Roushan Basti Project

Developing, one slum at a time!
Roushan basti project


Some of the key initiatives of the project are:

  • Intensive door to door survey to assess the status of households, education, health & livelihood.
  • Build mechanism to improve access to education for students and address challenges that causes drop-outs and bad results.
  • Enable the adults to earn an income which can fulfill the basic needs of their family efficiently.
  • Build mechanism to improve access to health facilities.
  • Build and promote a healthy, hygienic and disease-free environment.
  • Build an environment of communal harmony, tolerance and respect among all sections of society.

Human Welfare Foundation conducted a detailed survey of all the house holds in this slum area and found the below mentioned key points:

  • There are total of 430 houses in this slum (including Kucha/ Pucka/ Semi Pucka houses)
  • Most of the residents have own house/ land. 29% of the house holds live in a rented house.
  • 60% of households live in 1 and 2 room houses. With this, their socio-economic status, children education and brought-up can be assessed. Adult privacy, Moral bringing up of children are few of them that can be impacted.
  • Being within the city, this slum still has at least 4% of population who attend nature calls in open areas . And, 59% of households do not have a dedicated kitchen for daily cooking – Health & Hygiene risk!
  • Average size of a family is 5 members.
  • 77% households have access to tap water. However, drinking water pipelines are open & prone to contamination even on a minor damage. Drinking water pipelines are lying over the ground, open to sky. Prone to contamination on damage.
  • 67% households do not have LPG/ Cooking gas connections. They depend on alternate ways of cooking using Kerosene oil & wood. There is a high risk of developing “Asthma” / other breathing related issues.
  • Despite publicity and awareness camps organized by Government, 15% of households of this slum do not possess a Ration Card. In rest of 85% the white card holders are 82% and pink ones are 3% i.e., 1000 Males 1116 Females.
  • Total Males 1099 Females are 1116 ; There is no risk of in-equal gender ratio.
  • 88% of population here are of BC-E caste. Yet, more than 85% of them do no possess a BC-E Caste Certificate. – This shows that they aren’t availing any benefits under BC-E caste privileges offered by State / Central Govt.
  • There are 73 widows and 7 cases where the husband has abandoned wife without any legal formalities of divorce – There is a high risk of effect on moral values among these. There is a need to address them from legal front.
  • Quran Literacy is un-even. There is lot of improvement needed in this area.
  • Majority of adult males are into daily wage jobs – no consistent income and most of them are un/semi-skilled. 87% and skilled jobs holders are 1.3%.
  • There is considerable % of school dropouts – primary reason being ‘poverty’ and also lack of awareness on importance of Education.
  • More than 85% of pregnancies are not registered. Hence, never availed facilities provided by Govt.
  • Still 33% of children lack full immunization. We have to bring change in the attitude of the mothers under times to immunize their wards at appropriate time & interval.
  • More than 65% of people do not have their bank accounts; Due to which they are ineligible to avail Govt. Scheme benefits, Scholarships etc.,
  • Most of the people with disability do not possess a disability certificate, due to which they cannot avail any benefits offered by Govt.
  • 67% of Males do not have Bank A/c similarly 33% Female. Most of the people have taken loan from private money lenders. Private money lenders lend money on higher interest rates & do not offer flexibility for repayment.
  • Lack of Birth Certificates for most of the people; Education scholarship, old-age pensions are not availed by many; Not possessing birth certificate will make people ineligible for Govt. schemes like: Shadi Mubarak etc.,
  • It is a good sign that 90% Males and 91% Females are having Aadhar Cards. But 13% cards spelling mistakes need correction. There is a need to address the document corrections.
  • Voter ID 66% is made available and DOBs are 28%

The background

The census of 2011 reported that around 22.7 lakh (32.7%) of Hyderabad city’s population resides in 5.07 lakh slum households. In other words, one in three people in Hyderabad is a slum dweller. If compared with the previous census, this is a shocking increase of 264% in the slum population. These 1504 slums (increased from 1476 in 3 years) covers 12% of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area and point towards a sad reality that the city has not left any housing options for the poor except the slums leaving them deprived of all benefits of the so-called ‘development’.

As the data suggests these areas are badly crowded, people live in shattered houses with least privacy, around potholed, dark and narrow lanes. The surroundings are filthy and unhealthy surroundings without proper sanitation which routinely delivers the fresh installment of diseases. They are forced to survive on contaminated water with a very limited supply. Also, the food availability is insufficient and lacks required nutrition which aggravates the health issues. Due to rampant illiteracy and backwardness, people survive on menial jobs with paltry incomes. This further elevates the probability of illiteracy in the future generations and the income is not enough to support the education expenses. Ignorance and poverty often give rise to deviant behaviors resulting in crimes. The situation gets worse during communal violence and slums often become a soft target of violence followed by arbitrary arrests by law enforcement agencies. Among all the problems the slum dwellers face on daily basis, the most serious of them is public apathy which prevents their issues from getting recognized and resolved.

There has been lot of politics around slums but negligible efforts on the upliftment of slum dwellers. In 2010, GHMC started a ‘Slum Free City’ plan which suggested that after spending Rs. 12,500 crore by 2016, Hyderabad will be slum free but this remains merely a slogan. Over the last five years, the Centre sanctioned Rs 59 crore for slum development; however, GHMC took no work from 2011 to 2014. In 2014-15, it spent merely 9.8 crore and rest remains unspent. There are several NGOs who are doing commendable work to resolve issues in the slum but the efforts are just like a drop in the ocean. Human Welfare Foundation AP & TS also recognizes this problem of enormous proportions and determined to address it. ‘Roushan Basti’ is an initiative in this direction through which HWF endeavors to bring light of knowledge, prosperity, empathy and morality in the dark alleys of Arshmahal slum. kishan bagh,Hyderabad is one of the riot affected slum of the city. This project is the first milestone of the journey to bring light to all the slums of the city.

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