Opodo travel news
Slum tourism takes off in India
28 Jun 2006
Visitors to Delhi are now being offered tours of the slums.
Former street dwellers are being employed to take visitors round the areas often avoided or forgotten by the average tourist.
The tours are run by a local NGO, the Salam Balak Trust, and aim to raise the profile of the plight faced by India's many homeless children as well as funds for its programmes.
The two-hour tours show visitors how the children around New Delhi station are forced to live and the tour guides, who have been helped out of poverty by the Salam Balak Trust, share their experiences of why they ran away from the villages of India to the big cities and how they were forced to live on the streets.
The trust is aware that the tours could be considered voyeuristic and photography is not allowed to ensure the privacy of those who live around the station.
It is also hoped the children living on the streets will be encouraged to see the guides as role models and turn to education programmes to escape the poverty they find themselves in.
© Adfero Ltd
Former street dwellers are being employed to take visitors round the areas often avoided or forgotten by the average tourist.
The tours are run by a local NGO, the Salam Balak Trust, and aim to raise the profile of the plight faced by India's many homeless children as well as funds for its programmes.
The two-hour tours show visitors how the children around New Delhi station are forced to live and the tour guides, who have been helped out of poverty by the Salam Balak Trust, share their experiences of why they ran away from the villages of India to the big cities and how they were forced to live on the streets.
The trust is aware that the tours could be considered voyeuristic and photography is not allowed to ensure the privacy of those who live around the station.
It is also hoped the children living on the streets will be encouraged to see the guides as role models and turn to education programmes to escape the poverty they find themselves in.
© Adfero Ltd
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