India¶s slum-dwelling population has risen from 27.9 million in 1981to 61.8 million in 2001.This illustrates how India¶s economic boom has left behind millionsof the country¶s poorest people in despair.India¶s largest slum population is in Bombay, the financial capital of India. An estimated 6.5 million people live there. That accounts for nearly half the city¶s residents. They live in tiny makeshift shackssurrounded by open sewers.Delhi, the national capital, has the country¶s second largest population of about 1.8 million people. Calcutta has about 1.5 million.Bangalore, the silicon valley of the country has over 1000 slums,where shanties jostle for space with high-rise state of the art buildings.

About 246 million children ages 5 to 17 worldwide areinvolved in child labour -about 1 out of every 6 childrenin the world.Nearly three-quarters of the world's child labourers,about 180 million children, are exposed to the worstforms of child labour.Some 110 million children under the age of 15 work inhazardous conditions.An estimated 8.4 million children are trapped in themost abhorrent forms of child labour: slavery,trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography andother such activities.

WhoseDevelopment?

angalore, India¶s Silicon Valley may have well made it to the map of the world as³THE´ IT hub standing right next to San Francisco.Sure, it is development.

ut whose, anyway?It is easy to assume that a flourishing IT sector trickles down to the rest of thepeople.Karnataka is considered one of the poor states where the disparity between theurban and village population is stark. It is estimated that there are over 1000 slumsin

angalore today, housing a fourth of the city¶s population and occupying only2.5 to 3% of the total

BBMP

land of 800 sq.km.

If one thought that computers were the key to development alone,than one needs to realize that India¶s 60 million children do not goto/or have little access to school