“Slum” is Just a Four-Letter Word

There’s been much internal debate regarding nomenclature when discussing Project Sammaan. Of particular concern is the use of the term “slum”.

This problem surfaced due to the imminent launch of our social media sites. The most polarizing question was whether or not to use the term “slum”. Is it insensitive or even outright offensive? In its stead, should we use the more sanitized (pardon the pun) and safe terms “community” or “low-income settlements”? It was decided that, while the other parlances are safer, this project provides a unique opportunity (and thus, the responsibility) to help realign people’s understanding of what a slum is.

To quote UN-Habitat, “…in developing countries, the word lacks the pejorative and divisive original connotation, and simply refers to lower quality or informal housing…A simple definition of a slum would be ‘a heavily populated urban area characterised by substandard housing and squalor’.”

Children in school in the slum of Sikarchandi, Bhubaneswar.

Given the access Project Sammaan affords us, we decided to use this opportunity to present more representative imagery (e.g., skilled laborers, buildings, families) of a distressed community and not just “poverty pornography“. Looking at media that’s currently out there, anything related to the term “slum” is typically disparaging, focusing solely on the negative aspects of these areas. While such aspects abound, displaying only them is both unfair and inaccurate.

We’re also trying to capture this notion of perception vs. reality in blog posts; that the term “slum” refers to a type of community and not a commentary on the quality of its residents and their lives.

We recently participated in home-stays in a slum in Bhubaneswar. In the preliminary interview, we talked about expectations for the visit and discussed how the term slum led us to have preconceived notions about these places. Those notions changed, sometimes dramatically, once we actually visited communities termed as such. This about-face was poignant and the experience itself, more than anything, provided the direction to use the appropriate terminology.

A rose is a rose is a rose and a slum is a slum is a slum, after all.