力強く息づくスラムの日常

　新興国 BRICs のひとつとして発展著しいインド。その人口は2011年の国連推計で12億人を超え、中国の13億人に迫る世界第2位となっています。IT 分野などで技術躍進がめざましい一方、国内における貧富の格差は大きく、世界銀行による「世界経済見通し（2009年度版）」によれば、1日あたり2米ドルで生活する人々は約8億2770万人と、当時の人口の約75％に達しています。

　貧困層の中でも、特に貧しい人々が身を寄せ合って生活している場所が、スラムと呼ばれる区域。上下水道などのインフラが整備されておらず、不衛生な狭い1部屋に、大家族が寝起きすることも珍しくありません。インドの大都市にはスラムが点在しており、世界の都市化と居住問題に取り組む国連機関・国連ハビタット（UNHABITAT）が06-07年にまとめた統計によれば、01年時点でインドのスラム人口は1億5800万人を超えていました。スラム人口が特に多いのが西部の商都ムンバイで、続いてデリー首都圏。インド統計局が01年に実施した国勢調査によれば、スラム人口はムンバイが約647万5千人、デリー首都圏が約185万1千人でした。今回の旅の行き先は、10年前でスラム人口の割合がすでに18％を超えていた、デリー首都圏のスラム街です。

　旅の筆者は過去10年にわたってインドを訪問し、スラムの現状を写真とともに記録しているそうです。今回の旅では半年間滞在し、毎週末にデリー首都圏で最大規模のスラム、クスンプール・パハリを訪れました。ここは、高級ショッピングモールが立ち並ぶバサント・クンジに隣接しており、インドの光と影のふたつの世界が、顕著に比較できる場所です。

　筆者はまた、高速道路に挟まれ飛び地のようになっているスラム、クリ・キャンプにも足を踏み入れます。ここでは、インド各地から首都圏に移住してきた労働者たちがより良い将来を目指して働き続けています。どちらのスラムでも筆者は、大きな夢を持ち、勉強に励む子どもたちに出会いました。大人たちは、厳しいスラム生活の中でも人への思いやりを忘れずに暮らし、突然訪れた筆者にチャイを振る舞ってくれました。インドの影の部分で触れた温かいもてなしに、心が強く揺さぶられたようです。（の）

　The stare of curiosity can seem a threat　...

　I have traveled India guarded. I never met anyone. I have traveled India completely open and trusting. I had everything stolen. I have learned when to trust and when not.

　India contradicts itself. Wealth next to poverty. Respect for life, and little knowledge of cleanliness. Aggressive men, but shy if you turn and face them. Rude, yet, gracious. Beggars, yet giving beyond belief.

　India is well-traveled, and the advice I will give in this article is different. Delhi's sites are worthwhile, the Red Fort, Qutab Minar (Islam), Mahatma Gandhi's memorial, the Lotus Temple (Bahai Faith) and Gudwaras (Sikh Temples). It's a worthy stop for a day, and a tour. Beyond that, I fear to say few travelers take a moment, or several days to weather the pollution and see through the dust to the storm of life inside the corners of Delhi.

　I encourage you, should you venture to India, to get lost. Ditch the sites and before booking a three-hour train to Agra's Taj Mahal, get lost in a neighborhood. Walk down an alley and embrace smiles. Be gentle, yet, hold your ground, and you will be respected.

　I have been working in India for 10 years. Documenting life. Wealth and monuments, the Himalayas and the beaches. Refugees and residents. Polio patients, hospitals and camel fairs.

　Every time I go to India, I face shock. This last trip, after 10 months in Japan I spent the first three days, in my old neighborhood in Delhi, with my jaw completely dropped. The poverty hit me. The dust hurt my lungs and, inevitably, I got a case of Delhi belly.

　The heart of India lies not in its great monuments, stunning beaches or the Himalayas, it lies in the eyes of the people who have grown up in a storm of color and a symphony of screeching noise. These people know peace within -- because in the hustle and bustle -- within is the only way to find silence.

デリー最大のスラムで

　Last year I lived for six months in Delhi. Every weekend I would visit Kusumpur Pahari, Delhi's largest slum. Kusumpur Pahari has about 10,000 to 12,000 makeshift homes of brick and corrugated metal. It is located in South Delhi's Vasant Vihar, bordering the most expensive malls in an area called Vasant Kunj. These malls boast fancy restaurants and designer brands from Dior to Marks and Spencer.

　Each home in Kusumpur Pahari is about 3 meters by 3 meters and houses two families and about 10-12 people. For years I had passed it in open-aired rickshaws wondering what life was like under the haze of extreme poverty. Poverty in an aged slum that backed up to the glamour of India's new raging economy.

　The more time I spend in India, the more I think I understand the place. However, every trip back, I realize how little I know. This time I spent my trip concentrating on contradictions, life within poverty and beauty in the depths of Delhi. I traveled far to get to India and I traveled deep into the culture with little movement in the country.

　I wandered.

　One day on the way to Kusumpur Pahari I stopped the auto. I got out in the middle of traffic and walked into a camp. I didn't know the name, and to be honest I was afraid of what was inside.

　A morning spent photographing and, yet again, I found Incredible India and a group of people who cannot help but offer you the only chair they own and a cup of hot chai.

　Kuli Camp sits in the middle of heavy traffic, a small slum on a small triangular shaped hill between three traffic lights. Migrant workers from villages in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and West Bengal move to Delhi to work as servants and public sewage cleaners with hopes of a better future. Yet, families have made homes. Water is scarce.

　Both slums have no running water and the Indian government gives each family two 50-gallon drums of water per week. Only one of the drums is potable. Kids in the slums have big dreams, they study hard, and their mothers are gentle.

　If I have one small piece of advice for travelers brave enough to weather India, I would say take time to get lost in an area that is so different from all you know that you might be afraid to enter. Fine-tune the delicate travelers' line of keeping your guard and being receptive to hospitality that will completely embrace you.

　You might find that emotions rage and life blooms in the most unlikely of places.