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= HOLLYWOOD BASTI =

BACKGROUND
Gulbai Tekra a slum area located in Ahmedabad, a home to over a 1000 families. Gulbai Tekra is located in between the C.G. road and Gujarat university road. This place is inhabiting Rajasthani marvadis who were earlier in the year 1851-1854 migrated to Ahmedabad in search of homes. There was a rich Parsi woman named Gulabi Bai, owner of the land, she leased the land to the homeless people who migrated from Rajasthan for a monthly rent of two aanas (eight paise). When she got married, she gifted the land to the people living there, so the street got its name as Gulbai Tekra. Tekra means hilly forest, that place used to be a forest at that time and now it is a commercial city. At present, the name Gulbai Tekra has been popularly known by the name Hollywood basti, its name has been replaced as Hollywood basti owing to the fact that the beauty of women living in the basti is similar to that of the Hollywood beauty. There’s also a reason behind the name of Hollywood Basti, a photographer made the women of the basti pose like the Hollywood actress and the photos became famous when he uploaded the photos worldwide and hence the basti got the name as ‘Hollywood of Gujarat’. The mankind living are engaged in making of idols at the time of festivals, it is a place from where most of the supply happens. They make idols like of lord ‘Ganesha’ at the time of Ganesh Chaturthi, idols of ‘Krishna’ at the time of ‘janmashthami’, lord ‘laxmi’ in ‘Diwali’ and so on. The condition of the people is so poor there that they don’t have proper sanitation facilities, poor access to water, education, health care- hospitals, the availability of drinking water is also a gratification. The housing condition is also not very satisfactory, though the houses are made up of bricks but there is no roof slabs the roofs are made up of bamboo and polythene sheets, not every house was plastered. They had shops within their houses.

Population and Occupation
The population of Hollywood Basti is quite high as there are 1000 families (approx. 8000 people) living in that area. They live in small huts. Generally they work as labourers but the main occupation of them is making the sculptors or idols of various Gods and Goddess on various festivals such as Ganpati's on occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Krishna’s on Janmashtmi, Durga's on Navratras, Laxmi's on Diwali. Around 80-90 percent of populations of this area are included in preparing these idols from elders to children. During the Ganesh Chaturthi, they start making the idols two months before the festival and use different colors, forms and mainly Plaster of Paris (POP) and clay by which whole area or basti covered with white dust. During the festival time, they make more than 5000 idols. As per government rules, they allow to use only clay but some of them are not abiding these rules as they also use POP which is harmful for nature. The idol size is 10-12 feet high which are sell between Rs 25000-Rs 40000. This can sell by only some percentage of people. "This place also called as Hub of Ganesha Idols".

Income and Education
Usually their income is so low that they are unable to get twice meal a day but at the time Ganesh Chaturthi and other festivals they are able to earn more money or income. Furthermore some of them are still below the poverty line as they are unable to earn Rs. 27000 per year. The proper sanitation facilities are not found in the area and there is huge amount of waste and garbage scattered over the road which threats the life of human beings residing there. The people are also least bother about the education of their children as they think that it would be more beneficial to engage them in work than educating. There are two anganwadis in that area but very few students went for studying, others help their family in working.

POVERTY
“Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials to enjoy a minimum standard of life and well-being that's considered acceptable in society.”

CAUSES OF POVERTY
The causes of poverty are:-


 * 1) HIGH POPULATION GROWTH :-India is rank second all over the world in terms of population. Due to continuous growth in population with limited resources, people need more basic facilities i.e. food, shelter, water, land and so on. Increase in population growth rate will increase the expenditure. In Hollywood Basti, it is overpopulated as they have 5-7 children in each family due to which it increases the expenditure. More the number of members in the family more the expenditure will increase.
 * 2)  ILLITERACY  :- In India, basic education is not given properly due to which the literacy level is very low because most  of the people are engaged in agriculture work or as labour  and are uneducated as well as unskilled due to which illiteracy level increases and effect the economy of India. In Hollywood Basti, illiteracy level is high because of high population as there are more number of members in each family compare to working member. So, children are also made to do work (child labour) to increase their family earnings instead of providing them with basic education.
 * 3) INCOME :- In Hollywood Basti, people are engaged in making ideals of Lord Ganesha.Their income increase during the festival of Ganesh Charturthi otherwise they manage to earn a bit per day i.e.which comes under below poverty line.
 * 4) UNEMPLOYMENT :- People in India move from one place to another or from rural area to urban area in search of work. Because of lack of education, they are not hired to work as they are raw, untrained and unskilled. This leads to unemployment which is tremendously increases day by day. Unemployment in Hollywood basti is high because they are not skilled and educated they are not easily get employed.

POVERTY IS A MAJOR ISSUE IN INDIA
Poverty in India is a socio-economic issue as the factors of socio-economy affects the individual economy by the negative influence. Negative influences such as lack of education, Gender bias, Discrimination of culture and religion, unemployment and so on. It determines economic status and well-being of each and every individual by occupation/designation, income and wealth. Poverty is a major issue in India because of lack of education, corruption, overpopulation, unemployment, illiteracy etc.

Hollywood Basti- A Small Dharavi
Hollywood Basti is spread over a kilometer wide housing nearly 7000 people. Whereas Dharavi being the 2nd largest slum in Asia is spread over 557 acres, houses around 3 lakhs people. Around 200 years ago, during British rule artisans with their family migrated from Rajasthan to Ahmadabad for a better market. Since then generation to generation people are engaged in same business in the same place. Similarly Dharavi gained its existence during British rule in 1882. Dharavi has itself many small scale industries which engage in producing products of leather, pottery and plastic and embroidery garments. Round the slum many people are a part of it and have its market inside the slum as well as outside the slum reaching international market also. Through this huge market the business is successful in making handsome amount of profit and reaches a turnover more than $650m a year. Whereas people in Hollywood Basti are mostly engaged in making Ganpati idols of different sizes and shapes. As idol made of 100% clay does not give a strong built they use 50% clay and 50% POP to make it strong and tough. They address a very huge market such as supplying their idols to Rajkot and Surat. They built their shops near their house only in the same slum and people come there to buy such idols. Whole family is involved in making the idols and earn ranging from Rs.2000 to Rs.14000 for an average. When we asked people living in Hollywood Basti about their income they said they earn around Rs.500 to Rs. 600 per day. As mentioned above people had migrated from Rajasthan to Ahmadabad for a better market for their products. Thus people there mostly belong to Marwadi culture but have also molded them with some Gujarati culture also. Whereas people in Dharavi have people from round the country. Such as it has Gujarati potters, embroidery workers from Uttar Pradesh, leather workers of Hindu castes and Muslim Indians, and other rural migrants from Mumbai’s nearby areas. From the total population 70 percent are Hindus and 40 percent are Muslims. Hollywood Basti is very similar to Dharavi but a smaller version of it. Thus Hollywood Basti can be said as the Dharavi of Gujarat.

DOCUMENTARY ON HOLLYWOOD BASTI (GULBAI TEKRA)
Hollywood basti is one of the oldest slums created in Ahmedabad; it is situated in the area named gulbai tekra. Basically, the people of Hollywood basti are originating from Rajasthan. 1800’s were a trough period for the people of Rajasthan. They were suffering from the long term famines and drought. So many communities of Rajasthan decided to shift to Gujarat. One of these communities is The Bawari Community. They didn’t have money at that point of time and were in search of places to live. At that point of time, a lady named gulab bai, a parsee woman, gave them a large piece of land to reside. This community started digging the tekras and made a really beautiful basti out of it. They named the basti, gulbai tekra to honour the person who gave this land to them. Most of the people of gulbai tekra are not highly educated, aren’t rich enough, they do petty jobs to cover their household expenses. They generally do small businesses of selling statues of Indian gods and goddesses. That is why their income is pretty much seasonal. Besides this, the females of the family works as house maids in rich people’s home. But there was one thing that these people were living in a peaceful and a harmonious way until people started thinking negative about them. They lived very happily until the people started building high rises around the gulbai tekra. These people who build these high rises consider the people of Hollywood basti and the basti itself as an anomaly in the city, as it is full of garbage. But through this documentary, we found out the deeper reality. Yes, these people don’t have pakka houses like all of the others have. But they manage to keep their place neat, tidy and clean. So, there is a huge difference between the perception of the insider’s and the outsider’s views. In conclusion, no matter what outsiders think about them but the people in this basti has one thing to adore that is their unanimity. Which is lacking pretty much in the rich and the outside world.