The video “Slum Cities: A Shifting World” is among the most viewed films on YouTube, given its ability to provide real information regarding some of the world’s largest slums. Fundamentally, the film looks at the move of masses from the rural settings to urban centres and the manner in which such cities deal with the transitions. Directed by CBC News Canada, the film “Slum Cities: A Shifting World” provides a report of two mega slums; the Dharavi in India, and another one in Rio de Janeiro. As noted in the film, millions of people across the world often leave the countryside, with firm hopes to get the better life in the urban city. However, the majority of the moving masses often end up living in slums. While people move without the consent of the city, it is noticeable in the Slum Cities: A Shifting World video that the city slums are ill-prepared to support this expanding population. Within the film, the narrator asserts that the United Nations estimates that about 40 percent of the globe’s population will be transformed into slum dwellers by the year 2020. On a wider note, the Slum Cities: A Shifting World, as a program, component of the daily life of the people residing in slums in Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro in continental Asia and South America.
Considerable footages from inside the slums depict significant illegal and the severity of the global human issue. On various occasions, the viewers of Slum Cities: A Shifting World film gain the understanding about key aspects of housing, health, and the population issues that our global community faces. Taking the instance of the Dharavi slums in the outcast of Mumbai, the Indian government plans to demolish the slums and replace it with various housing community initiatives such as the driving range, and sports museum. While it is evident that the Dharavi slums has experienced and has continued facing massive influx by movement of people deeper into them, the slum dwellers share something with individuals caught in political issues such as the wars, where their infrastructures have been destroyed beyond the capacity to be retrieved. In this case, therefore, footages in the film “Slum Cities: A Shifting World” demonstrate that the slum dwellers have to scrounge and improvise with an aim of acquiring basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and heat. As noted, they have to be inventive and resilient to maximize their ability to survive in these environments.
A fundamental aspect observable in the Slum Cities: A Shifting World from miles away is challenges encountered by the slum residents in Dharavi, which appears as manifolds. Some of the constraints depicted include the deplorable living conditions, high crime rate, poor sanitation and hygiene, high mortality rate, and important infectious diseases, and low level of education. The Indian government deems it suitable to solve the situation in the most convenient way, thereby facing the issue of a slum. This is depicted in the film Slum Cities: A Shifting World in the interview between the narrators Avril Benoit and the lead project developer in Dharavi, Mukesh Mehta. In the interview, Avril Benoit asks Mukesh about his thoughts about the building over the slums and its effects on the residents. As a response, Mukesh asserts that he believes that there are significant amounts of talents in the incorporates and goes deep into the lives and homes of some of the poorest citizens living in the slum cities of Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro in India and Brazil respectively. Within the slum, the dwellers encounter constant evictions, widespread of diseases due to the large population, extreme criminal activities such as drug dealing as well as the armed gangsters.
All these activities form an integral part of the slums, and the fact that they are poor does not mean that they have limited capabilities and therefore sees no reason as to why the slum residents could not involve themselves in golf and football sports. In this manner, the viewers of Slum Cities: A Shifting World can observe the kind of disregard which is common among those living in slums and therefore propels considerable options on the manner in which the residents in slums areas are perceived and treated by the legal government policies, and some of the issues surrounding such official government policies include forced eviction from the slums to pave way for infrastructural developments. Slum Cities: A Shifting World film also provides a depiction of the issues and challenges faced in the Rio’s slums. For example, the narrator, Avril Benoit identifies the spread of diseases, the rise in crime rates, and massive problems of water and sanitation as some of the significant and noticeable issues in the city slums.
I think the film “Slum Cities: A Shifting World” stands out among some of many videos that offer information about modern, but slowly addressed issues in human society. While it is evident that many governments may see it necessary to develop the slums into improvised regions, the needs of slums dwellers should be given priority, thus improving their livelihoods. The narrator, Avril Benoit, is keen to demonstrate and mention some of the current challenges faced by poor human beings in their lives. In this case, viewers are able to understand some of the causes and the reasons for the existence of slums, as depicted in the Slum Cities: A Shifting World film. The challenges encompass those that are massively related to high population growth rate within a short period of time. For instance, the Dharavi slum supports more than a million dwellers, despite being only 2 Kilometres long. As viewers, we are enlightened to observe rapid spread of diseases due to water and sanitation problems, high crime rates, and other anti-social practices. All these occur because the slums are ill-prepared to support such big number of people.
In the same way, we are placed at positions to develop the needs of lobbying various stakeholders and other government agencies to initiate and participate in the programs that improve the lives of the slums dwellers, not only in India and Rio de Janeiro, but also in other parts of the world. Some of these programs include provision of clean water and sanitation, better medical care, adequate housing, sufficient security and increased employment to prevent young and unemployed individuals from engaging in various malpractices that would otherwise subject them to serious risks that would otherwise ruin their lives. Finally, the audience should resent the forceful eviction of slum dwellers into unknown regions by the government, for the purposes of infrastructural development.
Work cited
Rankin, Eric, and Avril Benoit. Slum Cities: A Shifting World. Princeton, N.J: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2007.
