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Gosavi Vasti Slum Essay

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Gosavi vasti slum located in Hingane in Pune is divided into two slums one comprising happy colony and the other is Gosavi Vasti. Happy Colony slum is a declared slum while the Gosavi Vasti is not declared. The slum is located in Karvenagar which is one of the older parts of Pune. The irony of the name is striking as you visit the slum with the name Happy Colony.
Draupadi Kushwaha, mother of four is busy attending customers at her vegetable stall as her husband is out for work. She requests us to speak in Hindi as she doesn’t understand Marathi too well. The shop faces the main road and behind is her house of one room and toilet. The room is divided by a plank which creates a separate room for the kids where only they can manage to sit without straining their backs. Right next to the kitchen table is the washing machine and the television is blaring in the background as we talk to her. She says “We shifted here four years back from Nigdi. We have a toilet which was built by an NGO but the drains reverses back into our houses and that is why we don’t use the toilet. We go to the public toilet where we have to give Rs. 40 every month …show more content…

Sarobai is left to cook outside on the stove. The family also has to store water for bathing, washing and for drinking in the limited hours of water that they get from a public tap; people from eight houses line up their utensils to fill and store water every alternate day. There are 32 public taps in the entire area of slum. We don’t notice much water wastage as claimed by Makwal. Dukale’s four kids- two boys and two girls go to a Municipal school nearby. Their landlord stays in the house adjacent to their tiny tin shed house and the rent of the house is inclusive of electricity. The landlord Bahu Deshmukh has eight huts in the slum. Dukawale says that the landlord cuts off the electricity from the meter at 6 am to 6 pm as the main electricity meter is in his

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