Chennai shanty Dwellers and the Supportive NGOs

Chennai is the 4th largest city of India. It was known as Madras during the British era and is famed by the exceptional and distinctive Madras curry still named like that at present. The city prides itself of expansive beaches, a magnificent Marina, splendid Temples and up to date Universities, Cultural centers and more. The flip side is that 25 percent of Chennai’s population lives in the slums.

Relating to the Census of India, the designation of a slum is "a compact area of at least 300 in population or about 60-70 households of poorly built, congested informal dwellings in an unhygienic environment typically with scarce infrastructure and missing proper sanitation and drinking water facilities." More than 30% of the homes in these slums have no drainage systems. These folks are exposed to waterborne disorders like Malaria due to the lack of civic amenities. The residents of slums are perpetually gripped in the fear of destruction of their homes due to urban development activities.

The slums are commonly huts built with materials like plastic or tin sheets in a random manner without suitable access, congested and overcrowded. The need of educational, health and recreational facilities in the slums make their lives inferior, plunging them into evils like unemployment, crime, and drug and alcohol abuse. The women and children are the worst affected and they are mostly deprived of the essential necessities of life.

There have been endless efforts and developmental work by the government and voluntary service by Non-profit organizations and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) to meet the growing needs of the ever mounting slum people. These efforts directed by various welfare schemes are aimed at producing awareness about hygiene, and to educate them about their civil liberties and on how to enhance their lives.

Here are a few NGOs that are involved in helping the slum populations to lessen poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.
ANEW (anewindia.org) This is an association for Non-Traditional Employment for Women. ANEW is a non-profit charitable organization centered at Chennai. It was established with a mission to enrich the socio-economic status of young, underprivileged women by empowering them with self confidence and mandatory skills to enable them to become self-supporting and contribute to family and society. ANEW is committed to helping young women gain access to practicable job skills and good paying full time jobs. By and large, employment choices for women from underprivileged families in India are limited to "traditional" jobs in agriculture and low-skilled handicraft employment. In many cases these women are exploited or underemployed. Over the last few years ANEW has provided women of the underprivileged section of society with the training mandatory to become home nurses, computer operators, car drivers and Auto rickshaw drivers.
Karunakarya (Karunakarya.org) has been doing worthy work helping slum dwellers of Chennai (formerly Madras) to integrate into society. Karunakarya motivates and makes it possible for children to secure admission to state run schools, provides various after school courses and seeks to equip young people in acquiring professional training. Karunakarya supports the poorest of the poor in slums and villages with health aid and relief. They also offer awareness programs for slum-dwellers where they hear about their civil liberties and develop problem solving skills. Their tactics are meant to enrich and empower the poorest in society so they can take accountability for locating solutions to the tribulations in their own communities.

We salute these NGO’s for their generous and valuable contribution to the future of generations to come. It is said that once the cycle of poverty is destroyed it never again returns

Article Source: http://www.newsarticlessite.com

anewindia.org and Karunakarya.org This article is sponsored by Peachtree Ink, the best place online for Generic ink cartridges

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