Bombay Jungle (India)
Bombay is a place for work, opportunities and dreams. People come to work in the city and earn their living which they cannot earn back in their villages. But nothing is free in this metropolis.
The high price of land took housing out of reach of the poor. Today, 55 per cent of Bombay’s people live in shanties, slums and on pavements. In the scarcity of toilet facilities for these slum dwellers lies the most revolting and most unhealthy sign of Bombay’s housing crisis and the most vivid indignity of being poor here. For grandmother Kurshida Bano who lives in a shantytown on the edge of a National park, that means rising at 4 a.m., the only time water flows bountifully through a jury- rigged pipe. She fills her small plastic bucket and wanders in search of a private spot where she can hoist her sari and squat in peace.
Proud Kurshida is also confronted by the High Court that gave a ruling that the national park needs to be protected and ordered for eviction of over 80-thousand families. After the government has tried to evict her with bulldozers Khurshida is fighting for the survival of her family against all bureaucratic odds .What right does she have and how can she execute them? She gets frustrated with the inability of city officials.
Architect P.K. Das with his housing right organization and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of Bombay are trying to find ways to relocate them. They work together with private developer Ramesh Shah, but the bureaucracy and corruption in the system is rampant.
The slum dwellers fight with pride for their right to exist: but there are winners and losers.
Producers: Alexandra Jansse & Joost van Loon 2005
Director and script: Frank Vellenga
Series director: Alexandra Jansse
Editor in chief: Babette Niemel
Camera: Martijn van Beenen, Paul Cohen
Sound: Joris van Ballegoijen, Flip van den Dungen
Editor: Jaap Praamstra, Govert Janse
Music composer: Orlando Gough
• A Dollar a Day” is broadcast in The Netherlands, India, USA, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Middle East, Africa, Belgium, Greece ea.
• Film festival China (Guangzhou); World Social Forum Nairobi 2007 Slum Cinema screenings.
• Distributed by Off The Fence and World Bank.
Outreach campaign and website by the Center of Global Development Washington with this series!
ThiemeMeulenhoff Publishers educational program for high schools GEO method with this series.
Location: India, 2005
Themes: Basic Needs, Slums, Identity, Property rights, Self-determination, Good governance, Transparency, Water, sanitation, Poverty reduction, Public Housing.
