The slums of Panchkula

In: Social change, Volume 34, Issue 4, p. 38-46

Abstract

Four slum colonies in the satellite township of Panchkula, on the periphery of Chandigarh, are profiled. In some of the colonies, hardly one fourth of the children were attending school. Health Services were poor and water was scarce. Lack of sewerage facilities, due to which slum dwellers had to defecate in the open, added to the squalor. In contrast to this dismal picture, in Azad Colony, most of the children were encouraged to go to school; and in one of the slum settlements-Indira Colony, due to the efforts of the pradhan, groups of children were being educated in the juggis itself. Residents of Azad colony had also collected money and harnessed skilled and unskilled labour available locally to provide better drainage and sanitation. The general tendency in the other colonies was to depend on succor provided by the State machinery, which only results in a complete denial of basic infrastructure.