Page 78 - EVS Class 04

Slums

Many people who cannot afford to buy or
build houses for themselves, live in these
slums. A slum is a cluster of huts built

close to one another in a city because of
shortage of space. They make kutcha
houses with cheap and readily available
materials.

Sometimes, they even use waste materials

to make their huts. Slums are totally Slums
unplanned, unsafe and unhygienic.
Houses – Then and Now
Dharavi in Mumbai is one of
In earlier times, bricks, mud and wood were the largest slums in Asia.
the common materials used to build a house.
Lantern and earthen lamps were used for

lighting. Very few people had electric connections in their houses. The
houses had high roofs and plenty of doors and windows for ventilations.
There used to be an open space in the centre of the house, where family

members and guests used to sit on the cots. Sewer pipes were made of clay.
They led from bathrooms to sewers and drained into the nearby rivers and
streams. It was generally a joint family system and all the women of the
house used to work together in one kitchen.

The breaking down trend of joint families to nuclear families brought

changes in houses. The houses started becoming small to cater to smaller
nuclear families. The types of houses being built today depend on the region
and climate of the area.

Haveli Flat

EVS-4
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