This is lazy of me, but I'm going to copy and paste an assignment for my class here. We visited a slum, located in between the embassies of Nigeria and Singapore in a very posh area of Delhi, and we had to do an assignment in which we separated out description, interpretation, and evaluation. It's a slightly odd format, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what the slum was like.
Describe
In between rows of small homes with peeling paint and low roofs, we stand outside of one of the buildings as Abid Ji tells us about government-sponsored health programs for the slums and their various facets. Many of the houses have clothing hanging outside, and some are painted a bright turquoise color. We are at an intersection of two paths, and people walking, biking, and riding motorbikes continue to move past us as we clog the walkway. On either side of the dirty gray concrete paths are small drainage troughs, and we see children defecating into the dirty water and sludge in the gutters. Standing in front of the worn-looking building, I feel sweat rolling down my back and smell a pungent odor that smells like garbage, stagnant water, and dirt. We are told that preschool is in session inside, and we enter the small room in groups of two or three because no more than that will fit. The room is quite dark, and I cannot make out the faces of the children inside. They greet us repeatedly, shouting, “Hello, ma’am! Hello ma’am!” I try to ask in Hindi if I may take a photograph of them, but none of the children respond. I take a picture, and the bright flash lights up the room momentarily. I look at the picture to get an idea of the number of and ages of the children surrounding me, and then show it to them. The children, as seen via the three photos I took, are wide-eyed and unsmiling. There are about 20 kids in the room, mostly seated closely together, though a few are standing in the back right corner. The children continuously greet us out of synch until a teacher tells them to stop. One of the teachers brings me a chair, so I sit for a minute before standing up and saying goodbye to the children and leaving. Outside, I encounter more children who ask to have their picture taken, and I take photos to show them. Most smile and ask for more before I gesture that it is time for me to move on.
Interpret
The children in the small preschool seemed unsure of what to think about the visitors peering into their school. They did not smile for pictures, though they seemed largely satisfied being in the school. Several held up their chalkboards for pictures, seeming to indicate either a desire to show what they were learning or to show what they have. It was unclear how certain young children ended up in the preschool but others did not. As I continued to walk, I saw many other kids who seemed to be of the appropriate preschool age but who were not in school. The teachers, health workers, and NGO employees seemed proud of their work with the slum community, and they seemed happy to show us what was being done to better the lives of slum children. The children also were quite excited to have their pictures taken, I suspect as a novelty and as a way to alter the normal routine of their days. The parents often did not seem to be around, so I would guess that the children are often left alone caring for one another on a day-to-day basis. Having foreign visitors seemed to be quite exciting for them, though some also seemed a little nervous about our presence.
Evaluate
I felt a bit uneasy taking photographs and gawking at the children in the slum. While it was humbling and incredibly educational to visit the slum and interact with the kids I encountered, I felt that I was participating in poverty tourism to a certain extent. I think the way to ensure that I am not simply another wealthy foreigner challenging my sensibilities by walking around an impoverished area is to try to take what I saw and try to formulate potential solutions for the public health issues I encountered. I think a good starting point would be to encourage proper sanitation and waste-removal habits. Although I saw a public toilet facility at one end of the slum, I also encountered people unabashedly urinating and defecting right in front of homes and water sources. To me it is perplexing that someone would choose to do this in what is essentially their living space, but I suppose I am negating the reality of their situation and the lack of space and sanitation facilities. Additionally, I think the children would benefit from a larger, central preschool that all children attended. The slum houses 12,000 people, and I find it hard to believe that all the preschool-age children could fit in that little house even if they all wanted to go to school. I do not know what was being taught to the children, but I also hope that the curriculum both prepares them for later schooling but is also relevant to their living conditions in the slums. In my opinion, learning the alphabet is important, but it is also important to teach things like personal hygiene and nutrition. I suspect these sorts of lessons are taught as well, but I think it would be ideal to emphasize healthy lifestyles and disease-prevention early to help prevent the cycle of poverty and disease (poverty breeds disease, which can create, exacerbate, and maintain poverty).
Addendum: I have a lot of qualms about going on these kinds of tours. I did one in a township called Langa in Cape Town too, and my own ogling of people less fortunate than myself makes me squirm. Here is an interesting article (referencing two of the areas in which I have visited informal settlements) that discusses poverty tourism if you want to read more!
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