India Paragraph Revised

In this unit on India, I have learned a lot.  Mostly I have learned about the large population of India, life in the slums of Mumbai, and India’s problems with human trafficking.  India’s population is 1,173,108,018 and is the second highest in the world.  The population growth rate is 1.376% and the birth rate is 21.34 birth/1,000 population.  The reason India’s population is so high is because of many things.  One is because of poverty and illiteracy.  Because jobs are hard to find, families think that having a bigger family would be better for manual labor.  Another reason is because there are many middle class families in India.  They think that having a bigger family is a blessing.  Others are lack of education on the subject and because of their religion.  The United States population is 310,232,863 and nowhere close to what India’s is.  India’s population is probably partially part of the cause of the problems below.
       According to Webster’s Dictionary a slum is a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization. The slums in Mumbai started in 1950 and since the independence of India has tripled.  Dharavi is the biggest slum in Asia.  It is located in Mumbai.  It is 530 acres and has 100,000 residents.  That is about 18,000 people in one acre.  Around 60% of Mumbai’s population is living in a slum.  The conditions of the slums are horrible.  The people who live in these slums have to battle many struggles like lack of water and public transportation, constant migration, no sewage waste facility, pollution, and of course housing shortage.  They housed they live in are shacks, huts, and homes made out of scraps they find.  Life in the slums are not a great place to live and most of India’s population have to live in these terrible conditions every day.

            The final thing I have learned is about India’s problems with human trafficking.  Human trafficking is tricking people and getting them to go away from their homelands to work under exploitative conditions.  In India there is Human Trafficking with men, women, and children.  With men it is mostly manual work.  They work in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and factories.  Women and girls are forced into marriage and they are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.  Children are trafficked by being forced to work in factories and to be servants and beggars.  Sometimes they even are forced to work in circus shows.  There are penalties to do this in India. Under the ITPA you could be in prison from as little as 7 years to as many as life in prison.  Indian authorities use Penal Codes saying that they cannot kidnap or sell minors into prostitution.  The punishment for this is 10 years and having to pay a fine.  They are also on the Tier 2 Watch list. That means that India is not fully complying with the smallest of standards for the elimination of trafficking but they are trying their best to do so.  India is on this list for the fifth year in a row.  Trafficking is an important issue that not only is happening in India but around the world.  This is what I have learned so far on our unit about India.