Excerpt: Through an initiative by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and the hard work of the slum children, there has been a visible but silent transformation of the area not only in physical terms, but also in its economic and cultural aspects.
“Nobody likes to be in kachrapur or malbapur (towns of garbage and debris). Safaipur (clean-town) is the destination of our train,” 11-year-old Abbas told IANS, referring to “safai express”, one of the popular games that kids here play every week.
The sanitation drive in the form of a game was introduced to them by volunteers of AKTC’s Nizamuddin Basti Urban Renewal Initiative. While the initiative started in 2007, it had to be put on hold due to construction of the Barapullah Flyover, and resumed in 2012.
“All this was so dirty earlier — full of garbage and mosquitoes. The waste from houses used to be directly dumped here,” said Abbas. “Now it is clean. We come here to play hide-and-seek, ice-water, gilli-danda, cricket and other games,” he said, looking proudly at the green patch of land.
The little boy feels that the place should be even more clean and the residents should make more efforts.
Source: IANS – via Business Standard
| All related |
|---|
|
|
Ismailimail 