The Panditya and Gorcha Bastis lie nestled within the shadows at the southern edge of Kolkata (India). Bright tin houses with rickety, corrugated roofs collapse onto each other; makeshift stairs and ladders connect windows to doors to balconies; and high above, black crows jettison through the clear sky disappearing into the matrix of a resurging city. Over 200,000 people fight within these shantytowns, day and night, to survive, work and develop: a bustling, self-created economic zone for the poor. Like so many other infamous slums across India, the Panditya and Gorcha Bastis are a cliché of Indian hope, resilience and misery, a churning beehive of families involved in manufacturing, recycling and market industries with an annual output estimated to be $100 - 200 million. It is a parallel economy in an old city that had largely been forgotten till recently - a metaphor for the strength within the shadows of India’s rising economy. Since 2009, state governments have tried with mixed success to increase industrial output by developing special economic zones to lure major manufacturers: in this pursuit urban planners have popularised the idea of slum redevelopment as an instrument to spur economic growth, quell crime and tackle social problems that are rife thereabouts. Kolkata now faces this fate, under direction from the controversial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Everything within the Panditya and Gorcha Bastis, both good and bad, will be destroyed within the next two years. 150,000 long-standing residents and settlers are set to be displaced, and an iconic community replaced with commercial high-rises. This project aims to document community life within the slum as a record of its undervalued importance, culture and contribution to the character of the city: the project will continue till the slum’s destruction in 2014. Full series and in colour available here: http://souvid.org/album/fullbook
The Panditya and Gorcha Bastis lie nestled within the shadows at the southern edge of Kolkata (India). Bright tin houses with rickety, corrugated roofs collapse onto each other; makeshift stairs and ladders connect windows to doors to balconies; and high above, black crows jettison through the clear sky disappearing into the matrix of a resurging city. Over 200,000 people fight within these shantytowns, day and night, to survive, work and develop: a bustling, self-created economic zone for the poor. Like so many other infamous slums across India, the Panditya and Gorcha Bastis are a cliché of Indian hope, resilience and misery, a churning beehive of families involved in manufacturing, recycling and market industries with an annual output estimated to be $100 - 200 million. It is a parallel economy in an old city that had largely been forgotten till recently - a metaphor for the strength within the shadows of India’s rising economy.
Since 2009, state governments have tried with mixed success to increase industrial output by developing special economic zones to lure major manufacturers: in this pursuit urban planners have popularised the idea of slum redevelopment as an instrument to spur economic growth, quell crime and tackle social problems that are rife thereabouts. Kolkata now faces this fate, under direction from the controversial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Everything within the Panditya and Gorcha Bastis, both good and bad, will be destroyed within the next two years. 150,000 long-standing residents and settlers are set to be displaced, and an iconic community replaced with commercial high-rises.
This project aims to document community life within the slum as a record of its undervalued importance, culture and contribution to the character of the city: the project will continue till the slum’s destruction in 2014.
Full series and in colour available here: http://souvid.org/album/fullbook