The largest slum in Banagalore is just across the road from the office. I went back with one of the managers from Dream a Dream and this time took my camera. Here are a few pictures - such desparate conditions but most people look happy. Behind that apparent happiness though is extreme poverty and, at times, violence that exists within the family unit. Wife beatings, child abuse etc. There is no running water in the slum and as you can see from one of the pictures people rely on a sump - an underground reservoir in which the water collects. There is no official electricity provided to the slum dwellings so most people tap (illegally and dangerously) electricity supply from the main cable. And of course there are no toilets, so people make do in whatever way they can finding a private place to carry out their ablution. It is all incredibly humbling and when you see these conditions, it makes Dream a Dream's mission so much the more urgent.
One of the colleagues I visited the slum with told me that that she has a nanny to look after her 4 year old daughter. Her nanny was married when she was 11 years old (pre-puberty)! In her early 40's now, she is a grandmother!! At least her daughter was married at 16 years old which represents a slight improvement and is now 22 years old with 3 daughters. What is so distressing when I hear stories like this is that children here are robbed of their childhood at such an early age.
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