied cultures between them. This makes their life more complex and this type of inclination to follow the culture is for decreasing their psychological depression. The life in urban slums is an epithet for the human suffering caused by poverty. This causes violence and exclusion from the wealth and prosperity. This makes the loss of the opportunities. The police will forget about the human rights when target these people for controlling illegal activities like drug trafficking. Though some people here do illegal activities police target all the people as they don't have any concern to them due to their poverty. The economic oppression, repression and marginalization by the wealthier communities make their life even more tedious and problematic. The people in the slum areas will have verdy depressing visits to doctors. The doctors who have good reputation and offer quality services refuse to treat them because they pay their bills a bit late. This is due to their economic inability. The main reason for this is that most of them don't have full time jobs and if they have full time work they have to work in unhealthy conditions or for extra working hours. This spoils their health and the money earned will be spent on health needs. If they don't spend the work will be lost on medical grounds.1 As a result they choose the hospitals which offer health care at a low price that makes them vulnerable for the future disorders. When a disorder occurs in future for the ill treatment at a particular time the family don't have any thing to spend on treatment. The most irritating factor is that the work causes them health problems and health problems cause them loss of work. This cannot be settled unless with the intervention of a third party such as government agencies or a social service organization. But these are not sufficient in all the countries as the funds and donations for them are not sufficient. This makes the slum dwellers more vulnerable for the economic and work related problems. The economic prosperity of getting reasonable wage for the right work is dream for them and the work will be a night mare for them. The medical insurance fee will not be an affordable one for them as they don't want to pay for extra policies which are not useful at present. This short sight is due to their low income. When the income is substantial a family or a person try to plan the future according to the income. But when it is low,the family is compelled to spend only on the present needs and try to avoid the future plans for the sake of present savings. The health care for slum dwellers is an expense that will nullify the savings from their income. When they get ill all the future plans and their efforts to lift themselves from the poverty will be nullified when they fell ill. When their economic condition is considered there is no way to fight this kind of problem. The methods of prevention will be extra expenses for them and when the health problems attack all the savings will be lost. The main reason for this type of situation is lack of quality education and at times no education. The lack of quality education is due to the factor that they cannot afford for quality in education. The education they get is just for learning the subject in the book and not in the way to use it in the career. This makes them to lag back in their career when they compete with the personalities who receive quality education. The reason for these people won't take to streets is that when they do that they have to starve for the time they took to streets. This avoids them in taking to streets and fighting for their needs and prosperity. So the people who take to streets must have substantial income or unity in them which makes government to think about them. But the slum dwellers lack both of the above. There is no time to think about unity as there are no leaders who think about their pathetic condition. The people who know about their pathetic situation do not have time and sources to unite them. This makes them to be in a cycle of poverty and wretchedness. A significant condition that will be developed in these people is that the remarkable ability to remain passive and apathetic about their own problems. This can be termed as caused due to the poverty. The brutality they face at work and home may make them callous about their own problems. They loose sensitiveness as they spend much time earning but very much les time in spending. The people in the slum areas have to face brutality regarding racism, sexism, unfair laws to control drug trafficking, affordable housing and health care. The activists who work for the uplift of the slum dwellers are young and they don't have in depth study on the problems faced by them. By the time they have an in depth study they are forced to leave the movement. The reason may be the development of their own career or being economically secure. These people are more vulnerable to the attack of contagious diseases and the modern diseases like AIDS. The reason for this is that there will be no good sanitation for them in their areas and another reason is lack of awareness. The number of people will die with cancer and heart diseases due to inability to take treatment and some even die without knowing the reason and the disease. The older people in these slum areas will not have dignity and rest in the evening of their life. They have to work to make the family get reasonable income. Most of the medical and health problems of the old people will be neglected for the fear of expenditure. This makes them unknown about the healthy life when reasonable care is taken. The people in slums don't know much about thanks giving as they don't feel anything that can be thanked. But the fact is that making them think rationally is the point which enables them to get rid of their poverty. But that happens through education and that education offered to them is not a quality one. Conclusion: The increasing number of slum dwellers in the world and the expectations that they reach one billion number by 2010 and two to three billion by 2020 tells that the increase of prosperity and population will also increase the slums that lack minimum facilities. Though the slums today have more facilities than the past the fact is that the facilities they get are not competitive and they are not sufficient for them to compete in the ever increasing economy and competition. When the Governments of various countries are keen in providing them quality education and facilities regarding health and sanitation from the money they get from taxes the new age individuals will take birth in future. Works Cited 1. SCOTT SHERMAN , 2003, Class Warrior, Columbia Journalism Review, issue 6, electronic, 26-11-06, http://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/6/ehren-sherman.asp 2. Mike, 2004, living on less, geo cities, Archives, electronic, 26-11-06, http://www.geocities.com/thecommonwheel/archive0504.html 3. Richard, 2004, time to fight for health care, Geo Cities, archives, electronic, 26-11-06, http://www.geocities.com/thecommonwheel/archive0504.html 4. Maynard, 2006, Another pilgrim story, Maynard archives, ,electronic, 26-11-06, http://tammybruce.com/maynard_post/ Read More