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Image Credit: Twitter/ Tanishka Sodhi, Pixabay (Representational)
Outrage Sparks Over Delhi 'Slum Walking Tour' That Charges Money To Show Lives Of Poor
Writer: Ronit Kumar Singh
A confident and reliable journalist who always desires to toss the unheard voices. I cover politics and governance extensively through stories.
Delhi, 7 Sep 2022 8:06 AM GMT
Editor : Shiva Chaudhary |
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
Creatives : Ronit Kumar Singh
A confident and reliable journalist who always desires to toss the unheard voices. I cover politics and governance extensively through stories.
The idea of poverty tourism has always been criticised as it exploits the life of people living in poverty. Recently, a company in Delhi was seen facilitating such tourism and charging Rs 1,800 for the same, which sparked outrage.
We live in a world that is business driven and profit-centric, no matter what it takes. The emergence of poverty tourism is a similar example that can be witnessed in today's era and has faced wider criticism, but it still happens for someone's interest. Mainly through the slums tour, the lives of the poor are romanticised and exploited for profit. Today's popular culture (Slumdog Millionaire) also showcases a similar situation where poverty in slums is distorted for a foreign audience.
Recently, a company in the national capital was seen organising a similar slum tour by charging Rs 1,800 from interested tourists for showing the lives of the poor, reported News18. The screen grab of the website surfaced across social media platforms and sparked outrage. It is to be noted that only a few organisations that organise such tours invest part of their revenue in the development project of a particular slum through NGOs or other mediums.
Idea To Sell Poverty
The efforts to draw visitors to the slum tour have already initiated a broader conversation among the netizens. Such a tour has existed in the Indian business community for a long time. It's very much prevalent in parts of Delhi slums and Mumbai's Dharavi slums, popularised more by the popular culture.
By organising slum tours, the people think that companies are only selling the idea of poverty to the tourists. Also, it dramatically exploits the personal life of people living in those slums. It is prominent that the needy people don't highlight their problems as they live in the hope of receiving some opportunities from the tourists which will earn them some money. But the netizens have gone deep in the conversation and raised several points regarding the emergence of the slums tour.
Many people took to Twitter and mentioned that capitalism is also making money out of poverty. Whereas some people termed such tour plans as 'Poverty on Sale.' Few discussed that such tours are not being organised for the first time as it's a year-old practice, prevalent mainly in the slums of Mumbai and Delhi.
The mechanism of objectifying people in poverty for the entertainment of the privileged class has now become a centre of discussion among netizens. majorly, people were shocked after seeing such tour plans being organised in today's world, which is seeking development opportunities.
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