Constructed in the classical Arabic symmetrical style, the Taj Mahal took 20,000 laborers 22 years to complete. To this day, it is unsurpassed in architectural beauty and perfection. But that was then, this is now . . . Ambedcar Camp is another of New Delhi's sprawling urban slums settled amidst tall, gleaming office buildings. More than 100,000 people occupy an area which looks no bigger than about 6 football fields.
Open sewers drain foul-smelling, brown water into a nearby river.
Children are everywhere, many without proper clothes or shoes. They play among burning piles of garbage. As bad as this existence is, they say it is the only way they can get a job, and earn a living to feed their children. That's what faces the poor today . . . Children like this little girl in a slum in Delhi are vulnerable to a variety of dangers.