# Introduction slum is a compact area of overcrowded populations, poorly built congested dwelling condition, unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities. Living conditions in slums have a direct impact on people"s health. One of the major challenges that face urban planners globally is the proliferation of slums in urban areas and the host of health hazards that they bring along with their wake. However, the prolific spread of slums has been a rampant problem in urban areas worldwide. The living conditions in slums are usually unhygienic and contrary to all norms of planned urban growth. Human development and improvement in the quality of life is the ultimate objective of all planning programmes leading to higher economic and social development. There exists a very strong linkage between attaining economic prosperity and enriching the quality of life, which is reflected in the social indicators of health, longevity, literacy and environmental sustainability. These indicators serve as valuable inputs for developing suitable policy initiatives. Present study is a humble attempt to explore the environmental scenario of Raipur city-capital of Chhattisgarh. It is really a challenge for the urban planners to achieve the sustainable development. In true sense, environment development with progressive transformation of economy and society with its major objectives lie in the satisfaction of human needs and aspirations. In India, economic development during the last five decades has resulted in a little increase in average per capita income. There is no hesitation that living conditions have improved everywhere, even in the most backward places. Yet a large section of people have remained poor. There is observable deterioration in the physical environment and quality of life in the urban sectors caused by widening crack between demand and supply of necessary services and infrastructural facilities. The growth of slum is a sign of urban poverty as the greater part of urban poor reside in the slums. It has become vital to raise the quality of life by creating conditions conductive to the achievement of crucial objectives in terms of shelter, medical attention, sanitation, education. This study is very much significant, especially in the light of the magnitude of the slum problems in the country. Rapid slumification due to urbanization is most crucial problem for the policy makers and urban planners. In this regards government has initiated several developmental programmes for the betterment of social ill-being 1 . A descriptive approach to the study of slum settlements involves understanding the interrelationship between their constituent elements at a certain period of time. The study of the physical form and structure of slum is the study of urban sociology. Why is such a study significant? The urban way of the city influences behavioral, economic and social processes within it (Vance, 1990) 2 . Thus, the study of slum settlements has an encompassing view of all the activities it supports. This research is a descriptive research and aspires to contribute to basic research in sociology. The literature review shows that a specific study of slums of Raipur has not been previously documented. Therefore, this study will augment existing knowledge about social configurations of slum dwellers of this city. An interpretation of the emerging social pattern reveals something of the social character of the city. The study of urban slums also serves as a framework for further research. Formation of Raipur as the capital of newly born state Chhattisgarh in the threshold of this century has got immense importance in the map of our country. The accelerated inward migration to the city caused unplanned slum formations which bring about far-reaching consequences. Several developmental programmes have been started and thousands of employment opportunities have been generated skilled and unskilled both. People have started migration from the neighbor states. This caused overcrowding the city and the consequence is more development of slums. Before formation of capital city Raipur has many slums and those were neglected but now huge money is invested to renovate the slums in various ways. So the study will reveal the overall social development of slums which is taking place in recent times since its emergence as capital of Chhattisgarh. It is a natural fact that along with the economic growth slums will continue to exist. # II. # Methodology The data have been collected from secondary and primary sources. # III. # Sample Size The study was conducted on slums of the capital city of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, India. Therefore the social development that has the potential to become a tool for the self-conscious progress of the collective and its members must limit its scope to certain horizons; otherwise, it may lose its force of application. The current effort limits its inquiry to the origins, principles, powers, forces and processes of society"s upward directional movement from lesser to greater levels of energy, efficiency, quality, productivity, complexity, comprehension, creativity, enjoyment and accomplishment--social development 3 . # IV. Socio-Economic Background of the Slum Dwellers This chapter is mainly concerned with the study of the following socio-economic characteristics of the respondents: namely age, sex, caste, religion, language, education, marital status, occupational status and monthly income of the respondents. The first part of the chapter consists of the general information of the respondents and second part consists of family background and their socio-economic status. The sample size for the present study is three hundred (300) slum dwellers of Raipur city. From the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents a comprehensive picture can be drawn on their slum life. Details of the analysis are presented bellow. The socio-economic status is an indicator of social class. Each profession has certain prestige and forms a group of social class. Variables such as income and education are closely correlated, and act as the socio-economic indicators. Here an attempt is made to understand the slum life in general. # a) General Information Of Respondents According to the information collected from three hundred respondents about their age, four persons belong to 14 years group, 290 persons belong to 15 -59 years age category and six persons are found to lay the category of 60 years and above. The sex composition of the respondents is almost same in which male is 52.33% and female is 47.66%. The caste as a social stratification plays predominant role in our social life; it helps us to understand the social fabric. In the present study 41.33% people belong to general caste where as 34% belong to SC (Schedule Caste) and 11.66% ST (Schedule Tribe) and 13% belong to OBC (Other Backward Class). Most of the ST people are dwelling here for a long time. Another important aspect of our social life is religion. It has been observed that 63.33% people belong to Hindu religion. 18.66% are the followers of Muslim religion and 8% respondents are Christian. During the field work it is noticed that 8% people have been converted to Christianity from other religion. Rest 10% people belong to other religion such as Sikhism, Jainism etc. All respondents can speak Hindi fluently and at the same time they know their mother tongue also. 68.33% respondents" mother tongue is Hindi, and 21.66% speak Oriya at home. While communicating within their own community 3.33% respondents speak Telegu. Remaining persons speak other languages like Bengali, Marathi, and Tamil etc. Here one remarkable phenomenon is noted that maximum people other than Hindi speaking are residing in these slums from 2nd or 3rd generations. It is very encouraging that 92% people are literate. They can read and write. In the present study it has been observed that 98% respondents are married and 2% respondents are widow. Present study also shows that 65.66% respondents are working or acting as money earner. But 34.34% respondents are not working because their family member earns. 1.66% respondents" monthly income is up to Rs.1000. But 28% respondents earn money in between Rs.1001-Rs. 2000, 17.33% respondents monthly income lie in between Rs.2001-Rs. 5000, where as 19.66% earn more than Rs. 5000. The paper also consists of the information related to family background of the respondents, size of the family, age of the family members, and marital status of the family members, age of marriage, educational level, occupation and income of the family members. Children"s food habit and health status are directed by household"s socio-economic condition. Also, children are susceptible to environmental sanitation while they are found most of the time playing around or spending outside environment which is very unhygienic. Socio-economic factors like income, expenditure and education are analyzed to depict households" ability and knowledge about dietary practice and prevalence of disease occurrence among children. From the table 5 it has been observed that 48.08% population is unmarried. 49.97% population is married with 1.95% widows. Divorce or separated cases has not been found. The widows generally stay with their married daughter and with the family of sons. Majority of the families stay in nuclear family as has been observed from the field. In comparison with tables 5.4 and 5.5 it is clear that 37.37% females are educated and 24.23% females are married. ( ) # C Source : Personal Survey-2012 Table 7 shows that 22.72% females are married under 18 years where as 2.74% males married underage. In between age of 19-21 years 26.21% people are married. But notable subject is that 43.27% males are married beyond 22 years and percentage of female is 5.07. Through analysis of the above table it is seen that till date the slum people use to practice child marriage. It is also seen from this table that very few married males are found under age because the parents don"t encourage marriage before employment. Although 4.05% male in the age group of 19-21 years are married. Maximum males go for marriage after 22 years of age and only few females are noted in this regard. Most of the persons answered that they don"t want to keep young daughter unmarried because of many societal and economical reasons. They think keeping unmarried daughter at home is risky due to many reasons now a day. The society of slum is conservative more often preservative. As average the income of the family is not high some of the girls are forced to marry. Till now in slum areas male children are more acceptable than daughter and they are considered as lucky to the family. Sometimes early marriage leads to innumerable health problems in brides, including the increase in unwanted and terminated pregnancies, early sterilizations, miscarriages, stillbirths, high infant mortality and these are interrelated issues with the age of marriage which has been discussed in through the following tables. All four slums reflects more or less same picture in this regard. The present research reveals the monthly income of the respondents or his/her family members which is closely connected with their quality of the life. High income creates better standard of living. From the above table (8) it is seen that 1.66% family earns up to Rs.1000 per month. 28% family earns in between Rs.1001-2000 per month. Maximum family (50.67%) earns 2001-5000 per month. And 19.67% earns above Rs.5000 in a month. In the present study, it is seen that only few business persons earn above highest category. Maximum people involve in small informal service sectors they can"t earn much money as in the market cheap labour is available. So it can be seen that having with uncertainty in life in respect to income sometime with lack of skilled knowledge the slum dwellers are forced to take low wage jobs. Here a vicious cycle of poverty can be seen grabbing destitute people. Males in slums have inadequate earning skills leading to low incomes and an inability to provide adequate resources for household expenses. This leads to frustration, which is often expressed through escapism in addiction of various types. The youth are frustrated, as they do not have the opportunities that their better-off peers have. This results in a cynical and diffident attitude, which becomes a handicap during adulthood. A major portion of households" income is spent on food items following expenditure on nonfood items and house rent. Survey data reveal that a major share of their income is spent on food. Here through present study the relationship between socio-economic status and nutritional status can be understood. Some of these queries show a strong relationship between nutritional status and several measures of income. Relationships among income, age and food consumption have also been widely demonstrated. Facts relating to income, age and food pattern on the slum population are lacking, especially on low socio-economic groups. The present investigation through this table examines income pattern of slum dwellers from four slums. Those families earn more than Rs.5000 a month it must be noted that many cases found where more than one person is money earner. Gandhinagar slum has the highest number people with high income whereas Kota Basti has the lowest position in this regard. Actually immediate after inception of Raipur as a capital city, commercial and industrial activities needed cheap labor in the city. Jobs created by the economic growth, attracted many people for their livelihood. Diverse job with diverse wage rate created wide range income groups. Majority of the slum dwellers lack required skills for the skilled jobs. They possess skills that do not have any significant market in the city. Unscrupulous companies taking advantages of the ignorance of slum residents and often cheat them. The banking in the formal sector does not welcome disbursement of small loan amounts to the slum residents, as that is quite expensive for these organizations. Hence, the slum residents are forced to borrow loan from moneylenders. Table no 8 shows that 57.99% respondents are nonworking population. Among the working people 7.23% involves in service, 13.59% respondents do business, 9.98% respondents are labourer, 10.7% people involve in other activities such as housekeeping or home servant etc. Only .51% child labour can be seen. Raipur"s slums are basically traditional slum that"s why the child labour cases are very little. Almost 20% jobs are done by unskilled persons. They involve in house related jobs, rickshaw pulling, driving etc. Through this study it is felt that the slum dwellers require learning new skills, which require long-term investment of time and resources, which they do not have. Their only option remains is getting engaged in occupations that are unskilled and menial, and where the incomes are low. These are also casual jobs. Irregularity of employment and no address of employment disqualify most of them from accessing credit for small businesses. V. # Concluding Remarks From the above discussion comprehensive information is noted about the respondents and their family members. Slum communities as a smaller part of socio-economic activities of Raipur have direct impact of it on their social life. In the beginning information about the respondents in details is received. In the second part a brief account of family background is noted. The study shows that how slum life is influencing to the dweller"s daily life. Good numbers of literacy are noted among the young generation and encouraging sex ratio can easily be seen. While noting the caste composition in slum areas, general caste is dominating followed by Scheduled Caste. Few cases of early marriage are noted. The slum dwellers" economic condition is not sufficiently improved. Somehow they are being exploited overtly or covertly. The people of the slum have diversified nature of occupations, such as business, service in informal sectors, driving, home service etc. In the present study it is seen that 41.33% people belong to general caste where as 34% people belong to SC and 11.66% ST and 13% belong to OBC. Most of the ST people are dwelling here for a long time. It has been observed that 63.33% people belong to Hindu religion. 18.66% people are Muslim and 8% respondents are Christian. Rest 10% people belong to other religions such as Sikhism, Jainism etc. The study shows very balanced sex composition of the respondents and their family members. Within these four slums 52.58% respondents are male and 47.58% respondents are female. In Chhattisgarh the sex ratio of urban population is 938 as per the 2011 Census report. Slum wise sex composition also reveals that almost all the slums are exhibiting the more or less the same picture. Remarkable information is coming out while analyzing the data that only 1.37% people have attended 60 years and above age. The trend of urbanization is clearly reflected in this study. Majority of slums dwellers are first generation learners. Children from slums are generally looked down upon. The data show that 83.58% surveyed population is literate. The city literacy rate is very close to this figure. It can be seen from the data available that 10.12% female are illiterate and 6.30% males are illiterate. Kota Basti is largely migrated people dominated (basically from Orissa) the illiteracy ratio is higher in compare to other slums. It is clear from the analysis that majority of the workers are engaged in the informal sector or informal employment, which are accessed through various informal channels or networks of information flow designated as "social capital." In fact, the existence of these informal networks facilitates the slum based. However, the limitation of the social capital is that the job of the new entrant and that of the contact person tend to be the same, implying overcrowding and prevalence of low wages in certain activities. The livelihood of urban poor are determined by informal employment which has absolute no place for social security programmes. The initiatives and administrative approach for formulating the social security plans separately for the urban poor, in fact, requires stupendous policy planning with pan-city approach. To foster inclusive growth so as to cover urban poor too, some interventions are required to make urban livelihood qualitative. ![a. Secondary sources: Data is collected and compiled from the books, reports, published and unpublished papers, leaflets, booklets, Municipal records and Governmental circulars. b. Primary sources: Interviews from the field with respondents, word counselors and slum leaders have been conducted to elicit their opinions and experiences in slum life with the help of interview schedule. The field survey was carried out during 2012.](image-2.png "") ![See the report on "Social development: Challenges faced in an unequal and plural society" by Gore (2003) has focused on the several aspects of development in Indian context. He has examined the broader philosophy of the social development and its linkage with the concept of human rights and the fundamental rights as enshrined in the Indian constitution. Another emphasis has given on relevance to social work practice. The study further has discussed and elaborated the concepts of development in a liberal society.](image-3.png "3") ![Almost one third respondents belong to Scheduled Tribes and about 11.6 percent of the population is listed as Scheduled Castes in Chhattisgarh. Other communities including a large number of people belonging to the Backward Classes constitute the rest of the population. The bulk of its people are concentrated in the central region, while the northern and the southern regions have a considerably lower density of population. Kushalpur and Moulipara slums have almost same SC population distribution Name of Slum whereas Kota Basti has the lowest ST population. All four slums are projecting the high percentage of general category population. Kushalpur and Moulipara have almost equal SC population. In Raipur a large number OBC people also resides. In Kushalpur and Gandhinagar both slums have comparatively high OBC population than others.](image-4.png "C") 1![Figure 1 : Caste Composition in Slums of Raipur](image-5.png "Figure 1 :") 2![Figure 2 : Educational Statuses of the Slum Dwellers](image-6.png "Figure 2 :") 1( ) CDescription20112001Actual Population4,062,1603,016,930Male2,048,8561,523,925Female2,013,3041,493,005Population Growth34.65%19.29%Density/km 2310231Proportion to Chhattisgarh Population15.90%14.48%Sex Ratio (Per 1000)983980Child Sex Ratio (0-6 Age)965965Average Literacy76.4368.51Male Literacy86.5081.97Female Literacy66.2154.81Total Child Population (0-6 Age)569,447515,582Male Population (0-6 Age)289,815262,406Female Population (0-6 Age)279,632253,176Literates2,669,3621,713,653Male Literates1,521,5821,034,063Female Literates1,147,780679,590Child Proportion (0-6 Age)14.02%17.09%Boys Proportion (0-6 Age)14.15%17.22%Girls Proportion (0-6 Age)13.89%16.96%Source : www.census2011.co.in/census/district/495 raipur. html 2 3Name of SlumGeneralS.CS.TOBCTotal SampleTotal%Total%Total%Total%populationKota Basti847.06635.2915.88211.7717(100%)Kushalpur3636.00404099.001515.00100(100%)Gandhinagar4547.372021.051515.791515.7995(100%)Moulipara3539.773640.911011.3677.9688(100%)Total12441.33102343511.673913.00300(100%)Source : Personal Survey-2012 4Development: Socio-Cultural DimensionsC 5Source : Personal Survey -2012From the table 5 it is clear that 1156 personsare literate and have formal education. 27.95%population has primary level education (up to IVstandard), 41% population has middle standard (class Vto VIII), 24.66% population has class IX to XII standardand 6.40% respondents have either completedgraduation or post graduation. Most of the primary leveleducated persons are affected by the drop out caseswho couldn"t continue their education because offamilial problems. Here the trend of perusing study up toclass VIII is very high. In most cases girl students aredeprived for higher studies. However Kushalpur is theonly slum where overall educational qualification isbetter than other slums. This slum has beenencouraging population with graduates and postgraduates. .Name of SlumUnmarriedMarriedWidowDivorcedTotal PopulationM %F%M% F % Total % M %F %MaleFemaleTotalKota Basti1924.681012.992127.272025.9779.09----40(51.94%)37(48.05%)77(100%)Kushalpur10023.1510424.0711626.851082540.93----216(50%)216(50%)432(100%)Gandhinagar14029.609720.5111824.9510923.0491.90----258(54.54%)215(45.45%)473(100%)Moulipara11027.438521.1910125.199824.4471.75----211(52.61%)190(47.38%)401(100%)Total36926.6829621.4035625.7433524.23271.95----723(52.27%)660(47.72%)1383(100%)Name of SlumAge of marriageTotal Married PopulationBellow 18 years19 years to 21Above 22 yearsMaleFemaleTotalTotalM%F%TotalM%F%TotalM%F%Kota Basti10--1024.391237.32921.95191741.4624.8821(51.21%)20(48.78%)41(100%)Kushalpur66--6629.4639--3917.4111911450.8952.24116(51.78%)108(48.21%)224(100%)Gandhinagar48--4821.157183.526327.7510810546.2631.32118(51.98%)109(48.01%)227(100%)Moulipara52199.553316.5859178.544221.11886331.662512.56101(50.75%)98(49.24%)199(100%)Development: Socio-Cultural Dimensions © 2013 Global Journals Inc. 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