Poverty Tours

Today's (23 May 2012) CNN webpage features an article entitled Poverty Tours: A Learning Experience or Simply Gawking?

See http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/22/travel...html?hpt=hp_c2

The article debates "slum tourism" particularly via the Saalam Baalak Trust in New Delhi.

The CNN author states that the tours are "primarily to show the positive side of the slums and break down negative stereotypes about its people and residents who occupy cramped huts in unending stretches of squalor. That seems like a noble cause, but then I got to thinking about how it might feel to be a slum dweller coming face to face with a wealthy visitor gawking at me as though I were an animal in a zoo. There lies the debate over such tours."

Personally, I have never participated in one of these "slum tours", but I have had several friends who have encouraged me to do so as the tour changed their lives in meaningful ways. I'm particularly interested in the reputation of the Saalam Baalak Trust as it seems to be a frequently cited example of slum tourism.

The CNN article closes with the question: "What do you think about the idea of poverty tourism?"

I pose the same question to our IM community.

If nothing else they serve to deconstruct the poverty = laziness equation. Done well they can open eyes to some real issues that surround these slums, for instance it is not always for the lack of money that people live in slums, They do for reason of fraternity, because of a building project and because there is a massive housing shortage in many India cities.

I know someone who runs tours to Dharvi in Mumbai, and I'm reliably informed there is much more to greet the eye than a glimpse or relative poverty.
There are cottage industries, entrepreneurship and a upkeep of festivals and ritual from Villages all around India, who's people have come to seek a better life in Mumbai..

There is no right or wrong in this debate. Morality or immorality of going to "see" or "study" the lives of the poor. The arguments are as old as ever. It is an extension of the debate in the Developmental field. The worldviews are formed based on ideological framework one subscribes to. Should one observe or should one intervene gingerly ?


If it is poverty that one is interested in, I doubt someone from Philly, or Chicago, or Twin Cities would be eager to see how homeless live in TenderLoin district, or families made homeless by repoman in Florida survive, or squatters in abandoned burnt out shell of structures in the edges of St. Louis, or the post katrina New Orleans ?

Two blocks from the subway in the Bronx or the public housing in Bed-Sty in Brooklyn is an urban malaise which even many a brave NooYorkers fear to venture into. However the walking tours in Cambodia, Kenya, Egypt are safer in the way a safari in an enclosed jeep are in Tanzania or South Africa. Such tours to many are a safer version of the venture into the "wrong side of the tracks"; This is something one would not do back home.

The Earthquake in Haiti and relief effort resurrected tangentially, the need to "do something" if nothing substantial; to just take orphans or infants to be placed in foster care.

The imagery of slums, powerful as they seem, are grounded in makeshift subsistent shelter. Adhoc housing, makeshift neighborhoods are, by law, and by design nonexistent in most of Urban US, or for that matter in UK, or Canada etc.. We do not call it slums, it is relabeled reimaged as depressed area, or urban decay just like our tooth decays due to neglect, or an immigrant ghetto; invoking am imagery of fear, loathing and otherness !!

Slums are an attraction to cultures that needs visual imagery to go along with their perceptions. An ordered set.

The other side of the coin is - Redemption, and uplifting the poor masses. Much of it grounded in a charitable notion of saving souls from poverty. The pedagogical argument of this side is that, we the do-gooders need to be sensitized, and prepared to further carry on the good work of the church/parish.

Ever present under the surface, bubbling is a political and religious belief that somehow an expedition to sub-saharan africa, or Vietnam, or "safe non violent" poor region is eventually going to be educational. We glaze over, and block out the hunger, poverty and despair right under our nose, a cognitive dissonance.

So what is it that we are going to see for ourselves in Dharavi or Sao Paulo, that is not already not known through various other means ? or not at display nearer home ?
Do tour groups on a half a day excursion, seem better for the community under display, or is a solo gringo social anthropologist, or a sociologist living and working two years "in the field" earning his or her Ph.D, to enhance the understanding and eventual uplifting of the people in the petri dish ?

Is an NGO working in the favelas conducting slum tourism to better the lives of hungry malnourished children more appropriate than say, the Charity of Endless Hope's effort to place the same child in adopted home in Suburb of Oslo where a childless couple will raise it appropriately ?

The Irony of it all is so stark and sad - Slum n Poverty & Soft Porn**

Making the world safer** for tourists and soccer crazed**pub boys alike !

[** WARNING: Unsuitable for under aged and pious spiritual enlightenment and soul cleaning seekers of all shape and color]

Yeah...

Myself i've always seen in India, on the poor side of the tracks, industriousness, ingenuity, music, hospitality and so on, never a dull moment in public.

Little things go a long way, and on the whole, from what slums one knows that is, folks there have their pride and exist against insurmountable odds of corruption and usually zero municipal services. Change agents are useful, you never know when one will come along, or be inspired from within the slum community because of external interaction. Anything anyone can do to motivate partnerships is usually of common benefit. And i've seen through building partnerships with Dalit pig keepers and Brahmin priests in Vrindavan, projects get established and sustained that delivered development/environmental benefits to all the residents of town.

You could always read Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers about one of the Mumbai slums.

Maybe Interaction, non-virtual communication, handshakes, smiles, nods of the head..

why not? once it's bootlegged and on the street

In the word of Charlie Watts, Sorry I didn't understand any of that but I bet you want to tell me again"

Poverty tours is not a new thing to me, i mean the organised tour side of things is, but i can only think that in India any regularised sort of visit will only be seen as an opportunity, at least by some and a lot of little kids.. was spooked before going into Rio favela's only because everyone said they'll pull a gun?

had employed this manager once in this Vrindavan NGO. i was chatting up a guy up an alley who had a dog, obviously liked dogs, something in common, off we go - Indian manager rushed up and tried to pull me out saying i was out of my depth. No, you are, on your bike son...

As they say.... Read again Bite size at a time

Thanks for all the thoughtful feedback. Katherine Boos book is excellent. I'm about 2/3 through it. Although it takes place in a slum, it teaches you much about India. For example, I never knew why people pay hijras to leave them alone (read the book).

I think that most westerners don't fully comprehend that "slums" are fully functioning communities. Boos book gives a glimpse into the order (although not in western terms) in the disorder. She also brings an interesting and thoughtful perspective to the pervasive role of corruption in the lives of all Indians especially the poorest.

I highly recommend Boo's book.

Half of Mumbai's residents live in conditions that we Americans would call a slum. If half the city struggles for basic resources, how is there any moral quandary about visiting a slum? How is it poverty porn? If you confine your visit in Mumbai to greater Colaba or Bandra, aren't you indulging in wealth porn?

I did the Dharavi Slum tour with Reality Tours in February. http://realitytoursandtravel.com/slumtours.html

I didn't see anything in the tour that I hadn't seen in Kevin McCloud's documentary of a couple of years back; and I saw a few more positive things.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-to-India.html

About one-half of Mumbai’s population live in slums, and at 1.5 square kilometres, Dharavi has just over one million residents. The first thing you need to do is forget English tenement slums you have read about in history lessons. Slum in this sense means homes built on government land, probably illegally. The oldest home dates to 1840. Dharavi is like most other Indian villages I saw.

There is a video cinema, a supermarket of sorts, fresh fruit stalls, fresh fruit juice stalls, and all manner of businesses. There are doctors and pharmacies, and a public hospital and a private hospital. Whilst less than 1% have their own toilet, there are a number of community toilets throughout the slum. There were no beggars to be seen during my visit.

There were women making and drying popadoms, and a bakery making puff pastry which they export to Afghanistan.

There was all manner of plastic recycling, and vegetable oil can recycling, and paint can recycling, and people making clay pots. I visited the kindergarten and the community centre that Reality Tours funds.

As for the poverty tourism debate: http://realitytoursandtravel.com/faqs.html#C1

I don't think the West has anything to learn from Dharavi as a success story - but maybe India, or other 'developing' nations do.

Why not? I didn't even realize that people go to India for 'Spiritual Tourism' - before my first few visits. India is not just a sightseeing, shop & giggle destination. It has many curiosities that attract many different minds.

What an interesting post...I just read Big Texan's and Nyanck's and just going to comment. I went to Dhuravi with no preconceptions or projections at all. I just went to see Dharavi.

What I mean by this is that: 1) personally, I never equated "slum" with laziness or "urban malaise" and 2) I didn't expect that it would "change my life" or that I would in some way be uplifted or made to feel "safe" because I was exempt from this way of life.

I did wonder if it was satisfying some vicarious need...well, maybe.

What I did find was, as Big Texan said, an industrious community, preserving a lot of its heritage. I don't kid myself that terrible things have not happened. A lot of people who don't come to India probably have Dharavi as a model for what they think India is. I know it is a lot more than that, after being in the country for six months. But it is definitely part of it. In some ways it is very inspiring. These people have accomplished much despite hardship.

For a more detailed account of the history and life in Dharavi, I bought and read "Rediscovering Dharavi" by Kalpana Sharma.