Hollywood films like Slumdog Millionaire have often been criticised for romanticising poverty in India. Indian slums are often caricaturized for a foreign audience and exploited for profit. And now, the internet is wary of a growing travel trope of slum tours. A slum tour package in Delhi offers visitors the chance to ‘find themselves’ and understand the struggles of Delhi’s poorest. It’s saddening to see that people suffering acute poverty are reduced to nothing but objects to be ogled at. Read on to know more.
Travel Company Offers Delhi Slum Walking Tour
A journalist Tanishka Sodhi took to Twitter to share a screengrab of a Delhi slum tour package offered by TripAdvisor. Charging ₹1,800, the Delhi slum walking tour package promises to take tourists across one of Asia’s largest slums. It popularises the concept of understanding the ‘ struggles of Delhi’s poorest inhabitants’. The journalist condemns this ‘poverty porn’ where people in poverty are objectified just to entertain a privileged audience.
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"Poverty Porn" – when you objectify people in poverty for the sake of entertaining a privileged audience. https://t.co/mCijndClox
— Anusha (@AnushaSooriyan) September 4, 2022
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Poverty Tourism Slammed
It’s quite common to come across such tours in Mumbai’s Dharavi slums, which were popularised after the fame of Slumdog Millionaire. However, this situation is not black or white, it’s grey. Some NGO’s have facilitated tours to ensure the areas get funds for developmental projects. Sometimes, residents of the slums themselves organise projects as a source of income. But poverty tourism continues to be a matter of concern.