The squatter settlements/ Bastis, whose general term is slum almost, acquire the one-third of Kolkata’s population. The Slum-dwellers are living without adequate basic amenities in over-crowded and unsanitary conditions. Keeping an eye to the challenges of counting undocumented squatters and the sprawling Bastis of residents, we will know how language has become one of the major reasons of slum.
Language and religion are the strong factors than caste diversity, which helps in determining slums’ social and economic characteristics.
When surveyed about how the slum dwellers divided themselves into different areas?
è One of the slum dweller of the Tangra slum (Hindi speaking area) says, “A slum might contain both Hindu and Muslim but after the partition took place the refugees from East Pakistan were all Hindu and they shared the Bengali language .”
Bengalis and Hindi-speakers self-segregate themselves according to their knowledge of the local language and migratory patterns, which in turn shapes employ options and social integration in the city. The Paikpara basti population consists mostly of permanent-migrant Bengalis from Bangladesh and rural West Bengal. Most Bengalis are vendors or hawkers whose occupations are likely easier for them than the Hindi-speakers.
The particular language and culture that have isolated them in a Bengali city is the Tangra slum population, which has mostly Hindi- speakers. Vending for Hindi speaking migrants was less suitable than Industrial labor jobs because less communication in Bengali was required on the job. Ability to speak in Bengali is not required for a self-employed slum dweller. The emphasis placed on education, about the potential for cultural value differences among them, consciously maintaining cultural traditions and the Hindi-speakers maintain close contact with their rural homes, sending back frequent remittances.
Thus language and religion have more pronounced influences than caste on the social life of slum dwellers.
The case studies on the effects of caste on slum life are extremely limited. Thus, it cannot be summarized that the entire caste system, or even just the sub castes of the Dalits, affects the social life of the Chamars. These distinctions have differences on migration patterns and family life. Bengalis integrates themselves into Kolkata’s Bengali social environment much more easily than the Hindi-speakers.
Languages and religion also reverberate more consistently than caste in the life of the slums economy. In fact, in the cases of the Tangra and Paikpara slums, the members of other castes selects their occupation based on the factors which are not related to caste.
With caste, linguistic, and religious diversity is the similar structure of slums that segregation in common. The different castes in the Hindi speakers and Bengalis slums do not require specific housing structures.
Magdalena nock says about the slum that- ‘Globalization has increased the movement of people, products, goods, information, services, news, and money, and thereby the presence of urban characteristics in rural areas and of rural traits in urban centers.’ Thus, there must be new policies considering into the ethnic diversity, disparate occupational skills, and political and social structures that have proven critical to the survival of slums and their inhabitants (slum dwellers). Despite of all problems language is no more a barrier to sustain the life style of the slums and they work and live together without any questions and demands.
è “A tendency to self-segregate whenever possible remains both within a slum and between slums. Therefore, self-segregation has proved out to be community strength.” Says 38 year old, Uma Bhanj, Tangra working slum.
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