Our life is affected by the poor housing in our slum. It has adverse impact on our education, health and growth,stated Sasmita Mohanty, a Humara Bachpan Child Club member from Salia Sahi on the World Habitat Day on Monday.
Sasmita, Debashish Pani, Barsharani Bhuyan and all other club members celebrated the day at the Vivekananda Sikhya Kendra, Salia Sahi. The situations of the slums in the Sate are critical.
As per the 2011 Census, the 32.7 per cent of the State’s slum population lives in semi-permanent or temporary houses where they face evacuation on regular basis. As many as 49.8 per cent of the slum households use grass wood, thatch, metal, asbestos sheets as material for roof and 28 per cent have mud walls. Only 38 per cent of the houses are in ‘good’ condition according to the Census. In the State, about 15 per cent of children live in slums.
A massive 40 per cent of urban households in the State do not have access to a latrine and another 11 per cent share latrines with others.
The Census reveals that 39 per cent of the slum households have a one-room dwelling and 34 per cent have two rooms. An overwhelming 49.6 per cent of the households do not have any kind bathing facility and about 1.7 lakh households (48.33%) or 8.5 lakh people of the slums defecate in the open. And 53.9 per cent of the households have no drainage connectivity for wastewater
Better housing always adds value to early childhood care. However, the situations in slums in terms of housing and living condition are among the poorest in Bhubaneswar.
Recently, the Chief Minister assured better housing in the city while laying the foundation-stone of two projects under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) in the Mahisikhal and Patharbandha slums of the city.
But National Campaign Coordinator of Humara Bachpan Preeti Prada said, “Things won’t change till we consider children as beneficiary of all urban governance policies. The issue of better living condition for children should be given priority.”