The origin of the word
slum is thought to be the Irish phrase 'S lom é (pron. s'lum ae) meaning
"it is a bleak or destitute place. Literally slum refers to a kind of
society which is lacking basic needs like food, clothes, shelter etc. In a
country like India poverty is a great hindrance for development. Poverty
restricts human resource, which beers a great importance in development.
There are thousands of
problems which are caused due to poverty like lack of nutritional intake,
inflectional and water borne diseases, poor health of women, unhealthy food,
high infant mortality rate, low life expectancy, improper medical facilities,
illiteracy etc. Overall one can say that there life is completely a mess.
In India government is
making a good effort in removing poverty. In recent years government has
adopted several plans for poor like MANREGA, Indira Aavaas, Pradhan Manatry
Roozgar Yojna etc. All these government schemes are helping out poor to attain
proper wealth in lieu to their efforts, these schemes are providing guaranteed
employment with proper wages and implemented labour laws, some schemes like
Indira Aavaas is providing a particular sum of money to the poor to build their
houses. On another hand also some subsidies in rations are being provided to
the people who come under below poverty line. Some health centers are also
being built in the remote areas for proper check-up. Moreover government is on
a track to promote education by making it compulsory for children up to
fourteen years of age and many more such things.
These are some of the
initiatives taken by the government to heal this problem of poverty. Though it
will take time as all these things in practice doesn’t work smoothly. Some
barriers like corruption etc. comes which are again a threat. Anyway, we should
be optimistic and hope for a poverty free India.
-Arsalan Mohammad
-Arsalan Mohammad
