It is understandable that every city has its sewers infested by scumbags who eventually spread the plague. What is not acceptable is the attempt to sweep the dirt under the carpet and pretend like everything’s fine. Let’s not choose to be ignorant when the truth glares at us. Let’s get uncomfortable.
1. Calcutta
The peace-loving, culturally enriched city of Bhadroloks has quite an ugly side – Sonagachi, the largest red light district in Asia. The existence of this Godforsaken area is an open secret and the need to address to the carnal desires of humans have led to an agreement to let the area be.
The hinterland of buying and selling human flesh in broad daylight earns Bengal the crown of the being the human trafficking hub of the country. AÂ 2012 report showed 14,000 adults and children going missing from the state – most of them believed to be devoured by the sex market. Sexual abuse of minors is a regular sight in those streets – something, the rest of the city conveniently overlooks.
2. Delhi
The pathetic irony lies in the statement that Delhi hai Dilwalon ki (Delhi is for those with a heart). Continuing to remain as the rape capital of India, strengthening its rights to be so after the 16 December incident, Delhi is is one of the worst place for a woman to live in but that’s old news.
If there’s something that can get dirtier than the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh on that night, it’d would be the mis-allocation of the Nirbhaya Fund, a measure to ensure women’s safety in the capital. An amount of Rs 3000 crore of the fund has still remained utilized. It’s hard to say if the fund has been “laying idle” or simply blown up.
3. Bangalore
The lovely city of Bangalore boasts of its nightlife, the posh localities, and everything hip and happening. However, with all that apparent prosperity, you’d know there is socio-economic dump-yard somewhere near. Well, to achieve the foreign like feel of the city, the officials proposed a drive to clear Bangalore off all beggars.
The way the beggars were rehabilitated was nothing less than a concentration camp which resulted in the death of 264 of innocent lives – just to keep Bangalore beautiful. Nirashrithara Parihara Kendra, the rehabilitation center had bodies lying for three days in the dormitories before they were discovered – they were better off asking for alms in the streets.
4. Chennai
When the city was facing the devastating floods in December, 2015, some people where trying to make the most of it. While robbers mugged people carrying relief funds and sold them off to shops who in turn sold them at a premium, the AIADMK tied banners of Amma to the vehicles coming in with relief from Karnataka.
However, the worst part is that the relief program was subject to caste based discrimination as well. Allegedly, access to clean water was blocked and the relief programs remained concentrated on the upper caste areas as well.
5. Mumbai
In the midst of the glitz and glamour of Mumbai, often the hard facts are conveniently overlooked. If there’s something that has been eating up the city like termites, it’s the growing menace of the land mafia. Not that it hasn’t gone protested but there have been instances such as an activist being stripped and beaten up until she fell unconscious in broad daylight in Malwani.
Several reports have indicated that majority of Mumbai slums are under the grip of the land mafia who act as slumlords, occupying government land by letting thousands of slum dwellers live in the areas. However, these slums can be demolished at the blink of an eyelid if the slumlord sniffs profit and thousands lose their home overnight.Â
6. Hyderabad
Hyderabad’s politics has shamed the city once again when the as the suicide of PhD scholar, Rohit Vermulla indicated a protest to the discrimination against Dalits. Â Students who raised their voice on the issue were beaten up, molested and kept locked inside the campus with no access to food or electricity. Neither did the media have any access to the campus.
The professors, supporting the students implored the assailants question them instead of beating them up but were paid no heed. Â 3500 students had been sleeping hungry, thirsty and without electricity, locked down inside the University campus.
7. Ahmadabad
Although, Gujarat is supposed to be one of the most developed states of the country, Ahmadabad is no place for the poor. The Ahmadabad slums are some of the worst poverty stricken areas of the country with most people still struggling for clean water and electricity. Daily wage earners fall sick under such adverse conditions, costing them dearly as it reduces their working days.
10,000 slum dwellers were asked to relocated, their houses being sold off to private developers for the beautification project of the Sabarmati river. About 2500 families living in the slums, believed to be the remains of the 20,000 families who found shelter in these areas during the 2002 riots were asked to evacuate in 2013 without any promise of rehabilitation for the sake of Gujarat’s development.