Roadside bathing

For every person using his own place to bath, there must be several who perforce bath in the open. Nowhere is the picture so disarmingly vivid than in Kolkata where roadside bathing is a common scene to come across.

This brings into focus the other reality. There are many slums in the city, and people live there without the facility of adequate sanitation and proper sewerage. Many would argue that the slums occupy invaluable space in the city, and are sort of blot on the city’s image.

If that is true, what is also a fact that the slum-dwellers are living there for several decades, and so it is expected that the government will arrange alternative accommodation for them before removing the slums.

To address the issue the government at the center has undertaken the project called Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) to relocate slum-dwellers who live below the poverty line. The project will see equal participation by respective state governments.

In Kolkata too several schemes have been started, though it remains to be seen how long it takes to bring about a visible change in the way the slum-people live.

Meanwhile, here are 2 snaps of roadside bathing in the city.