Slum Janandolan workers have other demands, too.
Workers from Slum Janandolan had twelve demands forimprovingthe living standards of slums in 18 districts of Karnataka.
Venkamma, a Slum Janandolan worker from Davanagere, said that she wants the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act(MNGREGA)scheme to be urbanised. “Most of the slums are in urban areas. So to reduce poverty, people need to be employed.”
She added that bringing MNGREGA to urban slums will be economically helpful for the weaker sections of the society living in urban areas.
In addition to this demand, the Slum Janandolan workers asked for basic facilities in the slum areas. Hassan, Davanagere, Tumakuru, Hospete, Bellary are a few out of those 18 districts which participated in the press conference to put forth their demand for improving the living conditionsof slum dwellers.
Narasimha Murthy, the president of Slum Janandolan said, “People in slums lack basic facilities and we are asking for simple things like house and food.”
He said that the ration shops in Karnataka do not provide anything other thanrice.
“We want the Karnataka government to implement the Chhattisgarh model where sugar, oil and pluses are also given in ration shops,” he added.
The other demands were related to houses, hospitals and schools. The workers complained about the privatisation of the government hospitals.
Venkamma and her colleagues staged a protest in Davanagere to stop the privatization of hospitals.
