we’ll never even know this kind of poverty and misery. it somehow doesn’t seem fair.

The pictures which u posted were so real and disturbing.
These pictures show what real india is and what actions the government need to take to control such a mass poverty in the whole country.People in slums hav been jobless for a long time.Conditions like these force them to beg.

http://www.onlinedegreeshub.com

It doesn’t have to be like that. They have no pride at all and decide to live in that filth… so let them.

What about a fecking big bonfire and burn the rubbish?

Chris,

Burn the rubbish wherein they discover the few treasures that provide them with a meal?

It’s not that simple, man.

And regarding pride; it’s hard to have pride when you’re starving and thinking only of survival.

What would you do if you found yourself with absolutely nothing?

Seeing images like this should motivate us all to organize and connect with subaltern groups. They are our fellow man. This kind of poverty is unacceptable. They deserve so much more. And we who have it could make it with so much less.

Since these people obviously have no jobs, why don’t they clean up the garbage and TOGETHER build some decent shelter. It may not be a palace but it would give them a purpose and a goal each day! I agree with Chris, a bonfire would help get rid of a big part of the problem. Also, a government that gave a rats arce about it’s own people would help a lot too!!! America may not be perfect, but we don’t have this kind of poverty, YET!!

Mike and Chris you’re both idiots.

Sfcq, Mike is from Houston Texas. The city of conservative hardasses. Of course he is an idiot.
Chris is an idiot too.

solid as hell. thanks a lot

YOU THINK, you may never know this kind of poverty…that may not be true if things continue the way they are in this country..we are not immune, although we are led to believe we are. The sad part is the richest countries in the world could stop this kind of misery but we spend our money needlessly without care of concern about others…

You know what I am going to suggest to all that say “They do not deserve this, they deserve better” and to those that read it.STOP saying “they are our fellow man”. I hate that word “they” It’s us. human beings. poor people are not They, those or them. Just people. It could just aswell be your neighboor, your sibling, mother or father…

Once we have agreen it is just us humans that need to learn to share among ourselfs, we can maybe get things done. Every normal Joe don’t care to share his goods with “them” people in the slums, people don’t think of those who live in the slum as their equals, but poor people in the slum that needs help. Its just that every day Joe don’t care about “them” people, they are far away, he’s only gonna share his sandwich with his friends. so to speak.

som1 agree with me, please.

There will ALWAYS be poverty in this world. No matter what. If they hate the way they live so much, then they should all work together and clean it the hell up. They created the problem. They had to get there somehow, whether it was their ancestors that couldn’t make it, or whatever else. Its their own fault for living there. You liberal morons think that the wealthy should just throw money at them to help them. It dosent work that way. Think about it, they dont know how to manage money anyway, and would be right back where they began in a matter of weeks. They can choose to move away or clean the place up. They dont. Its their own fault. Yeah, i know, that hurts your feelings. Suck it up. If you’re upset by what im saying, you obviously are also having trouble making it in life on your own, so you beg others for help. Get your lazy asses up and work.

Venus Project

Although Mike and Chris’s commments are, well, let’s face it; somewhat ignorant, they do have a point.
There is no such thing as a situation that cannot be improved from within. I know there are people that will probably email me with examples that they feel contradict what I just said and that’s fine.
But the bottom line is that these people lack leadership. Somebody has to stand up and say, “I know that we spend every waking hour fighting off starvation but we must do more than that if we’re ever to get out of this situation.”
I don’t have any answers beyond that because I don’t live there and I don’t have the local knowledge to make an informed plan of action. All I know is that you can always find a way to improve the situation you’re in.
For the record, burning the garbage would just create toxic fumes and I’m pretty sure these slums are essentially in and around the city’s garbage dump so more is always on the way.

i have been to these slums and made many friends with children who grew up here, in bombay even. there stories are amazing, God send workers to help these people! If we dont step in no one will. by a plane ticket and go, even if you cant help much being there will change out life forever

Sorry to be so real here, but I think after seeing those pictures, it’s only fair to be real - but if you are drowning in your own filth, if you cannot afford to put a pair of pants or shoes on a small child, if you have no money - here’s an idea - DO NOT REPRODUCE!
And I am very sorry, but there is NO excuse for the amount of trash in those pictures, that is pure, 100% laziness.
It is horrible people have to live like that, but unless you are delusional you realize that everything in those pictures is a choice. That’s not ONE person throwing their trash outside their door, that is THOUSANDS doing it. And you do not need to have sex to live - therefore, reproducing is not a necessity, yet these people choose to do it, when they can’t even feed themselves. It makes no sense, and while it’s sad and terrible, and heartbreaking, it is their CHOICE!

Thanks Shyyla for your voice of reason. There is only one problem here (and else where) gross over population. It looks like their garbage makes it no further than inches from their living space - pure laziness. So many of them living in these conditions could make a difference working together - they choose not to! All you Barackers who think shoveling money in will solve the problems are the IDIOTS!

You should read Gregory Roberts book, “Shantaram”, the story of a white guy from australia who ended up living in the slums of Mumbai - he recounts his disgust to start with but eventually, however, chooses to live there when he no longer has to, due to finding friends, solidarity, and a real organisation. These people do not end up poor as a matter of choice, it is simply a reality of still developing countries. Where are they supposed to put their rubbish if there is nowhere for it to go? It’s all very well calling it laziness from the comfort of our welfare states where at the end of the day we will still have somewhere to live, clothes on our back and food on our plates, when life or bad luck or lack of skills have left us vunerable. The people living in these slums work together, of course they do, hence the organisation or the fact that thousands live together with little to no violence, in crowded conditions. Hell, the world is too small for America so they have to start a fight whenever they can… yet these people don’t. How do you think awful diseases such as cholera are contained without people working together? It is not poor peoples fault that they live in poverty - if you come from a poor family or from a village outside of the city the opportunities available to you are minimum, or not there at all. Have some heart people.

It’s not laziness that the garbage is like that. There are no garbage men that come to the curb of their houses and hull away all of the filth. It has to go somewhere right? Plus how are you supposed to buy a garbage bag when you have no money for food or clothes. I don’t know the solution for this and I can’t tell you what caused people to have to live like this but I can tell you laziness is NOT one of the reasons.

These are really great photographs. I myself just visited Coimbatore, India and had connection in Mumbai. The airport alone was a scary place to be. I could see the slums which started at the end of the Mumbai runway as my plane took off. These are national geographic worthy.

John and Shyla.
Firstly, that is NOT THEIR GARBAGE. It is the garbage from the resorts and condos in the background. These people live at the CITY’S GARBAGE DUMP because they are not allowed to squat anywhere else. Don’t want to jeapordize those tourist dollars, eh.
Secondly, although birth control would help, it would not solve the situation and you can’t tell someone they can’t have children just because they are poor. That’s like saying, if you are on welfare, you can’t have children.
Lastly, living that way is their only choice. But, if you read my earlier comment, it’s a choice with options. They just need someone to say, “We can do better than this if we just try.” For those of you who say, “It’s not that simple.”: you’re right. If all you’ve ever know is abject poverty, it can seem impossible to see anything beyond that. But seeming impossible isn’t the same as being impossible.

FYI:
India is a different system than America. Here you a have a country with a billion residents and a lingering caste system. (Sorry, India, you know it’s true.) People who live in these slums are often in the low caste. Jobs are hard to find over there, and even harder to find for people who live in squatter settlements, like the ones shown in these pictures.

I visited one of these slums in Delhi. I met a group of children who were Dalits (untouchables). Yeah, a lot of the residents I met had jobs. I met a lot of teens who had jobs to help support their family. But it didn’t help them to get out of these slums. You can’t come at this from an American perspective; you can’t bring your own societal prejudices to India. India’s got its own.

India has to stop shying away from the reality of the poverty of many of its citizens before anything will change for these people. I doubt it matters what they do, short of another round of satygraha.

I notice how everyone’s on about how they live in their own filth, and how it’s their fault, but do they really seem to have a rubbish disposal service coming through the slums like we do once a week or whatever? You say that they made the mess, yeah they did, but thats because they don’t have the luxury to get rid of it safely and properly. We have landfill sites and government made dumps, the ones they have are over flowing with their rubbish, and no one comes around to remove it, so it soons get to much to handle. And yeah, as people have said, the rubbish there is one main way of feeding a family, so, all in all, they don’t really have any other choice to live like it.

I’m as left wing Liberal as they come, a neo-Socialist American with a soft life. However, I don’t drive a car or rarely in cars, I try hard not to pollute or litter, and when I see trash on the ground where I’m walking, I pick it up. Why? I like the natural beauty of where I live.

The first thing I thought of when seeing this was “Why don’t they clean it up?”

There are millions, I’m sure, living in that area. What if each they worked together to clean the area up?

It’s not such a “dumb” idea. Seriously, thinking that they shouldn’t seems the stupid idea to me. The reason why any poverty stricken area is filthy is due to the lack of attention and care from its residents.

I’m willing to bet the majority of that trash comes from richer areas, and the society as a whole has a huge blame for the way that place looks - especially the shorelines.
That should be an immediate concern in which the WORLD COMMUNITY steps in and says “No, clean this mess up, right fucking now”

However, who walks those streets? Who lives there? Who throws the trash on the ground?

That’s a complete responsibility of the people living there, who choose to live that way, very clearly, by choosing not to clean their own surroundings.

I’d like to invite anyone to go look in any wash in Tucson (washes are ravines that are everywhere, some natural, some tailored and paved, to force the flow of rainwater, as our ground can’t really absorb it now that the whole desert is essentially paved). Go to the rich areas and they’re filthy. Go to the poor areas and they’re filthy still. Why? Because this community accepts it and feels its more important to have spent $60 Million “rebuilding Downtown” than to clean up the county. (Sidebar, $60 Million later and all they’ve got is 12 different designs, all of which have been scrapped.)

Sorry but it this were me, I’d be creating a habitable environment for myself from the ground up instead of just living in filth.
Maybe they’re not motivated, maybe its something else… but I see the junky plastic and mishmash of crap laying around and think to myself… If this were me, in that pile of misery I’d be resourceful.
Tear the plastic into strips, wash it in that river, weave it. into totes, baskets, thread (yes you can do this with shreds of plastic. You can even make it into a type of yarn. people do this all the time and sell the stuff as recycled/eco goods) etc. Take the dirty scraps of paper, wash them in the river, turn it into paper pulp, smash it down and dye it with whatever coloring you can find and make paper goods from it.
Compost leftover rotten fruits/veggies into useable soil. Save seeds from rotten fruit/veggies for growing new plants with composted soil. Convert colorful rotten fruit/veggies into dyes for other crafts.

If it can fold, bend or mold I can do something with it. Same with wire, bits of tin and other junk. Why are they simply “living” in it, and digging through it hoping to find something of value?
Their environment does NOT have to be the slum they make it. They could use the goods they make for themselves to better their own lives, sell them to tourists, or even try to get someone else to sell them through a charity org of some sort to help raise money.
Maybe I’m just a born survivor… but I wouldn’t just LIVE in all of that and do nothing to try and make my situation better.

haha sucks to be those niggas!

no one knows what they would do if in that position you can sit on you high horses now but yo never know

and bob your the biggest nigger if there ever was one

damn are all white people so ignorant don’t any of you people have a heart I mean damn… how do you guys sleep at night?
it’s amazing that a whole race of people can hate and be so selfish I mean my goodness lets hope you never have to live like that because lets face your so frigging spoiled you wouldn’t survive anyways would probably kill yourselves or just start killing everyone around you…

I have been there, and you’re looking at the bottom rungof the industrialized world. All the refuse and scraps of our modern society trickle down the disposal line to places like these. And unfortunately they are absolutely vital for India to continue to advance. You see, these people do the work nobody else wants to at those wages. They clean chemical containers by hand, run tanneries (you can’t imagine the smell), work as servants, etc. They serve as a vital source of raw labor and just the slum in Mumbai is host to over 100,000 small businesses. They wil not be “cleaned up” as some of you state because there is nowhere to clean it up to, and India and ultimately the rest of the world relies on the slums. These people will remain in this horrid state as long as people make money off of it. We are the ones to blame, not them. So sit in your nice house and recoil in mock horror. Watch your television and get more ignornt, and your children get fatter and lazier. It’s OUR fault these people suffer. At least I went there and became a bit more enlightened as to the impact of my actions. What are you going to do - other than point the finger and “tsk, tsk”?

what in the world is wrong with you people
i mean seriously white people are the most horrible, selfish,apathetic people ever. how do you guys sleep at night

bob your ignorant and you should repent b4 you burn

What is most disturbing are the abundance of small children. Despite the conditions, they continue to bring children into it. Why would a couple, whatever their feelings for one another, look at each other and say,

“This is a good place to bring a sweet, innoocent child into. Let’s expose someone, who never asked to be brought into the world in the first place, to this wonderful slum. Let’s bring them forth in this world to experience pain, filth and hunger.”

What sort of logic process allows people to bring others into this mess ?

The problem is over-population. In medival Europe, the same was true. The cure for indentured servitude was; bubonic plague. With it, out went over population and in came an appreciation of the individual. But more importantly, came a larger share of resources for those who survived.

I’m not condining mass death here, only pointing out this plain simple fact; there are just too many puople….

These pictures made me cum in my pants

Wow, poverty raises up some cold human emotion, doesn’t it? I take issue with some of these suggestions as being implausible. Maybe this can start a reasonable discussion of contemporary issues facing developing countries.

“Don’t reproduce” - and beyond the point proponents of this idea are suggesting that children are a luxury only the rich should be privileged to receive, how exactly are these people going to have access to birth control? Or is the suggestion here that due to unfortunate life circumstances, they should all be celibate?

“Plagues cured problems like this in the past” - beyond the fact that hinting towards genocide is never the answer, don’t forget that plagues kill the rich and the poor. This suggestion may be targeted towards those living in poverty, but death has no prejudice.

“They should take all their trash to the dump” - I’m afraid that their slums are the dump. No one living in those slums has anything to throw away. All that trash came from other areas in Mumbai.

“I would be more awesome at being poor than they’ll ever be -” I understand why people think cleaning up the trash is the solution, but what happens when more trash gets dumped there the next day? I suspect it’s hard for someone from a developed country to really know what the issues are that people face in developing countries.

It could be such a beautiful place but isn’t

They could have better lives, just like the rest of us, yet they don’t

What’s wrong with the world?

Look at your local landfill people.. then put the shit and garbage of a billion people and live in it with other hungry people looking for food and shelter. That’s whats it like for them..
Last week I complained that my TV wasn’t big enough, shame on me.

I’ve read throughout the posts and what not, and I noticed some comments on the whole not reproducing thing.

Unfortunately it’s not the fact that they want to reproduce, it’s how the young girls over there don’t even know how they get pregnant. There’s no education for these women and young girls that are there. it’s the same thing in Africa, Brazil and any developing country you look at.

As for the garbage, the government probaly dosen’t have things set in place for a good enough garbage dump, so it just ends up in the streets and eventually where the people live. Yet they keep the touristy area clean, so they sweep their problems under the mat, and then they get blamed for society’s mistakes.

And it’s not just their garbage, look in the water, the garbage washes up on the beach as well. Look down in Hawaii, KAMILO BEACH. All the trash comes from elsewhere. Plus it’s all the garbage that the city itself is accumulating because there’s no where else to put it.

And perhaps the suggestions of getting together and cleaning it all up would work and what not, but have you been able to work and do anything when your starving to death? Probably not, because people here sitting in front of their computers have never been “starving to death” we use that as a figure of speech where thousands of people in these areas are actually dying of mal-nutrition. Not only that, but they don’t have the time to begin cleaning it up, even with government aid. All this time they need to be hunting for something to eat or keeping themselves safe.

Then other people suggest “well then they should just leave.” Have you ever been able to go on a trip, with absolutely no money and not relying on a credit card? I highly doubt it. You wouldn’t get very far, it’s the same for the people and not only that. Here at least they know at some point they might be able to find food, maybe something they could sell for food. Fear might be why some don’t leave. Besides to get anywhere now you need a passport, a passport requires money to get, and money is what they don’t have, and what little money they get from the jobs that they do; well it goes to buying food.

“so lets pour money into it.” my grandfather says that “poverty starts at home.” Of course that shouldn’t stop us from helping, however we could put millions upon millions of dollars into projects and designs and getting things restarted and set up in a place like this, then there’s politics and a whole mess of other things that come along. Like lots of charity’s that collect money, half the time only ten percent of the money from the charity actually gets to the people that need it, the other ninety percent goes to keep the charity running.

I’ve heard mentions of plagues and other things. In Rio, police go down into the slums and shoot people because theirs so many of them. How would that make you feel? Shot because you were a burden to society. Killed because you were poor and couldn’t afford a proper roof over your head, and had to sleep in the gutter. Not only that, quite a lot of the time, when your born into the slums like this you can’t leave. It’s a never ending cycle.

And some people would say that they never would see that. The last time you walked past a homeless person did you stop and give some of your time and some coin to him? or did you cross the road to avoid him, or advert your eyes maybe hoping that he won’t come up to you and ask for money. What choice do these people have, in our own society? When they have to live next to the McDonald’s wrapper that you threw out your car window a few minutes before? Is that their garbage their living with on the pavement? No it was yours, and then you get the people coming around telling him to stop living in his own filth.
It’s the same thing.

People are so quick to judge other humans that, we spend so much time just thinking about ourselves that nothing ever seems to get done.

I’m sure someone’s going to rebuttal this, I”m just stating my opinion.

sterilize them ; problem solved.
why keep making babies just to birth them in that nightmare.

wow. i have never seen anything like this before my whole life.The shores of the beach are coverred with rubbish. this is very serious.I live in ghana and i know there are slums here too but i dont know if they can compare with this.

Yeah, I agree with the whole “don’t reproduce” thing. It’s kind of cruel bringing a child into that sort of environment. If they are starving hungry all the time sex should be the last thing on their minds.

Lauren - “These people do not end up poor as a matter of choice, it is simply a reality of still developing countries. ”

REALLY? You DO realize their country has been settled longer than the United States of America, correct? You DO realize there are more people there than in the entire USA also, correct? Still developing? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Swirl “And perhaps the suggestions of getting together and cleaning it all up would work and what not, but have you been able to work and do anything when your starving to death?”

REALLY? They can’t work because they are starving to death but they have NO problem having sex over and over? REALLY?

Ellie: “I notice how everyone’s on about how they live in their own filth, and how it’s their fault, but do they really seem to have a rubbish disposal service coming through the slums like we do once a week or whatever? You say that they made the mess, yeah they did, but thats because they don’t have the luxury to get rid of it safely and properly.”
—-
So let’s just thrown our garbage on the ground, and let it become as bad as it is in these pictures then get the world to feel sorry for us, is that right?
Sorry, but they could just as easy creates dumps just like the rest of the world and dispose of it properly if they wanted, they are just too lazy. Bottom line.
What? You mean you aren’t going to PAY me to walk 1/2 a mile and put my garbage in the dump?!? No thanks, I’ll just dump it in front of my door and live like this….

I just wanted to add two cents that this forum and its comments make it seem almost impossible to get over a fear of white people that a ton of minorities try and deal with in america. How did your culture happen? It’s not just america - It’s a lot of british people I know too. I think oh i cant explain it today

you commenters are so funny. they can’t take it to the dump, it IS the dump.

thats disgusting

Some of the comments are so disgusting. If you would ever be put in a situation like that, I would love to see how effectively you could change and clean the filth. I guess this kind of reaction is to be expected, it is a natural corollary of the guilt that arises of the high per capita carbon footprint and wasteful expenditures of the developed nations.

Of course there is corruption and India needs to own up its own mess, but the kind of attitude that some people show on this forum (aka they deserve it) is just plain horrible.

if i may add my 1.5 cents…

i’m biased liberal, k? i’ve been listening to the conservative rant for a while trying to make sense of it, i can’t, it seems to me that a very anti-social agenda is being promoted. nobody is self made.

but what i wanted to say is about the arguments that i’m hearing from the conservative side. why do you guys say that the slum dwellers SHOULD do this or that about their circumstances? do you talk like that to yourself? what is it that YOU should do? what is it that you tell yourself that you must do?

how about viewing these pics and asking yourself, can i live with this? of course you can.

aaahhhh, what the heck…

to all you people who think they should clean up the garbage. If you’ve ever had to go through a garbage strike you wouldn’t be so quick to say, “just clean it up”. Where I live, after a week, there were mountains of trash and it was impossible to deal with. In the end, construction equipment was used to clean it up. Try and find a bulldozer in Mumbai.

The large amount of kids is social security. If you have a lot of kids, a couple of them will stick around and bring you food when you’re unable to walk. American kids don’t usually stick around and take care of their parents. They stick them in old folk homes and forget about them.

It’s sad to see and everyone has a bleeding heart, but nobody ever digs into their pocket or goes over to help. Thats they way we are built, we keep our friends and family safe and just cry for anyone else.

yea, let’s help them! they are only 1,147,995,904 in India. and 99% live like that.

Look at it like this. The problem Vanishes in about 15 years or if every person who depends on the contents of garbage does not reproduce.

Maybe if they were less of slobs and tried to actually centralize their garbage, it wouldn’t be so bad?

No one seems to seem just how simple it really is if they would band together as a community and form cleanup crews they would have jobs.
keeping there slums clean would promote better health and even possibly give them a source of income or market to sell the garbage or even recycle it.
The cleaner the environment the more animals and wildlife would flourish hence a food source while we could provide aid it would have to be the kind like the ability to start sustainable farms, rather than packets of food and can goods that contribute to the filth.
However none of this will ever happen because the people don’t have the leaders to help them organize or the drive so they suffer because they fail to see and do what could be done

So the plan to make people think they need eugenic tactics works out decade after decade. I cant believe that there are really some humans which say “u have no money? you live like on this photos? You shouldnt have the right to have babies..” that is digusting!
You know, most of all your ’so loved’ money on the world is hold by just a few thousand ppl..? Aah, another topic.
But yet they take the right to force ppl like on these pictures to live like they do by not helping them. And they will force many more in future to live like these ppl already do. When you have more and more problems paying your bills while you are working and having 1 or 2 jobs.. then you get a sample taste of the life they are already living. they are just one step ahead. they dont work anymore for their cc-bill, car insurance, retirement or whatever.. they are working to stay alive. or simple; get the rest food out of the trash. its a circle, which you cant get out anymore, once you got into it.
thats how i see it. No offense to anyone. Thanks for the photos.

okay… to everyone calling the people who live in the slums “lazy”- they are not lazy! they live in the dump! there is no other place for them to put all that shit! and while it is wrong to bring a child into that environment, that is no cause to want to make them unable to have kids. if you were to be put in this situation and were called “lazy” because you are unable to pick up the piles of shit outside your door and were bashed for bringing kids into such a horrible situation, how would you feel?

To all those who say “why don’t they simply band together and clean the area up”:

For the people who live in slums (not only here but in the Dominican Republic where I live, and many other places in the world) day to day life is merely a struggle to SURVIVE EACH DAY. The people in these photos live in a garbage dump and men, women, and children spend their days picking through what the affluent throw out looking for scraps. It is essentially a full time job just to try to get enough to get by. Add to that the fact that such dire poverty breeds ill health through diseases such as typhoid, malaria, and tuberculosis, not to mention all the effects of chronic malnutrition. So how exactly are these people supposed to have the time, energy, or health to do anything but keep surviving?

These people are NOT lazy, they ARE POOR! They live in a waste dump simply since they can’t afford to live anywhere else.

Their objective is to survive and hopefully make it out of poverty as I did a few years ago when I lived in an impoverished state in Argentina and escaped to the USA. It took me many years to come here and get my green card. I now make over $110k as a system engineer at Herbalife. I am living proof of a slums to wealth story. Unfortunately, the majority of these people will not get lucky or have the courage or knowledge to run for the US border and will remain there their entire lives.

I hope all those that mock these people will end up like them as they have no respect for human life.

I am appalled at the level of absolute evil some of the people on this message board are showing. Good God! THe attitude that they chose to live in a dump - that they chose to be poor - that they chose not to be educated — it is just flabergasting!

What Ayn Rand book did you dipshits read in your formative years to turn you into such pricks?

To all you pricks: Try to imagine waking up every day in a place where you have no school, no education, no social services, no charities, no police, no running water, no toilet, no sewer, no electricity, no jobs, and no food. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO GET OUT OF THAT CURSED EXISTENCE?!?! They can only get hired to the shittiest jobs making next to nothing. The kids are almost always abused and molested by numerous people around them as they grow up. They don’t have money for clothes or a bath so they stink. Even if they bathe in the water it stinks too. The girls start with sex early and they have no idea how pregnancy occurs. They have mo money for doctors visits, vaccinations, brith control, etc. The girls can’t really say no if a guy wants them and the police don’t give a damn.

You assholes live in these rich countries and think you got there all by yourself. You were LUCKY to pop out of the rich crotch - that is the only reason why you are not in the same fucked life. Do you really think Ayn Rand would get a book deal or have the time to think of all the great objectivist philosophy bullshit if she was pregnant at 16 from getting raped? I bet Bill Gates would have built a computer out of scrap wire and developed MS-DOS while squatting in a shanty town.

Fucking American Fucktards! You make me sick! I love America and you assholes are ruining it. Maybe you should be sterilized so your shitty ideology does not do more damage to the human race!

why are so many people assuming that this is THEIR garbage?? do you honestly think these people created the environment they live in? WE DID! that wheel assembly the kid is playing with could have come from an office chair just like yours! these people are forced to live in the dump because there is no other place in the country that will accommodate them! the few objects of minuscule value that they search for daily in the heaps of garbage are the only thing they have that could be considered an income! i am shocked that one’s viewpoint could be so narrow as to look at these scenes and immediately rationalize a way to blame these people for their situation. there is no possible way that this kind of squalor could result simply from a community of “lazy” people without any knowledge of waste disposal. then, you say these people should stop reproducing?! such an unrealistic perspective is almost laughable in it’s callousness. maybe YOU should pay for the birth control for every impoverished family in this community, because they damn sure can’t afford it themselves! intelligence may have it’s limits, but it seems ignorance knows no bounds…

I visited one of these slums in Delhi, and I’ll reiterate again what I saw there: a lot of people HAD jobs. They WEREN’T there because they were lazy. Poverty is a complex issue, and in a country where you have a billion people who are all competing for the same limited resources, then yeah. You have this. A lot of slums.

When people live in slums they don’t get the same access to things. Education, nutrition. They aren’t there out of choice; they’re there because they were born there. They don’t have the money to simply “move elsewhere.” They were born to parents who don’t have money. They can’t just walk into a bank and get a job. (I don’t know how many of you have ever seen the job listings in Indian newspapers, but they’re oddly specific. “Looking for male between the ages of 30-33 who has six years experience in banking.”)

They’re born into this, and they’re caught in it, and it’s pure luck that all of us commenting here were born to families who don’t live in the slums.

As of a few years ago, the government was also bulldozing a lot of same kinds of slums you see in the picture here, on the basis that the residents were squatters. That was their solution. How do you get anywhere in life if you have to keep rebuilding the little you had?

The good news is that everyone can do their part. I saw a lot of comments that said, “Don’t reproduce.” Well, to all you commenters, the solution starts at home - don’t have any children yourself! You are effectively contributing to limiting population growth! I’m sure that’s someone you’d be willing to give up yourself, since you can so easily impose it upon other people!

Although living in horrible conditions in the city dump, everyone seems to put a lot of effort into keeping clean. They clean their clothes and they clean themselves. I see that as a sign of civilization, despite all, and of pride.

This makes me feel sad, sick and selfish.
It’s horrible the conditions so many people live in.

@Shyla -

You’re as arrogant as you are ignorant. When is the last time you took your own garbage to the dump? And how much effort do you expend disposing of your own excrement?

Be honest now.

And the last time you and your friends pigged out at the local corporate ‘neighborhood’ restaurant, how long did it take you to kill the 1000 cows that ended up in your burger 1 chunk of ground beef at a time?

And drilling all the oil and refining the fuel that delivered the dead animal flesh to your tabletop… that must’ve costed big bucks. And let’s not forget the tons of gasoline that went out your tailpipe in the form of carbon-dioxide and carbon ash when you drove there. I’ll bet the contraption on your car to capture all that waste and properly dispose of it takes up all your time and energy.

But wait! If forgot… you’re from ‘civilized’ America, where being the fruit of the loins of the rich entitles you to not take responsibility for the mountain of stinking waste left in your own wake.

All Americans are awesome and beyond reproach!

The thing is, my own AMERICAN family, on my mother’s side, began in garbage dump in the American Southwest because they weren’t allowed to live anywhere else because they were -MEXICANS-.

I suspect these folks are in the same boat, except they’re not Mexicans, they’re just poor with little hope or education to carry them to a better place.

And we all (anyone reading this) helped put them there.

Every single bit pushing, internet using, petroleum loving one of us.

Shyla, You think you know everything, but actually have no answers and prove all your points of logic by reminding us how terrible these people are.

I guess from your perspective, they must be. I’m thinking you’re twelve, a troll, or really just as arrogantly naive as you seem.

More likely, you’re the sad kind of person that gets their self-esteem from pointing out the suffering of others.

Yes, it must be that.

Surely you’re not so cold hearted as to write off thousands of people living in their own excrement inside other people’s trash as ‘lazy’.

Oh wait! I forgot… you’re a civilized American.

….

The only laziness going on here is your thinking.

TRY HARDER

Laziness? You must be the biggest dipshit on the face of this planet to look at such desolate waste (which just grows larger everyday) and think it’d be EASY to clean up. Seriously, you must be the most ignorant son of a bitch on the planet to call those people lazy while you’re sitting on your ass in front of your computer judging others on message boards. These people live everyday just to survive. And it’s not like they view that kind of wasteland like we do. That’s their home, that’s all they’ve ever known. It’s a totally different mindset over there. Read Shantaram, study the culture, then judge. And if you’ve still got such an arrogant attitude about it, maybe you should go there yourself and try and fix it up. Prove everybody wrong and show them just how EASY it is.

To the people responding saying that these people are lazy: how dare you. Your level of ignorance is disgusting and you know nothing of the world outside of your own privileged, sheltered bubble.

These people are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, it is not as simple as ‘get a job’ or ‘move’ when the only jobs available exploit the workers, forcing them to work under horrific conditions, violating their basic rights, for next to no pay. And guess what? The reason you are able to afford the things you own, like Nike shoes, your clothes, and so on, is partly due to the exploitation of people. These people live in poverty allowing privileged individuals in America to go and buy junk from Wal-Mart that will one day go back into the garbage dump. How dare you ignorant morons call these people lazy.

And where does anyone get off suggesting that poor people “shouldn’t reproduce”. Yes, bringing a child into this environment is not ideal, but when living in a place where there is no social security or access to health care, having children is very important. Children provide care for their parents when they are unable to care for themselves any longer. How else would a sick, bedridden elderly person be able to survive in these conditions, if they did not have a children to care for them? Hire a nurse? Right….. Oh and I am sure they have access to birth control and condoms too.

On the topic of the garbage: “They should just clean it up.”….. really…. how? Are they supposed to just run out and rent a bulldozer? Where would they put the garbage? The live in the dump. Think of the picture of the little boy dragging the bottom part of an office chair. Do you people really think that chair belonged to someone in those slums? Because I struggle to think of how or why someone in the slums would own an office chair to begin with. Clearly, the garbage is dumped there from other places. So, please, explain to me: How are these people supposed to have the means to clean up the garbage of one of the most populated cities in the world, when they barely have the means to survive?

Maybe individuals who criticize the impoverished so ignorantly are just doing so in order to justify their own privilege, so they don’t have to feel any guilt when going to the store and buying some shoes one of these people made during a 15 hour day in the sweatshop, with only a garbage dump to come home to.

Haha say and judge all you want. What you need to remember is… that they can do as they please… most of us really don’t give a crap and take no responsibility for them. Filthy stinking beggars.

To all of the uniformed. I know you take for granted that big green truck that comes around and takes your trash far far away so you can live a “civilized” life. If there is no trash trucks coming this is bound to happen. If you actually sat down and though about the situation you might not make such ignorant comments.

I will not even bother to attack the 10,000 other ignorant comments.

Lol This reminds me of this great movie I saw called Slumdog Millionaire, you guys should watch it is funny and stuff too.

Why all the talk about what THEY should do, and what WE should do - each and every person who has posted lives in a country with internal problems. The mental masturbation associated with these comments is absurd. In fact, the only difference between these comments and the actual act of masturbation is that after masturbation you have something to show for it.

Get your own house in order, then focus elsewhere. This is not a problem for the international community. Poverty in Harlem isn’t a problem for the international community, and we show extreme arrogance when we assume that WE must do something. It’s an Indian matter, end of story.

There’s no point in talking about poverty. They are just filthy… For fuckin’ god’s sake, it’s the same with the gypsies in Europe… Ask them to clean the damn garbage and use latrines and garbage cans. You will not succeed in convincing them to change their ways too soon. THEN, you can talk about poverty.

The majority of these comments make me embarrassed to be an American. I hope Shyla and her ilk of ignorant fuckfaces move to Texas once it secedes from the Union.

i love how so many people leave long ass comments saying shit about how other people do nothing to help them. i can garuntee you that those people are the same as everyone. not saying that im the hero the world needs to save these people. but everyone is the same. we say things of how bad this is and that someone should do something… why dont you? if you really care enough to go over there and help then plz do. i wont. and the advice that people give (Chris and shyla) too bad they cant see it. if u wanna make a difference then do it. dont try to prove to other people that you’re a sweet savior sent from God to do good to the world.

One thing to all the “My trash doesn’t stink” crowd is that I can bet you can find a tremendous amount of trash around your home on the roads and definitely in a big town near where you live just by driving around. This stuff mainly gets picked up by inmates, and what doesn’t get picked up stays there to rot because most people don’t stop on a Sunday morning to pick up someone else’s trash.

I don’t blame the Slumdogs for the trash on the beaches at all. Cleaning that up is a losing battle. However having said that they should definitely get some major education on how to create a centralized dumping ground for all that waste. The most telling problem I see is the photo of that tiny alley that is covered in trash that really shouldn’t be there. No amount of liberalism in my heart or anyone’s heart can rationally explain why that tiny alley isn’t cleaned up.

Are there any websites that detail how to give money to an organization that has come up with logical ways of waste disposal in a place like that?

I’ve seen solar powered stoves, mosquito nets, 20 pound water barrels that you can literally push with 2 fingers, and various other inventions that help rural/poor people survive better.

Thanks for proving the proposition that White people suck!

stfu hippies, we hate your crap.
Go do something about it, instead of all the bitching

wow - people are sure posting hot! and i think that it’s because we have so little understanding of India’s society and culture.

these are people that worship rats and think that it’s totally classy to have a cow come and lay a crap right in the middle of their wedding.

Easy Buttercup, have another Feen-a-Mint (lol)

To everyone here making really stupid and ignorant comments about these pictures:

Think of yourselves living your whole life in these dumps; from the day you were born you have not known any life outside of the slums. In your mind, that is the life of your past, present, and future. When you’re put into a position like that against your own will, you definitely won’t have excessive amounts of pride, motivation, or even bodily energy to keep you going everyday.

I dare all of you to trade lives with one of these people for even 24 hours, then come back and leave another ignorant comment on these pictures.

I like turtles.

oh geez everybody calm down
my grandfather lived in filthy horrible slums in mexico
and he managed to get out and give his children a education
and in a sense his grandchildren too

yeah we should help people
by teaching them to help themselves

wow the ignorance in here is disturbing

whatever

lifes a bitch and then ya die

people in the slums or in the penthouse either way we end up rotting corpses

All of their problems will be solved if they stop being so lazy and picked up hundreds of tons of rubbish and move it a mile down the road. Genius, form a chain gang. Then its Pakistan’s problem.

These comments are hilarious. You’re all a bunch of animals. Entitled, spoiled and ignorant.

“Why don’t they band together?” What do you think the police are for?

“Why don’t they clean that shit up?” Because they live in a garbage dump. Do you like terd polishing?

Briefly: India is a religious based caste system, those people are not “Chosen People”. Yay religion! Of course I don’t mean YOUR religion, of course. *Please don’t burn me at the stake*

its nature. Survival of the fittest. they need to save themselves as a nation. you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink. people are fleeing thier families and countries to escape many things they were born into. they are the strong ones. others take/accept what is given or just dont have the natural instinct or drive or courage to change. I am greatful I was not born into this horror.

Susan,

If you were inthe same posiition as these people, you would undoubtedly whore your way out until your “untouchable” body aged or gave birth to too many children. These people don’t have the richest country in the world next door to escape to like your grandfather had when he swam across the Rio Grande.

Whatever. Somebody needs to clean that crap up.

Kids - this is why you don’t litter!

Screw these people. They are not anyone’s responsibility but their own and their governments.

Want to fix India, give it time. They got their independence and this is what they did with it. They’re like any other society. The rich are taking advantage of the poor. Eventually they’ll get a middle class and use taxes to control them. They’ll be more concerned with trying to get a new plasma tv then anything else.

Right now India has the most important thing in any economy; Cheap Labor.

Help the poor and the rich will be mad at you taking away their cash cow (ha!) Help the rich and have half a billion Indians hating your country for some perceived injustice.

Not to mention since the country was split religiously they hate each other too.

Want to go in there and force them to eat their religious and social beliefs? There’s the way to make a friend in this global climate.

No thanks! And did I mention screw them? I have personally seen what happens when these people are transplanted into other cultures. They’re still animals that throw their trash anywhere it suits them and don’t understand why it’s wrong. If the stereotype fits, use it.

Helping these people is a job for ignorant college students who think they share some common bond with them. Who then end up realizing just how important it is to take care of you and your family first and foremost. Rather than wasting resources on someone who is just going to turn around and attack you for destroying their culture.

But I’m a bitter man.

I wish I could stop being stunned by the ignorance of some of my fellow Americans. Some of the knee-jerk, uneducated opinions expressed here are disgusting to me. I’m ashamed that these loud mouthed, bigoted, uneducated swine so often create an impression of my country for the rest of the world.

There are many more insightful and understanding posts here, and I hope the folks in the rest of the world will take them into consideration when forming an opinion of Americans as a whole. We’re not all ignorant, in fact we’re quite benevolent and understanding for the most part. Unfortunately, the loud minority tends to shout over the goodness that is here.

Jeeze…

Just be real people.
Theres something you can do to help. You’ll pretend you would, but you won’t. Its too much effort.

Theres something they can do to better their situation, but they won’t. Its too much effort.

And so life goes on.

I wish there was something I could do, I mean I’m sure I could donate money..but I’m a college student barely getting by myself. I want to physically do something..stuff like this really does break my heart.

If you pay people to be poor, you’ll never run out of poor people.

Poverty is not simply an absence of money. Rather, it is bound up with a whole set of other circumstances: lack of qualifications, demoralisation, family break-up, substance abuse, fatherlessness. It follows that you do not end poverty by giving money to the poor: a theory that British welfarism has amply demonstrated over 60 years. Only when you tackle poverty holistically will you facilitate meaningful improvement.

The best thing you can do for poverty globally is to read, listen, watch and vote accordingly. Capitalism is out, Socialism is out, Liberals caused most of these problems to begin with - We need technocracy, we need radical thinking, we need someone new in office. Someone who can think, like Al Gore or Ron Paul.

Dear posters,

I don’t wish to sound like I have an answer/solution to the issue. I guess my post is mainly to babble.
All I can say is that these pictures really open your eyes to what’s going on in other parts of the world. I don’t think it’s our (America’s) total responsibility to help or fix this issue.

I agree with the point some have made that “you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink”. This statement has much truth to it. True “Change” for the better can only happen internally, and it is up to each and every individual involved to do their equal part in the process. That holds true to ANYTHING in life. Disagree if you like.

But.

I DO find it a little disturbing that our presidents/government endlessly tout how much they care about the rest of the world. How much we want to bring democracy, freedom and equality to other nations. How many soldiers; our brothers and sisters, that we are willing to sacrifice in combat. How many millions and millions of dollars we have spent in the last several years in just the Iraq situation alone…. among other global situations in the last 2 decades.

Not a single person from our country would need to fire a bullet, or die, to fix the problem in these pictures. Just some good, honest, hard working hands that are willing to make a difference and step up to this task.

Flame me if you want… I know the Iraq situation and the cleanup situation here are NOT the same thing. I DO realize this. But in seriousness. If we can spend millions (Or even Billions) of dollars to destroy large chunks of land and shoot people in one area, why can’t we use like 2% of that money to clean up others. Or am I just crazy? I know it’s much more complicated than that…. but it just seems kind of strange to me.

I really, really don’t wish to offend anyone with what I’m saying here. I am neither pro, or against any conflicts we have with any Nations/Factions. I think any decisions our government makes in terms of warfare, are made by the intelligent, tactical-minded people in our society who strove to be in that position. To those who don’t agree with our governments military actions, I have always said “then be a part of it, and change it.” Like I said earlier, True Change happens internally. It’s up to each individual.

I’m simply saying that our combined total amount of personal wealth and tax dollars gathered in this country…. are ridiculous. Hell, look at the bank accounts of the entertainment/Sports industry alone. If Michael Jordan donated 0.50% of his wealth (HALF a percent!) to a cleanup cause like this, do you even have any idea how much money that is? And that’s just from ONE wealthy American person.

My cousin linked me this today
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm

I suggest people see this if they haven’t. I actually was motivated to donate to one of the causes on this site. I know it’s not the HUGEST way to create change. But it’s a start.

Very disturbing pictures. Someone should teach them to spend less time procreating and a little more time cleaning up after thier own garbage. Clean up, build decent shelter out of whatever you can find, and hopefully they can move up to a third world status. All I can do is pray. The U.N. is not going to do anything to help. Short of that, Barrack can come over and apologize for America’s wrongdoing. Hey he apologized for everything our country stands for to every other country.

Well congratulation you ignorant American (fucktards), another person in here in Ireland hates you! Keep it up, please, we haven’t had much to ridicule since you re-elected Bush and then there was that Miss South Carolina thing. This was a bit of a surprise though, the countless repetition of “laziness” and “don’t reproduce”, and THEN the responses, which directy refute the ignorant and arrogant claims. It’s as if you couldn’t be arsed reading the other comments and maybe just learn something.

After seeing the pictures I was pretty unsettled, a bit ashamed of my own now relatively easy existence.
But some of your comments disturbed me even more.
Despite the destitution I saw hope in some of these pics, I’m glad it’s unlikely these people will never see this webpage.

Shame on you. Shame on us!

there are people that live like this all over the world and its people that make fun of things like this that disgust me! No one is exempt from something like this happening to them.So I think people need to help if they can and pray that things get better for these people and hope that they never have to go through anything like this.

Sfanetti has the best response.

You assholes live in these rich countries and think you got there all by yourself. You were LUCKY to pop out of the rich crotch - that is the only reason why you are not in the same fucked life. Do you really think Ayn Rand would get a book deal or have the time to think of all the great objectivist philosophy bullshit if she was pregnant at 16 from getting raped? I bet Bill Gates would have built a computer out of scrap wire and developed MS-DOS while squatting in a shanty town.

It’s true. Count your blessings.

firstly burning the rubbish will just create more air pollution in the area. which will have ongoing negative effects to the people residing in the area so thats not going to help.

secondly the rubbish is generated by the tourists, the hotels, the businesses, the midle and higher income people living in the area. not by the people in these photoes these people are surviving on their waste.

oh and its not these peoples fault they have to live in a tip to find clothing food and shelter to survive using things that disposable societies toss away. look to their governemnt with a clear lack or recylcing programs, rubbish collection system, waste water treatment, and pollution prevention the situation is deploreable not to mention complete lack of systems to help these people. I understand india is a developing country these are systems that need to be put in place along with clean up of these area, if they have any hope of not completely destroying their country with pollution. and all half you people see is the rubbish look at the photes of the water in the streams and even the bay, this may be potential drinking water or bathing water to wash their clothes in even.

and no sex education means people dont know how they get pregnant or how to control it. plus with no money you find a way to purchase contraception.

and to people amazed that they have never seen picutres like this etc you really must be poorly educated and ill informed.

“Blessed are the meek for they shall Inherit the Earth.”
Matthew 5:5

@Nadia

“Blessed are the meek for they shall Inherit the Earth.”
Matthew 5:5

Oh for F’s sake. Isn’t it about time God stepped into the picture and put an end to human misery?

Hey now, not all Americans suck. (A little more than half of us never even voted for Bush the first time around.) Wow, look at me - only three months of Obama and I can actually be bothered to half-heartedly stick up for my country.

Amazing how many times people can try to refute the whole “why don’t they just pick up the trash” and “don’t reproduce” arguments, but still those commenters keep coming in throngs, stubbornly repeating the same arguments over and over again. I’m drawn to this thread for some reason; I find the responses baffling and sometimes appalling. If people aren’t expressing sheer loathing at the poor, then it’s at white people, or Americans (why are some of you assuming that the ridiculous commenters are American?) or Indians or humanity in general. At least some of these comments are a bit more empathetic.

I feel Pity not for these porr people but for the ruling government

I would blame the public who vote for such an lazy and greedy government,who are consious only about themselves and their relatives.I do not agree with sejal because its the public which votes the ruling government.

i laughed so hard when i saw all the niggers
how many black people can there be in one place
if they all died it would be good

It’s such a cruel world, these photos are so sad.
And to the people who are talling them to clean it up; fuck off, that would be impossible without the use of expensive equipment which these people CAN’T GET. A lot of them do have jobs, the jobs that nobody else wants because of the disgustingly bad wages that are paid.
Please stop categorising all white people as pricks too, it’s not right. Not all white people are uncaring dickheads.

Het is verschrikkelijk dat zoiets gebeurt in onze moderne
wereld

It indeed shows the conditionds of the poor in India but there is something more to it. Where is the money, thousands of crores alloted to the upliftment of the poor in the annual budgets going. Where are the people who have been benefitted by the govt schemes on whom the govt shows crores spent from the taxes we pay. It is time that somebody stands upfront and raise a public opinion to compel the govt to answer these questions. I am sure India, having such a strong & stable economy is capable of doing more.

I’ve just been to Mumbai, and the poverty you see all over the city, really ‘hit me hard in my face’! It was so sad…
Indians, poor or rich, truly belive in ‘karma’ - which in easy words mean something like; ‘Because of what you did in your earlier life, this is what you deserve for THIS life’!
So if they are so lucky that they are rich, well of, or ‘just’ average - this i something they have deserved!! And the same goes for the poor people - even those who live in the slum! They think that this is what was mean for them in this life…
And this is what makes them really accept the situation.
(And sadly - make them stay in the same situation!
And also why the rich does not help out!!
- because this is gods will for them in this life!!)

I strongly disagree with many of you - the people which live in the slums in Mumbai, are really prowd of how they are, and most of them are NOT begging for money.
And they have actually created work for themselves within the slum, and one of them are recycling garbage (i.e. plastic).
Check this one out:
http://travel-junkie.com/travel/travelogues/dharavi-a-slum-in-mumbai/language/en/

Another thing that really striked me, was that most of them looked so happy! I only met three people who begged for money, in a city of 18 millions. (An > 10 mill in the slum…)
I think this is also likely to happen if I go to Paris, Oslo, or New York!
The look on that little girls face when she received a 100 rupee bill (which is approx one days work in the slum) - was really, really nice. My only regret was that I should have been giving them all much, much more….
They also seemed very clean and well dressed, considering their living conditions…..

We should all take responsibility to help all the people in need all over the world. If we work together - we can!!
Even though I alone cant help them all, but you - and everybody can really change the lives for somebody!!

If you don’t agree, I hope a life in the slum in Mumbai will be YOUR karma in the next life!!!
Then maybe I should check up on you, to see what you where doing to get out of this hopeless situation….. ??

To all of you fucking Americans suggesting that the people living in the slum should just clean out all the garbage.
That’s what you did, ha?
Did you know that some of this garbage actually origins from America - that is was shipped over to India - to the slum areas???? Well, now you know…..

actually…it’s not their fault…they are more miserable than any of us….those arses making fun are from their father’s womb btw
the thing is that 70% of the population of india is poor…i live there so i know better……i’ve seen places like this everywhere…..not only in mumbai….it’s because india needs some better leaders for which people have to vote (talking about the youth) because when they don’t vote ….the corrupt leaders get a chance to take over…..that’s why there are many ads nowadays which urge people to vote…..perhaps india has to change now….or it will become worse!

I’ve never been more embarrassed to be a human being than reading these comments. I’m amazed some of you can even sleep at night! Congratulations, must be nice to feel so superior to everything and everyone. I hope that some day you find yourselves in the same conditions as the people living in these slums.

And to all those who throw all white people and Americans in the same bag: don’t. Many of us care, unfortunately the ones who don’t are the ones who are loud about.

the amount of pollution disturbs me, both about the people and the environment. it would be terrible to live in these conditions.

the pictures here i agree are sad. but really now? why the hell are people talking crap on white people and americans? you are ignorant. just cuz we know how to take care of ourselves and make a living doesnt mean you blame us for not helping the people who “cant”. they choose not to. i am not gonna give my hard working money to people who dont deserve it. now im not saying that they dont but who knows what they would do with it and where they would end up again. I do have good faith, dont get me wrong. i ALWAYS help others and believe that when you give, you will recieve. and give all your problems and just put it in gods hands, he is amazing. but i know people who have became homeless after living a good wealthy life and i have seen people who were homeless do something about it and become everything they could have ever wanted to be. thats THEIR fault. its called a *decision* and we all have to make them. im not a stuck up white people like you all think. I dont have problems with immigrants, i do have a problem with the ones who come over here getting welfare and all that when they dont work or anything. i see immigrants doing everything they can to work hard and make a living and some of which i love dearly. the moral is, its up to you to do what you can, use your resources, and make your own decisions to better your own life. they can easlily walk out of the slums right now and become something. they just need a little motivation to do so. SO THE PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO BLAME IT ON US PEOPLE ( AMERICANS AND WHITE PEOPLE) SHUT IT UP. IF THEY REALLY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING, THEY WOULD HAVE.

What?? Sex is not necessary for living? Stop having babies?

Let’s not forget that if you’re essentially homeless, you are vulnerable. Women are vulnerable to particular dangers that men are just not as likely to encounter. Homeless women have a high rate of rape victimization. In America, homeless women typically try to dress and wear their hair like men to avoid being sexually brutalized and raped. Or they attach to a man to “protect” them. The price is usually that you generally belong to that man. So if he wants to have sex with you, you do it because you need his protection. What is the woman going to do– say no? Now this is how it is in America. I don’t have personal knowledge of female homelessness in India, but I strongly suspect similar dynamics are at play.

When you don’t have the ability to meet your own basic needs, one of which is safety, you do what you have to do to survive. So stop blaming people for having children. What do you think a homeless, powerless woman is going to do– demand her partner (or the rapist) wear a condom?

Addendum.

Damn it, the ridiculous comments are from Americans, aren’t they?

I’d point out that there’s no way an Indian living in the slums makes 100 rupees a day (ah, Indian tours would never lie!) or that there are lots of reasons why Indians living in slums can’t just walk out of the slum and suddenly be presented with a better life. But I just can’t be bothered to now…

Thanks for posting this, I have been aware of slum cities world wide for a long time but you have really captured the sheer scale and scope of how some people in the world have to live in your photographs.

It is just shocking really isn’t it, it seems to me no matter how you cut it in a world where there is so much money and wealth that there can be the opposite end of the spectrum like this. I just see humans in these pictures like anyone else but it is so obvious how excluded they are and disadvantaged in every possible way. Sad scenes, amazingly brave people. It makes me feel proud of them and ashamed to live in a developed nation that really could do more to well at least build them some proper shelter via the donation process at least.

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING ANY MORE COMMENTS

I would just like to highlight a few area’s of discussion. To all those who are blaming america/caste system/capitalism please leave religion, system of government, nationality, political preference, sexuality… etc out of this:)

You wake up. Your neck has cramped from sleeping on the ground, during the night countless mosquitoes have bitten you all over but you are to exhausted to brush them away, you just let them drink their fill and leave to be replaced by the next one. If your lucky your eyes are only bleary from the dirt and grime that has accumulated overnight not from your bad vision. You wake hungry but you have already eaten the remnants of the tuna from the can the night before. You contemplate searching the rest of the can with your tongue but you know your neighbour(sleeping opposite you) is very sick from cutting his tongue while licking a can.

Ok so I understand I don’t know exactly how they live, this is my interpretation.

Now ontop of this:
RUBBISH
The rubbish you live in is unfathomable,whilst you hate the smell and the disease it is your only source of food. Sometimes you wish there was some magical thing that would take the rubbish away (or you away from the rubbish) but instead the trucks bring more and more, after all its not like you own the land you live in a tip. Every now and then so called “Natural born survivors” (you know who you are) rally to work together to remove the rubbish, but somewhere between your stomach cramps, exhaustion and simple fact that you have nowhere else to put it you become dissuaded.

FAMILY/SEX
You are an older man pushing 30, you know in about 10 years you will have trouble walking yet alone collecting your food and in 15, 20 if your lucky, you will have left this world. You know, like you did for your father, that if you have children they will help you as you grow old. You meet a nice lady, She doesn’t particularly want children but she likes you, perhaps its pity? She was never taught how women become pregnant on the account that noone ever told her. She was just an orphan, even if you did know about a thing called a condom you wouldn’t know of its use. She never wanted Children, He didnt want her to die in childbirth but its the slums, your not sposed to get what you want.

JOB/EDUCATION
Your born a Dalit. In India more than 160 million people just like you are considered “Untouchable”—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human. You are unworthy of an education, even if you where worthy you couldnt get the money on account of the fact that noone wants an untouchable working for them, an employer can do better than that. You appreciate the fact that people who live in different western societies in different social systems understand that things that they take for granted such as a job, welfare, education, health services and simpler things like food clothes house are not readily available in your society.

If only

I do not offer a solution as if i could think of one the problem would be solved.

HOWEVER
please stop criticising, judging, assigning to stereotypes or mocking these people.

Thankyou
J.B.

If you have any more possible arguments or are just interested go to this link:)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

“criticise my opinion, not myself”

i feel so sorry 4 those people why has the goverment let it get 2 that all those poor children how dangerous it must be 4 the children living in those conditions. The dam goverment needs 2 step up 2 the mark and try and sort it out they should be ashamed of there selves.

[...] Life In Slums Of Mumbai Slumdog-No-Millionaire [...]

@Jen - if you were to be put in this situation and were called “lazy” because you are unable to pick up the piles of shit outside your door and were bashed for bringing kids into such a horrible situation, how would you feel?

I WOULD NOT HAVE A CHILD IN THAT SITUATION - AND IF I LIVED IN THAT SITUATION AND WAS CALLED LAZY, I WOULD LOOK AROUND AND SAY, WELL, YOU MIGHT HAVE A POINT THERE.

@sfanetti - To all you pricks: Try to imagine waking up every day in a place where you have no school, no education, no social services, no charities, no police, no running water, no toilet, no sewer, no electricity, no jobs, and no food. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO GET OUT OF THAT CURSED EXISTENCE?!?!

HOW ABOUT THIS? I WOULDN’T HAVE A BUNCH OF KIDS WHEN I COULDN’T EVEN AFFORD TO FEED MYSELF!

@ArizonaGuy — Do you feel more high and mighty now? I hope so.

@Mary To the people responding saying that these people are lazy: how dare you. Your level of ignorance is disgusting and you know nothing of the world outside of your own privileged, sheltered bubble.

THE PERSON/PEOPLE HERE SHOWING THE MOST IGNORANCE ARE THOSE BASHING PEOPLE POINTING OUT THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE LAZY, NOT THAT THEY ARE SIMPLY POOR! FOR GOD’S SAKE, WAKE UP! WHAT YOU ARE BASICALLY SAYING IS POOR PEOPLE ARE STUPID. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POOR AND STUPID IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED. SINCE WHEN DOES BEING POOR MEAN YOU DON’T REALIZE THAT THROWING YOUR TRASH NEXT TO YOUR FRONT DOOR IN NOT A GOOD IDEA? SINCE WHEN DOES BEING POOR MEAN *EVERYONE* SHOULD LIVE IN MOUNDS OF TRASH? THAT’S AN AWFUL LOT OF TRASH FOR PEOPLE THAT CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY ANYTHING.

Bottom line, you can sympathize for these people all you want, one of the things you fail to see is that I DO feel sorry for these people, my heart breaks for them, the pictures of the children standing there naked on mounds of trash was almost too much for me to even look at. But you are saying these people live like this because they are poor - THAT IS NOT TRUE. My dad’s family came from the poorest of the poor in rural Kentucky. I still have relatives that live in log cabins for fk’s sake! With no electricity! I have relatives TODAY that have never owned a car, never seen a computer, and never went to school - and THEY DO NOT LIVE IN TRASH! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD! POOR DOES NOT = LIVING IN TRASH!

@shyla
.
jesus christ you are the ignorant one. just because your relatives where poor and they dont live in trash. they live in fucking america (im presuming) or somewhere nice enough that you have access to internet and they almost certainly (again presuming) do not live in a society which follows hindu religion and are the bottom rung of the caste society of which they live.

until you can fully grasp this go away and have a nice think before you come back

have a nice day:)

I live in Slovak Republic and we have gypsies they are same brown people and only thing they do is steal, go through thrash, beg you for your stuff and if you dont give them they will insult you or if you give them something they will throw it back at you (i gave one a pear from garden that i grow stuff and i gave him one and he did not eat it but instead he wanted to hit me with it), not all of them are like that but most of them, i do not feel pity for this pictures i see here because i see a lot of simmilar one here in our country, and other nations call us racist because we work for their welfarechecks while they laugh at us and make children to get more money from welfare! So no matter where those people live just keep them far from me. And if you don’t believe me come visit Slovakia some times, yes we in central Europe.
Yes we tried to employ them in our country but most of them are so lazy they don’t even bother finding job. But looks like we might be able to teach them a thing or two to be more helpful, i know a few working ones so yes they can be reeducated.

Just to be sure, yes we have excelent quality schools, access to technology and stuff modern country have but still, they live almost the same as on those pictures. You can call me ignorant but there is one thing if you don’t live near them as i do don’t even bother to tell me i’m wrong!

Actually, the word that came to mind was… “racism.”

I have to work my ass off to pay welfare to them, while they get free fucking houses? They can steal and you can’t tell a shit to them because people will say it’s racist? Tell you what, shut the fuck up you don’t know NOTHING how they are NOTHING! Do you know how much fucking eurofond money is being fucking spend on their free housing just to keep them from spreading into the fucking rest of europe? Now do you? No so please keep your fucking mouth shut!

I’ve seen worse in Mexico.

Ugly gipsy in Czech: http://whitewoman.sweb.cz/chanov/galerie.htm

jaxx: Yes, all the people in Czech Republic know about problems with gipsies, but our government seem to be blind and deaf. When a gipsy family ruins its flat, family automaticly obtain a new one from govt. They mostly don´t work, only making babies and taking donations. And stealing. 95% of pickpockets in Prague downtown are gipsies, but it is almost illegal to talk or write about it. When you draw attention to the problem, you get mark as a racist, so people are afraid to say anything. The truth is different from what you can read in foreign newspaper.
There is simply no interest to solve those problems. People who live outside the slums (or ruined blocks of flats) just don´t care - the problem is not in their way, till some great bummer appears.

Sorry my english, still learning

I ve been there and tried to help kids by teaching them. But there families are reluctant to not make them study and rather make there kids work young. So they grow up as there parents and cant go anywhere else but tend to stay in slums. I tried but i failed… but that doesn’t mean that u should stop trying.. The change would come, even if slow but for sure it would come..

Its just sad to see the reality like this.. its easy to say but hard to do and make these people think of other solutions than what they do…

but by only trying what we can do.. we can bring them a different life.!

These comments, not the pictures, make me lose faith in humanity.

If ANYONE should stop reproducing it’s you ignorant tool sheds..

iam sitting infront of my pc and seeing these people suffer and live a life like animals so why should’nt the goverment do anything for them this is a advice from mr that vote to people whom u think are eligible..and can improve the living standards of these people……….

I notice how the people who don’t have shit-worth’s knowledge about India have the nerve to leave their absolutely misguided and non-sense comments here, further polluting the interwebs with ignorance.

Alright, I’m gonna try to make this quick, You people have no reason to pass judgments about this matter. You think you know that there is a “caste-system”, you think you know about Indian society (let alone your own) and the Indian people, you think you know who is to blame here. You think you’ve got everything figured out.

You’re all wrong. You people, by which I mean like 99% of you who’re not Indian, have no idea how ridiculous you sound.

Among many other things, stop watching BBC and stop letting a few pictures form a definitive impression of a country (any country), but especially India in this case, in your minds.

Also, those of you, you know the “Oh I’ve been to India and I can attest to that” bunch…Shut the Bloody Fuck Up. You people go straight into the slums. >_>

That’s like me landing in New York and going straight to Texas, with my camera crew and what not, you know filming the pigs and the hicks or paying a concerning visit to Harlem or some ghetto. Uhm. No visiting Times Square or the boring little suburbs or anything else - NOTHING. Just a ghetto and a redneck town.

Listen, my ignorance-spewing friends, you have no expertise in this area. You don’t come close to being somebody qualified enough to pass a judgment on an entire people, on an entire nation like India in a few sentences and get away with it. All that you people are doing is wondering up some questions, jumping to conclusions and typing shit down. That is all that’s happening here. You are not intellectuals. Thanks for your ideas of wisdom and the words of sympathy or pity. We really don’t care…dude.

I’m not saying that there are no problems in India, nor am I saying that we don’t need to take actions or anything like that. I’m not. Believe me we’ve got our share of assholes and what not. And then you jump in. :-/

See, YOU, should stay the fuck away from MY country and OUR issues…you know kinda like the way our media stays out of yours. (Don’t worry I still love you. xD)

If you people were really that clever, you wouldn’t let a corner of the complete picture BE the picture.

Seeing how this is just an insignificant comment on the internet, I’m not going to spoil my morning being here any longer but I’ll leave you with this little gem of an advice, that I hope you really take to your caring little hearts, you kind, kind, Slumdog Millionaire-making people:

You don’t know anything. You’re idiots. Shut the fuck up.

(I’m sorry to swear, but it wasn’t in vain. I promise.)

.

Hahaha you sound really wounded.

Looking at the pictures again, I can’t tell what the trash is… the litter or the people.

‘Abdul’…hmm, that’s a Muslim name. Man, you just confirmed the stereotype of Muslims hating everybody else.
Uh-oh.

Oh great! a racist muslim lololloolololol

DON’T BLOW YOURSELF UP ABDUL!!

how does it feel?

Why do the people posting comments jump to the conclusion that this rubbish was created by the people who live there? I suggest it is being dumped there by other people. Perhaps it is a city dump.

Life is not fare. That’s it. If you want to help, then help. Stop judging.

My family lived in this same conditions years ago (we lived in the slums of the Philippines). But ya know what. They worked there butts off to get to where they are now. It’s up to these people to pick themselves up and find there way out of poverty. If you try to save every poor person on earth you too will end up among the poor. You cannot force-feed success into people they have to find success on there own…

“Give a man a fish he will eat for a day, Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

what the hell

So lets say they get their hands on garbage bags they can’t afford. They pull up and bag all the trash that they actually live off of. Where’s that trash going to go? In America, we live disassociated with our refuse, because we pay someone else to take care of it. That IS Mumbai’s dump. The two are symbious like that. I know, big word for you, I’m sorry. The dump is there because the people are there, and the people are there because the dump is there. If the dump were not there, but 5 miles to the North, the people would be five miles to the north. They make their own lives from the trash, which in turn tosses them into the untouchables caste, because they live among what the rest of the people throw away. It’s not about “bleeding hearts” or “get a job dumbass” many have jobs, but the prospects and realities are bleak for living there, simply because if you look at the website I liked as mine, you can see the median cost of living in Mumbai is not exactly cheap, and where do you go when your job doesn’t pay you enough to leave there?

And they should stop having kids? Oh, because being poor is obviously a function of lesser quality genes, of course. What kind of fucked up Victorian notion is that? “We should stop letting poor people have sex because all they produce is more poor people.” All I can say is…wow…you fail at life, and your obviously a neo-con, and those shiny gates you think are waiting for you when you die? Guess what, you’re going to hell, because you not only consider the people in these photos as less capable, you dont even consider them equal humans. Do us a favor and kill yourself, and any of your family members you’ve influenced to think like you on this, and then maybe we can get real aid dollars moving where they are really needed.

Sigh.. Everyone on this comment page is trying to shove blame into the wrong places. You cannot Blame me for what happens across the world. If you bleeding heart liberals want to help the best way is to shut up and get your hands dirty. Calling us Ignorant will not help your cause. It only makes you look like a total fool. There will always Be poverty. If you want to feel better you should sell off all of your worldly possessions and send it to these “Poor people” When you fail to realize that some of these people are content with what they have. Have you looked at the pictures clearly? Have you seen there faces? I have Lived in places like these and we WHERE HAPPY. The only real difference between me and Them is that my Father worked his butt off to get an education in electronics which is a most sought after position at the time. You can help these people by helping them get access to education but you can’t force feed them with your own values. Someone also mentioned the dreaded Caste system that is present in India. I’m sad to say there is truth in that. But that only implies that India’s industry only hires people of higher Caste which is not true. They hire people by skill and talent just like any “greedy capitalist” would.

These people are starving, uneducated and broke. They live well under the means of any US citizen and yet people here still want to place blame on them. Do you think if there were an answer simple enough to put in one of these blogs that they would still be in that situation? Seriously has the comfort of our lives made us that naive? We sit and say that could never happen here. Well it can if we don’t afford ourselves the open mind it takes to prevent these things. Would you let your neighbor starve. Would you call him lazy if he lost his house because he couldn’t find a job? You probably wouldn’t. Though he, just like those in these pictures, could go to the dump and find enough bottles, metals ect. to pay a bill and keep his home. It’s easy to have pride here, someone is always there to bail you out or you can just file bankruptcy. Yet we sit here and judge these people and blame them for their circumstances. Most of those people were born into that and many have fought adversity and overcome. I bet most of those people in these pictures work harder in a day for next to nothing than us Americans work for in a week. People should appreciate what they have and give what knowledge, manpower or money they can and not just in Mumbai but all over the world. Is it really that much to ask?

[...] 7 million people who live in the city, which the people and families that live their have to call ‘home’. Director Danny Boyle with the young star Share and [...]

These are human beings…not just pictures of awful living conditions. If you really want to help them, do it. Don’t talk about it. The purpose of doing so is not about recognition anyway. If you are insensitive or just don’t care about these people (especially the children), then I say to you “good luck, I hope this never happens to you.” But if it did, what would you have others do in your aid? Should we offer our support? Should we ignore your plight? If you don’t think these people have anything to offer, ask yourself, “what do I have to offer that they need?” Think about that for a minute or two…
We can’t spend anymore time worrying about who is helping and who is not. We have plenty of criticism for people who “said this” or “said that,” but why waste your energy. We can’t afford to do this. To anyone out there who is ready to make a difference, even if it may be minute, there is no time like the present. If you took the time to read this, thank you. But as you may realize, in the time it took me to write this and you to read this, someone’s child has died.

Garbage is everything to these people. It is their food, what they wear, what they sleep on, their shelter. It is their survival, their hope, their very life depends on it.

How can you even think of changing you situation if your belly always hurts due to hunger or due to something horrible that you ate. Your brain must be fuzzy from lack of food, the filthy air you are breathing, and the lack of education. How small is their world when they live in a garbage heap and never even hear of the rest of the world for lack of education?

I don’t know if this is true but I heard that the 7 riches people in the world could completely solve the poverty problem of the whole world. That won’t happen of course. Gov’ts could do so much more with their money if they didn’t put so much into wars. But that won’t happen either. Who is it up to, to help? How can one individual help?

Like any other large or small problem, it starts with thinking. Thinking alot and then praying. Then whatever action comes to mind that makes sense for you to do, do it. Simple as that. Sure it would take all of us together, but why not start with me? One thing WILL lead to another.

One example; do some research and find a reputable organization and partner with them to help. Then find all your friends and challenge them. Everything big started with something small. This is only one example of how to help, I’m sure there are many more.

THE GOVERMENT SHOULD HELP THERE PEOPLE FIND GOOD HOMES AND SCHOOLS,,,,GET RAID OF THE CLSS SYSTEMS IN INDIA NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANYONE,,,,EVERYONE IS EQUAL,,,IN THIS WORLD….GOOD LUCK SLUMS PEOPLE I WILL KEEP U ALL IN MY PRAYERS…..

My heart breaks for these people. Sfanetti said it best: you and I are extremely lucky to have popped out of the RICH womb. We never chose to be in these bodies and they never chose to be in theirs. Those posting negative, arrogant comments should think about their life situation should they have been borne into the slums of Mumbai.

[...] Life In Slums Of Mumbai - Artsy Time [...]

Alright. All of you are ridiculous. I agree with a little of all of you, for the most part. I do not agree that the people of India are “lazy.” The people of America, we are more lazy than the people of India. We’ve got air conditioning, heat, cars, jobs, four walls around us, and freedom. India has none of that. I think that God is trying to test us. Will we help those in need. Or will we be greedy and snarle up our noses and act better than the people of India. I love everyone. Unconditionally. Jesus loves me, so I will love them. The people in those pictures are our family. We are as one. No one is better than the other. God created us equal. Quit calling people lazy. You don’t know anything about their situation. When I get out of High School and graduate Bible College I plan on going to Mumbai/ Bombay, India and helping the women that are trapped into sex trafficking. And spreading the gospel. God has called me. I will go. I will not judge.

poor indians…. lucky me im not an indian… gross

The fight against their living conditions has to start with their Government, because right now….their government does not CARE about the slums. Sad but true.

some of you make me sick …telling them to ‘get over it’ and ’stop being lazy’….yer sure their just being lazy. Idiots. Id like to see how you’d cope in such conditions.

Went to Bombay/Mumbai many times in the 1990s. The poverty simply defies Western imagination. You guys can’t comprehend it. You just can’t. Believe me. But my one question was always why can’t they use a trash can? They’re good people, hard working, but why not a trash can?

This is something that Americans in general do not understand, hell I don’t understand it. We say things like move, use a trash can, burn it, get a job and other things because we do not know what it is like. I get pissed when I step in dog shit in the yard….now look at these pictures and see how ignotant that really is.

In case you guys haven’t noticed thats OUR rubbish the are living in because we can’t be bothered to put it in a rubbish bin it gets into the sea and ends up being washed on their beaches and shorelines.
SO don’t go saying they should clean up because WE are the one’s causing it.

another thing is these people were born into poverty - they can’t help themselves. its like being born into an uneducated family living on the doll. it’s a cycle they don’t have the power to break.

these pictures show just how much we value our planet, OUR home. the only planet we can live on!

i think that if you aren’t affected someway by these disturbing pictures you are very Ignorant!!!

if you can’t go to India watch the movie Slumdog millionaire- a true story about a boy who lived in the slums.

it is painful to even imagine what these poeple struggle through everyday no matter what their age is, to survive then to do it all over the next day.

have a heart and next time when you can’t be bothered throwing your rubbish in the bin or are littering think about all those poor people who are gonna LIVE in it for the next decade.

its really really really sad

its sad. dylan got it perfectly right.

very sad,

It makes me hungry…. oh and sad i guess

Nice, xDark Heartx (aka. John), nice

Who in crickey ***** is John?

dude have u read some of those comments
americans are ignorant priks havnt tthey heard of the casting system, and captital punishment

I am going. The Lord has had India on my heart for a while now, but He has also had me living in another slum area of Manila. We plant churches, feed kids, medicate, build homes…we get involved in peoples lives. I know nothing India, what areas of Mumbai are these slums in your photo’s? If I just turn up there will I find people willing to go with me to these areas?

Please check out my blog, just google “mark pedder’s weblog”, just so you know that I am for real.

Mark Pedder, your a bigot who does not really care about the welfare of the people, but instead use the wealth of your industrialised country which was stolen from Asian and African nations to evangelise and convert native and naive poor people of third world countries that were once rich, into christianity through fradulent means like you have just mentioned, building hospitals, feeding kids and medicating them.

YOur a prize windbag and a pompous fool to think you are somehow gods chosen gift to uplift the people of India as if Hindus in India are not involved at all in charitable work themselves. I have been to India and have seen many Hindu organisations actively involved in helping the poor by feeding them, medicating them, clothing them and providing descent accomdation for them.

For some reason these stupid white christians think they are the only charitable people in world while the people of the third world countries just sit on their high horses and let their people die without a care in the world. How Ironic given that it was the west that drove India and many other Asian and African countries to terrible poverty with a gun in one hand and a bible in the other.
-Muski

welldone very good job please carry on you chose a right direction.

That’s nothing. ANYONE who says that we know nothing about this type of life…has lived a privileged one. I grew up in Chicago slums…REAL slums! I’ve seen buildings, cars and people get blown up. Stabbings, shootings, beaten and hacked up children. Decayed buildings, trash everywhere and so on. We need to worry about our own slums…the real ones!

China once had overpopulated slums like that.
The Chinese government then put in a one-child policy, strictly enforced it, then educated their people, got them health care, tore down the slums and built modern apartments houses, cleaned up the garbage, and then gradually introduced more capitalism and personal freedoms after they cleaned things up and leveled off their population growth.
China, and their government is far from perfect, but at least they did something about it.
The government in India is incompetent, cowardly, unwilling to make difficult decisions concerning overpopulation and the slums, and the upper castes there could care less about the slumdwellers, they consider them almost less than human.
India will never be considered a great country until they deal with their overpopulation and their slums.

Rich,
America does not have hundreds of millions living in the slums like India does.
And the slums of Chicago and other American cities are not nearly as bad as India, nowhere near the amount of infant and child mortality, disease, etc. that India has.
America’s crime and gangster problem is obviously a problem, but America has a far smaller percentage in poverty than India and other third world countries, and not as severe of poverty as those countries.

Rich, Neither Chicago, or any other American city, has the sort of widescale slums India has, with India;’s rate of disease, infant and childhood mortality, poor drinking water, no garbagemen,etc.. India has hundreds of millions in their slums, which are worse than poor areas of first world countries like America.

Who cares about these indians who live in the slums They are not gonna do anything with their worthless lives and i thought they are happy to be living in an economic superpower eventhough they cant afford anything

all this is coz of da indian gov, and those people who dont pay full tax.
da gov is corrupt, they are taking da money which is not for them, but for these poor people.

These photos are really shocking, I cannot imagine how can any human live understand these conditions. Can anyone tell me what is the government doing about this.
These people themselves are creating the rubbish and litter, and god knows what diseases and infestations are occuring. Maybe create a levi on Bollywoods cash machine
and put thoses funds to good use.

It is God’s will.

Some of the ignorant comments left here are truly disturbing and (sadly) not surprising. Its really easy to say “they need to buck up” or “they need to learn to use garbage cans” or they need to change things themselves”. Its really easy for a spoiled, priviliged North American to say such things…..the hardest time most people on here have had was when their Ipods broke, or once when the power went out for like, a day and they couldnt get online…or they had to take a bus to the mall cuz the Lexus was in the shop etc. Get real…imagine youre born into a place without running water, toilets, or medicine. You have to keep working 12-15 hrs a day or you’ll starve to death, and that $5 a week you earn scavanging garbage doesnt go far…then you come home to your familys single room where 15 of you squeeze into 300 square feet of floor for the night. Its really really easy to blame the poor for their situation…its their fault they live in slums and have too many children. Poor people in India will never escape the caste system that keeps them in their ’stations’ until they die. And I also love the idea that poor people dont work…if you know anything at all about Dharavi you’d know that the residents do about 80% of the citys recycling, and since India is now a growing ‘economic power’ they are the ones solely responsible for keeping Mumbai from drowning in garbage completely. Garbage is the first sign of economic growth and disposible incomes. How can you expect people to access contreception when they cant even access clean water or basic medications at all…….theres one toilet for 1500 people…is that their fault too? should they run down to the Hindi hardware store and pick up a new toilet to hook to their plumbing?? All these people who have made comments like ‘the indian government needs a bonfire to clean the citys up” and so on should be completely ashamed of themselves. That is disgusting, and deeply disturbing that someone could be so self-centered and cruel..and bashing Christianity is pointless too….like it or not, plenty of caring, loving Christians are helping people in impovershed nations areound the world everyday while the secular humanists sit around and have intellectual discussions about poverty over their Moccachinos. So next time you’re suffering through a grueling 4 hour shift at Burger King, maybe you could think of all the little kids whose parents sell them into prostitution so the rest can eat…or the old man who works 15 hours a day for $4 and comes home to find his shack bulldozed (rich people need condos!). Set your North American sense of entitlement and spoiled privilege aside for a moment…theres a whole world out there that doesnt revolve around you. And do your research before you blame the victims again.

where the whole indian govt is of no help at least by teaching how to fish, the rest of the world is no use but watching the photos and leaving comments….

This sort of poverty is extremely disturbing and the fact that it is true even more. It’s time the government does something about it. People shouldn’t have to live like that, especially children. They need help and no one should make any excuses not to help them.

Some people on this forum should be transformed into slumdwellers in Mumbai, enjoy one year at it, then come back and tell their story. RESERVE JUDGEMENT UNTIL YOU HAVE WALKED IN THEIR SHOES…

For people like Bob, Chris and Shyla the experience would not be an eye opening one, for they are trapped in their own intellectual slum from which they cannot escape.

I saw the “disturbing” pictures above and read the initial few comments and understood where the discussion might be headed. Some, like Chris or Mike seem to have found a very easy solution to the “problem” and some others seem to realize the it is complex. And the very few Indians who commented very pissed off because India is being “generalized” here based on these photos.

Well, let me say a few things to all those who have never lived here. And yes, I am an Indian. If thats not enough, I live in Mumbai. If that is also not enough, I have worked with an NGO in one of Mumbai’s slums. From the pictures above you say that no one can live in that filth. But you obviously didn’t notice the faces of the people in the pictures. Go up and look again, they are all happy. And thats my point.

The slums of bombay are no more a problem than the ghettos of US. In fact here its better because teenagers here don’t kill each other with guns, or with drugs, or crash their cars. India, once the richest place in the world, was looted and plundered over and over again by the imperialists (who went ahead and created Australia and the US), and before that by many Muslim invaders. What was left after India’s Independence, was a plundered land devoid of riches but full of undernourished millions. Thats definitely not a very solid foundation for a nation. Still we could have done better and off late we are making up for the lost time.

The biggest problem in Mumbai, is acute space crunch. There’s no fucking space for so many people to live here! And so the poor have learnt to live happily in the slums. So don’t feel too pity for these people. For all you know they might be happier than you. And many of them are not even poor. They just choose to live in the slums because they can’t afford a big house. My point being they also have a life! Your notion of life may be different from theirs but that doesn’t necessarily make them “filth”.

Now I am not advocating poverty. But given the scenario here its a herculean task to get rid off. And for a change, take a break from the slums! India has a lot more to offer. Ever cared to look at the beautiful temples of India or the mosques, or the way people live here? Obviously you didn’t. Because a certain Mr. Danny Boyle, a British, found salvation for his sinking career in the slums of Bombay. Ironical, isn’t it?

Writers,
im a fourteen year old girl from england. we viewed the film “slumdog millionairre” for an english class recently and i was shocked at how easily people can view these images,
People scroll down the list or glaze over at the pictures but noones really thinking into it.
i ask you all right now.
what are YOU going to do?

anything cud happen at any time well,………….even we cud b in dat state……..wat can we do 2 help them? wat all we do is not enough…….they just can’t be brought up easily…. they’r not educated well n all the youth suffer like their ancestors and nothin like slumdog millionaire cud happen to any of them…….i guesssss…well let’s pray positively.

Alot people have said that a lot of these people live quite posotive lives. where they chose to live there because they have no money for a proper house.
what happens when we start giving help?
what do we do when they become dependant on charity?
It cant ever be distirbuted equally.
can it??

What the fuck has happened to compassion, and why are so many of you happy to dwell in ignorance.

These people are living in poor conditions and are barley getting by on a rediculous amount of money.
Mumbai is where Slum dog millionaire was filmed and did you know that the young boy who played the lead role.. is still living in the slums. His pay was only enough to get him and his family new clothes and enough food to last them awhile.. it makes me sick to think that a film where the actors and directors are making millions cant even spare the littlest to help someone have a home.

I write this whilst sitting in a comfortable hotel room in Mumbai. These past days I have seen first hand these “slums”. Its is truly dreadful that man should live like this in the 21st century. It is, however, painful but true to say that there is absolutely nothing I, the next man, nor the next man can do about it. If I gave up everything I owned to help it would make not the slightest difference. Some of the comments made on here are truly ignorant, and I suggest unless you see it for your self, you cannot get a true idea of how dreadful it really is. I am not arrogant enough to suggest that I can think of a solution. All I can say is, there but for the grace of god…

i think these people can be used as guinea pigs for new medicines by pharmaceutical firms…why should life be put to waste…or …since these people are used to such lives…they could be used for pleasure purposes…by paedophiles…or sex starved…men / women…n pay them… 5$ …or we can use them…as animals in slaughter houses…use their skins…to make leather bags / purses…or …since we don’t want these to live a life of misery…we could even trade in…their body parts…eyes / blood / liver / kidney…n help their families with a little bit of money to help… it’s just that…cos they r there…i think…they deserve it…it’s their mistake that they are born “there” … n what about slaves…they could be used as that too… or we can carry out human experiments like the ones that were carried out in the Gulag….i guess such people cant’ be educated…nor …will they need clean water or electricity…cos they r so “used” to living like that… n the pleasure of killing a few…with a gun…n seeing them die…common…u always wanna kill some1…but the law doesn’t permit…unless u r an American / British soldier killing Afghanis / Iraqis for their oil…or an Israeli killing the Palestinian for a piece of land…but…this could be a place for a shooting range…more creativity…hmm…paying someone to be cannibalistic…n …having him drink some1s blood…or …rape a woman./ guy ..in front of their family…by paying the family…all they care is for the “money” …u can’t do that in a “civilized” society… or…just lite up the place with petrol..n let it burn…the papers nextday will talk about the benefits of the good deed…piss or shit on some1 face…n then pay them for it… the ultimate haven …for releasing your stress hormones

We have slums in Scotland that are bad, drink, drugs and knife crime that lead to the highest murder rate in Europe.

Angus Lachlan McDonald

Little do we know that the comfort of people who live in first world conditions is at the expense of God’s/Allah’s special children who happen to have been born into 4th..5th..and ..6th world conditions.
What I see when I look at those photos is ::
My Grandchildren…..My Mother….My Father…..My God

If you want to SEE God dont go and dig a hole on the banks of the Ganga go and look in to the eyes of the POOR.
Vivekananda

Sincerely
Garvin Brown

Jees dont you people read? they are living on the city dump.. its not their rubbish. they couldnt produce that much rubbish. and if they were to clean it up… where would they put it… another city dumping ground…and so its starts all over again. these photos are amazing, some cheery others not. i have absolutly no idea how this standard of poverty can be improved. what on earth are they going to do? the more rubbish that goes there is gonna drown the people with disease/infection and god knows what…. it makes me feel so sad. and it is fair to ask them to think before having children cos it really isnt fair to babies or kids.. and is it increasing the population there…. god i couldnt even have sex there anyway! i hate to say this but they are living like animals. i am gobsmacked.

You are all so naieve and immature thickos probably middle class tossers . These victims can not just all get together to beat the filth you thickos. Because they dont eat 3 square meals a day rich in nutrition and fibre the fuel to have energy . These peole are probably disease ridden bcos of lack of food and starvation and suffer malnutrition hence they dont have the energy to clear up the crap there probably to weak. getting through the day feeling ill is all the strength they can summon. They have no incentive to do it as that would not sort out the main problem which is no jobs high crime prostuition currupt goverments no doctors to treat their illnesses and a country who clearly does not give a damn, if youre so bothered by this why dont you all try to help by donating money every month to india if we all gave 1 quid a week to them then we could save some of them, stop being on your high horse judging shit you no nowt about and being hypicritical. blame the goverment if any one , it,s a 3rd world country thats the only isssue to discuss. it has not been developed like britain etc. the whole world is full of curruption, look at the uk the rich get richer the poor get poorer. in idia slums they have no welfare benefit system thats why they like in slums you thick middle class knobs. just watch slum dog millionare the film. that will tell you all you need to know about the india slums. most of these people would love jobs most are bright intelligent. dont even comment on things you know nothing about . didnt you learn any thing at school??? geography shud tell you about the world we live in. hmmm.

To reply to the previous post:-
1. If the government is corrupt, as you point out, then what is the point of us all donating £1 a week - do you really think (somewhat naively) that the money would end up where its really needed - of course not !
2. Are you aware that some of these people actually choose to live like this - running their own little entrepreneurial business from these slums to avoid paying taxes. (Note - I said some, not all!!!)
3. So you believe Slumdog Millionaire is all fact do you? Then you are again naive. Talk to real residents of Mumbai and see what they have to say about the film. Then perhaps you will learn something !

i agree with the last comment. the people like living their. its normal to them. ok they may live in very bad condition but they are happy unless ill. there are some millionaires that live in these slums. so maybe some people shud do some research before commenting.

ok people, before you call these people lazy DO SOME RESEARCH! most of them have jobs and find living in slums is a convenient area becuase they are right outside of the cities they work AND some of the production happens right in the slums. in fact, Dharavi (the biggest and worst slum in all of asia) is India’s financial capitol and one of the biggest producers of leather. These are HARD WORKING PEOPLE who can not find any better living conditions. you ever think there’s so much trash because there is such a huge population!! lots of people in a small area= lots of waste. so shut up, research, and stop calling these people lazy. thank you have a nice day.

Some of you people are vile and disgusting. Scum. Research the subject.. Discover why these people are living as they are.

The majority of comments have been made by uneducated illiterates that make me ashamed to be a part of humanity.

why is there picturee 4 (from top)theress a dude putting his haand up a coww:S

I can picture the majority of you small minded people, sat on your fat arses eating supersized take out food on a big comfy sofa with your expensive laptop on your knee, 42″ TV on in the background, heating turned up full with a bath full of hot bubbly water waiting for you to jump in and clean you up. Car parked outside, rubbish bin full but not to worry as someone will come and take it away soon, holiday booked for the summer. Maybe thinking about calling a friend on your mobile and having a bitch about whatever hasn’t gone your way today, something totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe you should spend a little time researching this subject before you share your opinions with everyone, as if you did you would realise what a load of shit you are talking. Or alternatively keep your ill educated thoughts inside your pea sized brains and have another slice of pizza……….

I have read some of these comments on here in total horror.

My eldest son who is 10 is now busy trying to raise some money by selling things so he can send some to charities that help these people as he was so moved by their plight, and then I read some of your comments.

I think that some of you should be ashamed of your comments, to think that people still think like that in this day and age is shocking,

There was a programme on the other night which showed a 7 year old girl who nearly died after a rat ate one of her toes and nibbled her leg when she was just 3months old, it of course got infected but she was lucky and she lived. Can you honestly say that a 3 month old baby deserved that??? I don’t think so.

There is of course the argument that they should stop having children, but they don’t have tv’s, or stereos. or xboxes or any of the other things we take for granted so what else can they do for amusement?

I would suggest you go with the old adage: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

i just came from india 2 days ago i was back packing, b4 i went i didn”t understand any of this. but i have seen this so much in india and i undstand the way people are that i have come to realise that they actually love were they come from and love there life. And this is nothing in this world that can change that, I have grown to accept that they them selfs accept where they are from n how they live. India is the best country in the world i love it n I could live in india any day

I only came across this site having watched the recent programmes on TV featuring Mumbai and the slums. I have to say like several others I am disgusted at many of the comments above. Perhaps their perception has now changed having (hopefully) seen the programmes, if not then how anyone can not feel compassion and a willingness to help is beyond my comprehension.
We will each have differing views and this is how it should be, however I cant help thinking some people say what they say in order to be controversial, but really being totally honest do you honestly believe that these wonderful and amazing people choose this life, and that they would not leap at the opportunity of a better one if it were possible.
I think not………………

the reason y these slums exist is is the ‘intentional’ design of politicians…to have gray pockets….u will be amazed to know they pay upto $3000K per year rent to rent the 1st floor cabin in the slum…there is some one very powerful and rich’s vested interest to ….they don’t want to clean up lest it should bringh their ….it is artificial povery…the collective will is missing among people…the political will is against the people…only a tidal wave or tsunmai can clean the mess…crownds from rest of india where there is gloom especially north INdia turn up in Mumbai for a living and end up here…they starv back home and choose this place to get a job…see cash at the end of it…hence these are ‘maintained slums’ to carry out …where educated, middle class, media (shun that places)…the illeterate and low class are exploited…its more than what meets the eye in a democracy…

im going 4 a working b r use with me ?whos with me wat about u

My family was once in these slums (dharavi) we came out of it but i took our whole family (uncles, kids), we all had to get jobs, not well paying we got crap money and got treated like dirt because we had to work for others. India is a hard place to make a living because the kids who get proper education (such as going to college and stuff) are those families who are rich, that their parents can afford because education in india is very expensive. Most families have their kids working just to pay the bills and just get enough food for 1 meal a day and its not their fault because this cast system in india does not allow many families to work and even if they can they get very little money because they get exploited by the people who are in a better cast system. The life of a slum is just like the film slumdog millionair, their are bigger people who run the slums who need to paid and if they are not paid then you are dead. Most who are born in the slums will die in the slums because of these bigger “so called gangsters”. For the rubbish in the slums its not their fault society is to blame, its not all their rubbish. For those who say at least they can clean it up are stupid, where are they to put it and if they burn it then all kinds of trouble starts with police, the so called gangsters because these people in the slums have no rights. I now live very close to theses slums in a building living with my 2 uncles families and mine in a 2 bedroom apartment so this is the life even though we are out just to keep ourself going we all have to work even my 10 year old cousin who makes tea for people, has a stall on the street. The life will not get better but there is hope for my kids (when i have them) to give their kids a proper education to get out of this place and live a better life, but i still thank god that i am lucky that i have at least got out of the slums.

Nameet
I have read your comments which for me were a breath of fresh air compared to many of the previous ones.
I have visited schools for the slum children in South Delhi and I understand your frustration at some of the previous comments.
I have spent 12 weeks in the past two years in Assam in the North East with a man called Uttam Teron of Parijat Academy from a school for the underprivileged. We conducted Gandhi Peace Walks all over Assam travelling by Bus, Train and 4 wheel drive vehicles raising funds for Schools for the underprileged.
Gandhi was once asked by an English Missionary ” What can I do to ease the burden for the Poor ”
Gandhi’s reply …
” WE MUST STEP DOWN FROM OUR PEDESTALS AND GO AND LIVE WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING AND EXPERIENCE THEIR HARDSHIPS AND SORROWS ”

When the welfare of others is more important to you than your own welfare then and only then can you say you truly LOVE.
I hope to visit Mumbai in around November of this year and would consider it a great privilege to meet with you and your family.

Sincerely

Garvin Brown
Mahatma Gandhi Awareness
Australia
garvin@onthenet.com.au

all these problems are there in dharavi because of the laziness of the BMC. BMC should take serious steps towards the cleaning of the slums and should provide some facilities for better sanitation. these things can surely be executed if the people themselves also get alert.

It’s terribluly sad that some people have to live like that and other people get to live in big nice houses and have no idea what goes on in the same world.
Some of the comments above are tuly descusting and make me quite ashamed that some people from the same country as myself can be so thought less and mean.
I have never visited india myself but i have been very intrested in this consept and have been watching many of the channeel 4 indian winter series.
I found out that the rubbish is not their own rubbish, the slums recycle 80% of mumbais rubish and mumbai is a big,big city.
And those peoople do their best to clean up. children as young as 7 work on those dumpsas rag pickers, but its a bit hard when you have just cleaned up and another full truck load comes and you need to start over again.
Those people cant just get rid of that rubbish, Firstly thats how a lot of people make their money and Secondly those people are not as fortunate as some more developed contries and can’t just phone up a skip company to take it all away.
I fell quite ashamed in myself as most of the ignorant people are americans or britans and being british myself i fell greatly for the people who live in places like and similar to this show above.
I wish some people would get up and get out of their own little bubble and open their eyes to see whats going on in the world.
I don’t think that rich people can do much about the slums as its a persons house and they cant destroy it but the lest people can do is not critisise.
I’m only 13 and yet i understand this i wish to vist mumbai some time in my life to expernce what this is like for myself.
Sad pictures.

:’(

i am sad

I have had to come back from India due to a family illness, I was working for a Charity an Orphanage/Clinic/school for Slum children in Goa It’s the dirtiest place in the world, full of crap the people do nothing to help themselve’s if it were not for the Europeans mostly Brits these children would get no help what so ever.The Indians do not care at all , I watched Indians walk over around a dying child in Mumbia to busy on their mobile phones. Until India wakes up and accepts it’s responsibility it will always be a country of out stretched hands .so if any of you are still wishing to help others I suggest you try closer to home, there are plenty of deserving children here ..

haha i feel sorry for the dog on the last picture

I just hope that the 99% of the people who comment and judge on these photos who have never been to India make an effort to go and visit, inhale the smells and meet the people face on then give an opinion.

A lot of the people there do work. A lot of them work in the dump sorting through rubbish and recycling as much as they can. They can’t just get rid of the rubbish because that’s where the little they do have comes from. Of course they don’t chose to live like that. Even if they did gather up all the rubbish were are they supposed to put it? Also they’d have to keep gathering it up because more will come and they need to work and earn money to support there families, they can’t spend all day gathering there rubbish. I wish I could do something to help them I just don’t know what I can do.

I just got back from 10 days in India with my husband and 17 month old son. My son and I spent part of the time in Mumbai. I can honestly say that the poverty is unlike anything you imagine. Yes the city is dirty and chaotic, but it is equally beautiful and colorful. The poverty is hard to describe. It is sad, but not depressing like the poverty you see in the United States. People are hustling and begging constantly (they made a beeline for me with my son) but I never once felt frightened for my life. Not once. There is a love for children and family that I don’t find in the USA. They have a true village mentality. The slums are hard to miss, right next to multi million dollar establishments. Could you imagine living in a slum and seeing that kind of wealth right next door to you? Mumbai is the most expensive place on earth for real estate which is wild when you see how the other half are living.

Firs of all, in reply to an earlier comment, Houstonians are NOT idiots, in general at least. Of course there are some people who will act like idiots, but that comes with the territory of humanity. Name one city in the entire world that doesn’t have one person that has said something idiotic at least once.

Thought so.

Burning garbage will not solve the problem. Don’t even get me started on the pollution - thats the last thing both they, and the environment need. More than that, it CAN be recycled, and even more importantly then that, without the rubbish, how would they obtain the few possessions they have?

Just because they live in poverty, doesn’t mean that they choose it. Who in their right mind would choose to live amidst garbage and pollution? Who would choose the path of hunting for a meal or two a day? The short answer - Nobody.

Don’t be so quick to condemn them because they have less than us - It’s not always their choice.

Venus project was put forth by the bankers to export this poverty to the world, what you see is the product of eugenics. You think these people have it bad, you’re right but they have one thing going for them, they have not all been shot which is what would happen once we are all reduced to this level of poverty, do you think this cant happen here. Dont be an idiot, we are 6months from this nationwide all that has to happen is for china to call our loan. Then they would come in and by imminent domain everything you have will go to them at the stroke of a pen. America is a comma in the story of history,

These people did nothing to “deserve” their poverty, they would farm little pieces of land and live at peace but they cant because they dont have the one thing that every free man needs. Reasonable self defense to protect his family and himself, from theives and the government. You want to know why we still have free speech? Because our gov cant take us. You want to know why israel can talk sh!t, cause they have nukes. You want to know why north korea’s leader can play grab@ss with Madeleine Albright, because they have nukes. You know why we invaded Iraq, cause we knew they didnt have any nukes, you know why they want to invade Iran? Cause they are trying to get nukes. You know why hippies arent taken seriously, cause they chain themselves to trees and everybody knows they are unarmed. You know why the gov is afraid of christians -praise god and pass the ammunition- thats why rick goodhair perry keeps getting elected, because as long as the good old boys think everything is ok they wont start taking up positions at the alamo.

The government of India is not afraid of its people so they have tyranny, the american gov is afraid of us ask cass sunstein who wants to infiltrate groups, and mr.ecoscience who wants to put birth control in the water. These people dont give a flying f-ck about the environment.

Be as liberal as you want to be but know that EVERY TIME “progressives” take over the reins of power the first thing they push through are measures to limit the birth rate, increase the death rate, and disarm the people.

Its called EUGENICS, look it up, all your progressive leaders are founded in it like h!tler, stal!n and mao, sanger,shaw, roosevelt,lyndon johnson, and not to leave out the right, our sweet nixon, kissinger, brezenski and other such morons were all for it, daddy bush’s daddy got in trouble for funding the naz!s which is “national socialists” in english, and wall street funded the bolsheveiks and now bill gates, oprah and rockefeller get together for meetings on population control. Do you think they mean the poor people in Mumbai?

WRONG, have you checked your sp3rm count? the target now is white and male and middle class. the black males are almost gone, after that will be mexican and chinese, they have some nice package sinking treats for all of you.

If you cant handle the truth dont look for it, if you want to prove me wrong, please try.

Oh and just in case some limp wristed, sandal wearing, bra burning, godless, macy’s communist thinks they can sleep better at night thinking im some white dude in a wood shack in a big empty white state, wake the f*ck up. Im a black chick from the south side of chicago not far from the police camera they put on the corner so folks like you can marvel at how cctv has made the streets that you wont even fly over safer -]NOT[-
And just in case youre wondering im not a gun toting, .44 caliber double barreled christian either, i dont fit into your stupid boxes i would flush bush and obama down the same industrial strength toilet they crawled up out of, i dont know about bush but i live in Chicago and if you think this sausage factory put out a squeeky clean angel you’re brain damaged, this limp noodle showed up to a few neighborhood parades with east coast goons. DOES THE SOUTH SIDE LOOK ORGANIZED TO YOU??? lol

its no big deal though i expected that some outta nowhere just add water brother would make it to the white house and try to rip up the constitution. by the time its all over he will be seen as america’s greatest president evah because EVERYBODY will want a Kalashnikov and start flying american flags because they are terrified we are becoming socialists.

All hail President Obama, nothing makes people love their freedoms like the fear they might lose them.
black presidents ftw!

down with glenn beck
down with glenn beck
down with glenn beck

have a cookie, i promise by the time youre done eating it, you’ll feel right as rain.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=945451043582476851#

One American’s small perspective as an American that spent 4 months in Mumbai- this is some of what I learned - Many people in India are extremely hard working people, and those living in slums too! Many goods we buy here in America are produced from some of these slums. They work hard and long hours for extremely little pay in comparison to any American worker I’ve ever heard of. Another thing to note is that Mumbai has hundreds of thousands of people all competing for each job available. A good video to watch on this topic is on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iC71S3o-4U

The garbage problems - much of the problem is due to no land and government problems. People do burn the trash, but that in my opinion is worse than not burning it because the fumes create toxic fumes (I was nauseous every day from the burning trash everywhere).

The problems are much more complicated then to just blame the poor. I don’t understand why people get mad at such people and don’t instead get mad at the corruption and greed of mostly the rich people in control.

need to get in the bulldozers to clear those slums.

Need to put birth control in the water, to prevent the vermin from spreading.

India s biggest problem is overpopulation.

I am suprised that the disease, trash and filth has not done its bit in eradicating the problem through a Bubonic plague.

James - event though these ppl live in filth and horrid conditions. I bet you & your family will be the first to be eradicated by a bubonic plague. It’s called KARMA - and it comes first to people with thoughts. Better start to repent now.

I dont understand why these parants produce the childern to suffer. they know well that we are not in a position to invite the child,yet they keep on going.they are into shit upon that they call the child. these parants must be crazey . i feel so sad about the childern but not for the parants

Americans are bastards not all of them but, the majority of them who have commented on here are nob heads. Yers need to get a grip fuckin yank twats bin laden should of blew the whole country up fuckers

i feel very sad about these people and i wish i could do something to help them. It makes me think and realise how forunate we are.

Oh wow…some of you are really stupid.
That’s why you can’t understand this…there is lazy and hardworking people
everywhere. The world’s economy is affected by everything…history, location, landscapes…just
use your brain. Do you relazie without education you would basically be like another person?
How many little things you learn every day can change your outlook on life..these people
don’t have that.
Fuck you…if I was them I wouldn’t clean up thrash that OTHERS dump there..not me while
I am starving to death. And HELL YESS I will have sex it is the only thing I have left in my
life that makes me feel good…I am guessing THEY DON’T HAVE A LOT OF CONDOMS HERE.
You know..maybe the U.S. could send airplanes to drop thousands of condoms to these slums.
You ignorant bastards.
I imagine if I was born into this slum…starving every day of my life, getting raped by men and beaten up for food, suffering from all kinds of diseases..sleeping in shit and pee..and who knows what kind of other hellish crap I would have to live to..then some fat American redneck bastard tries to get hard on me and judge me….I think I would be able to beat you to death out of anger.
K bye Jesus loves you.

all u guys who gave your comments on these slums_ here is a suggestion- lets we all hook up and make a change to these slums. seems to me many of u hav tons of energy- lets put it to better use. u cannot sit at your laptop & throw yur “trash” opinions . lets make a change. togther we can. WHAT IS EDUCATION WITHOUT CHARACTER?

Best photos in Mumbai slam photos takes.photographers.

I want you to know that the people living in the slums didn’t have any choice. They aren’t there because they are lazy, they are because they don’t have anywhere else to live!! I live in India, and I know what it is like. And I’m not Indian either, so I’m not being bias about my own country or anything. I think that all of you who are saying that they should just rot there are being really racist, and I think that you should experience living in the slums once. They are all good people, I’ve talked with many before and I am pretty ashamed of all the people that don’t care about the people.

Its Life Deal With it. SORRY

i seriously think some of you should think long and hard about how you commented. I would really like to see you live in those slums these people didnt CHOOSE to live like that. and they definately dont deserve to either. its because of the circumstances they have been in that has meant them ending up living in the slums. I am discusted in the heartlessness of some people.

I really think that many of these comments are reckless. They can’t just burn up all their garbage because the garbage is their house, they find food and shelter there. They reproduce because it is a way to get more money, the children can work when they become a little bit older. Many of the people living in slums are people who came out of their original community into Mumbai because they thought that they could have a better life there. Although these pictures show horrific sights, maybe this is a improvement for them. I would really like for people who commented on this page to rethink their posts and do something to amend your mistakes. God bless these people.

There is no excuse for all that rubbish except stupidity. Rats, flies, maggots & disease. And stink! No wonder they call them “untouchables”. It’s heartbreaking to see babies & children living in that filth. Are people stupid because they’re poor or poor because they’re stupid? How smart do you have to be to burn trash & dig a hole in the ground for an outhouse. Even a cat wouldn’t have kittens in a dirty litter pan.

In the affluent western world, what is basic necessity is luxury for these people. To fulfil the basic necessities of the western world (and that of the small population in India), these people toil hard -creating things in factories and workshops. In return what they get is paltry wage which does not allow them to buy a house or flat of their own. What they earn can only provide them a shelter in slum.

As for keeping their surroundings clean - be aware that a significant population in these slums live on scavenging. So, can’t expect to do away with the “our” rubbish.

People should make sure that the things they buy are produced by people who have been taken care of, paid decent wages, have a good living standard. Only when consumers are aware of the who and how the things have been produced, things can be expected to change.

Until then, rich man’s basic necessity will remain to be poor man’s luxury.

Right On, SK

my wish repairment !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more information isssssss needed atleast for a project work ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If I may discuss the garbage issue. Those of you who say that they choose to live in the garbage are correct. The cities are sanctioned in a way that permits “squating,” or living in an area without paying rent, only in publically owned or unowned areas. One of the areas that is publically owned is the city dumps (pictured) where most slums are built. The reason that they live in garbage is because it is their food source. They live where the garbage is delivered so that they can take uneaten food from the garbage piles and eat it to survive. I’m not going to argue with either side over whether it is a choice to live in poverty, or on population control issues. I just wanted to throw that information out there because there seems to be a lot of arguements made before looking at facts.

People…lack of education leads to IGNORANCE. World wide, poor people are ignorant because of poor or little education (on hygiene, health, security, survival). Couple lack of education with reliance on religion and you have the recipe oft repeated for this type of poverty. And if you don’t think it exists in the USA then take a road trip across the country as I did in 2003 to see that it does indeed exist, on a smaller scale, but to the same sad extent and to the same level of horror. The faces may be black rather than brown, but the root cause is the same, these people are not taught how to live better and so know no better. And we all generally and conveniently ignore it as it’s easier to do so than help. Throwing money at charities is good for nothing.

Slum is the road map of any democracy….politicians thrive on not resolving problems…they maintain them….people’s ignorance illitracy coupled…if u notice they the slum dwellers are the only people in the city who go out to vote on election day….where as the middle class turn couch potatoes discussing obesity (anywhere in the world btw what is the %ge of polling in USA…rich mexico…) …poor people have to afffiate faith networks for immediate relief ‘and faith networks inturn sell their ‘clientele’ to politicians who milk them for votes…the vote bank is lost if misery ends…indeed misery is reminder to god. so it is a perpertual cycle…eventually hung parliaments…coalition govts. 1 vote is can tilt the balance and bring the aspiring politician to street from throne…imagine a unifed vote bank of 5% swing vote…to tilt the dias in ur favor…so problems prevail for hope to be sold and consumed. consumer econmois thrive of customer ignrance (of course the alternatives are relatively worse…choosing the squint eyed among blind) we have to live with it and pay the price being democrazy…btw USA is built on the back of cheap fuel if they pay on par with what indians pay…i recall i paid 99 cents a gallon in the same days in India we had to pay 1$ equivalent per liter (almost triple for decades), clearly it was not a level playfield…this reflects in every price potatoes from farm to kitchen every where…added to this some head count centric networks exploiting ‘their folks’ ignorace …this is the future of every democracy if not checked and there is no check…India is the ‘to-be’ state of USA. (already UK is on critical path despite the possession of looted megatonnes of gold and diamonds from India, fundamentals of economy cash.)…

Wow, there’s so much hate and anger in these comments, it makes me almost as depressed as seeing those pictures of the poverty…

I’ve been there, it’s a sad sad reality but still people are resilient and are able to smile. Quite amazing actually. I wrote about it here.
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-254591.html

Reality shown in pictures is true, you also needs to show the attempts being made by some CBOs in keeping their slums clean.This what happens we show only problems but do not attempts to show efforts made by some people.MCGM is implementing slum Adoption Scheme in the slum areas.By blaming each other or govt issues do not get resolve.

I can’t believe the comments that I have found here. The slum residents are proud people who find themselves caught up in a system where they either cannot afford to live elsewhere or they choose to stay in the slum. The area is devastated by monsoon rains every year which affects the ability of the people to create decent sanitation. So many people in such a small area is bound to have garbage problems.

The “slum people” have their own commercial economy, their own recycling, manufacturing and exporting trade and their own structure. Believe it or not, the wheels your suitcase is pulled along on probably came from the slums of Mumbai. The people keep themselves, their homes and their clothes clean, work hard to live, so they cannot be called lazy.

Not being American I cannot claim to understand the race issues being raised by you. I am living very happily in a multicultural society where race and religion are secondary considerations, as they are in the slums. people are accepted for who they are not what they are. Go to Mumbai and experience the “poverty”. The people accept what they have and make the most of it, they don’t complain. Wake up and accept that not everyone lives, or needs to live, in our assumed standard of housing and township.

I leave in mumbai but i did not knew such a poverty is also leaving hear i am soooo disterbed by seeing this pictures it shows how back word we are and request to the governament of maharastra to help the people financialy and by giving jobs once againg i am desterbed thank u for giving me a chance to express my fellings

I leave in mumbai but i did not knew such a poverty is also leaving hear i am soooo disterbed by seeing this pictures it shows how back word we are and request to the governament of maharastra to help the people financialy and by giving jobs once againg i am desterbed thank u for giving me a chance to express my fellings thank u again

these are very upsetting why are people being harsh to them its not there falt

god sake being dick heads is not gunna help them now is it, we need to all pull together to help them out

dont stop make it pop DJ blowin my speakers up , tonight imma fight till we see the sunlight !!

i love you Andy , please marry me .:-)( nice comment)

its sad,we just sit n see this pictures and comment on it……comments will never improve the slum condition.wish we could do something else to improve their condition.

SPENDING ON SATELLITES AND ACQUIRING NUCLEARE ARSENALS INSTEAD OF HELPING THESE HEPLESS ID NOT AT ALL JUSTIFIED.

I liked the nudity, this should be a step forward for the child porn industry.

Returned from Mumbai yesterday (I was there on business) - the slums are 21km long and there are 8m people living within them. They have never known anything different.

Help is needed not just financial but also education - education of how things can be improved. Our children (those in the UK) could learn a great deal about values if they were to visit the slums.

Visiting and seeing how people live makes you want to weap and help! The problem is that as an individual this is difficult.

i am an indian and believe me these photographs upset me but i will tell you why these people live like this.You see,in india right from morning to evening life is such a huge struggle that community living or social upliftment is unthinkable.mostly people get married early,have children and then its one big slog all your life.the garbage and the shit around you upsets everybody the first few days but afterwards it just becomes a part of life.see,i work abroad for the last 10 years and when i used to come to india,the first few days was such a big pain for me seeing all the garbage and the unclean areas but believe me after 15 days,i never felt such disgust.It all became normal for me,i guess and thats the problem with us indians.but anyway the day is not far away when we will have such a serious disease outbreak that we will get out of our laziness,no doubt.

Because it was predicted years ago, father will turn against son, mother against daughter…….
There will be wars and rumors of wars……..
There will be pestilence and disease………
Storms, and earthquakes, tidal waves, and floods……

Do you not see the sides already lining up? Do you not see the intolerance for kindness among their own brothers and sisters?
There is no forgiveness for these poor people, only juugemental tongue lashing. How dare they show pictures like these? Some of you might actually want to help, and we couldn’t have that… Damn them all, burn the villages, and all their belongings, that’ll get them moving, that’ll solve everything won’t it? These people like living like this. Right???
Why don’t you learn about a subject before you offer solutions? Before you answer the problems of a people who by the way haven’t asked you or me for one damn cent.
I will reiterate one last thing. “As you did for the least of these my people, so you did for me” I wonder if He’s in that slum watching who is doing for His people?

i dont want to live in a slum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4thk gfgyuj y

u r a b****

i am the best better then the rest

hey want to date me

i love you amy

i wanna date you lozza
Lesbionsssss

i wanna date you to wanna have sex

Aslam-o-alikum
hello n hi
to all
it is very tragic moment for Indians as they are waiting their money against Pakistan to destroy but Indian govt should think about her country’s poverty.

hey claudia

Well……well…….well!
Lemme clear this first Dharavi is not the largest slum but only one of the slum. Largest slum is located in ORANGI TOWN, Pakistan.
http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2009/04/05/slums-around-the-world/

Another thing
People living there aren’t lazy at all…..many of them are graduate and working in fine companies ………..whole slum contribute $1billion
And GOV already started to invest >$2 billion and work is expected to finish in 2012

Why are people living in the slums having children? Why can’t their common sense tell them that they can’t feed/clothe/educate them? They can swear, spit and get into any fight, take their kids and beg on the streets. Maybe the mafia in mumbai, forces them to have kids! so that they can earn by making them beg, cut off their hands, legs etc. u know it, most have seen slum dog millionair. Its a true story. The first step to eradicating slums will be to stop making BABIES! How much can the govt do? more buildings are made for their rehab, they sell those flats and stay in slums! its a vicious circle. STOP MAKING BABIES is what we need to tell them! or one child norm like the chinese should help. Its a horrible and helpless state. You can’t get in there alone to help.

this is disgusting these comments are so racial im am flabbergasted leave these poor kids alone.

i agree with that young man he is quite the kid.

yes agree with you beau

i also agree with that amazing young boy

are yes he is amazing will you marry me beau

i agree with all your comments guys i am amazing <3

hi guys beau mitcheners comments have touched my heart , this is gastling !

i agree with beau

beau will you marry me? your amazing

leave the slum people alone i will cry if you dont

WA WA WA IM CRYING

ok everyone i love all your comments keep them coming this is better than facebook !

Some1 gotta take an opportunity here n go film all this staff in Mumbai,then give it 2 National Geographic channel or some media ..then blame the INDIAN GOVNT for this big mess(massive slums).The results will b +ve, govnt will pay many claeners(jobs) etc ,and then dispose the garbage/burn far from the cities.Instead of Indian govnt spending billions of dollars a year from Indian taxes on military just 2 kill n torture poor innocent Kashmiris,they should give jobs as cleaners etc, and free education on these slum dwellers in Mumbai. Damn these pictures are embarassing, I bet Mumbai smells SHIT from miles away!!!(Greetings from Geneva,Switzerland)