Study finds city nowhere near Dallas dreams
HYDERABAD: A first-of-its-kind survey conducted at 22 slums of Hyderabad spread over 10 Assembly constituencies and involving 3,608 slum dwellers has revealed the dark underbelly of the city, which has been promised to be developed like Dallas city of USA by CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Amenities
The survey conducted by Dr Jagadeeshwar Rao from Osmania University, Dr S Lingamurthy from JNU-New Delhi and Solanky Sreenivas, PhD scholar from OU, revealed that more than half of the slum population lives in houses with an area less than 50 square yards. Of this, 11 per cent people have temporary arrangement for a roof and around 33 per cent have tin roof. A majority of the surveyed population said that more than four members live in a house.
Safe drinking water and sanitation are still major concerns for many. About 17 per cent said they do not have a tap water connection. While 10 per cent do not have a toilet at home and around 11 per cent said they do not have a drainage connection. Only 24 per cent of the population surveyed said they have a public toilet in their area.
While the government is talking of electrification of villages, about 5 per cent of the surveyed population said that they did not have electricity connection. Drinking water connections at home are a dream for many as about 66 per cent of slum dwelling population depends on public tap for drinking water and 7 per cent on water tankers. Health is a serious concern as only 16 per cent of the surveyed population said that they have a Primary Healthcare Centre in their area.
Education and employment
Only 7 per cent of the slum dwellers surveyed said they hold a degree, a meager 2 per cent were found to have completed Post Graduation whereas 17 per cent said they finished class 10. With highly low levels of education, it is not surprising that around 15 per cent people were found to be unemployed whereas a majority, about 39 per cent were involved in daily wage labour.
Income and expenditure
A whopping 27 per cent of slum dwellers were found to be earning less than `5,000 per month whereas about 46 per cent earn between `5,000 - 10,000 per month.While education, jobs and earning remains low, expenditure is high as about 43 per cent slum dwellers spend about `5,000 per month and another 42 per cent said they spend between `5,000-10,000 pm. As a result, indebtedness has been reported to be high among slum dwellers.
Problems
Alcohol addiction 49pc
Smoking 21 pc
Ghutka 5 pc
No door to door garbage collection
54 pc