Date:09/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070959520300.htm

Karnataka

People should come together to bridge the divide

In response to the Public Eye article on the status on urban poor published on July 2, 2008, Senthil Sundram writes: The Hindu continues to be an inspiration in continuing to focus on the issues of ordinary people in the city.

Thanks for devoting a whole page on the issues of the urban poor when most of the city news covered is about pubs, real estate and things like that.

Like the community project about teaching slum children to use the computer, there are many more such initiatives in the city and each one of us can play a small role in bridging the larger divide.

Most of the slum dwellers are Dalits (70 per cent), coming to the city from all regions of India — Rajasthan, Bihar, the North-East. They come because of the failure of agriculture. Many of the children are also first-generation learners.