Starting with numbers, 1.5 million lives reside in the slums of Kolkata. Yes, nearly one-third of the total population. This one-third is living under constant economic challenges. The deploring conditions of living in squatter settlements can still in no way take away their dreams and aspirations, their love for family, their ways of sticking to each other, their ways of fighting with the worldly negativities. Perhaps, they are the contestants of livelihood, in  Darwin’s language, ‘survival of the fittest’.

Mostly, they live below the poverty line. Daily wage laborers, factory workers, household workers, hawkers, rickshaw pullers, and so on. Each of them struggling to earn their daily bread yet deprived of the basic necessities. Heath and sanitation are their biggest vulnerability. Education is beyond reach. Equality and democracy cannot make their appearance here.

Undoubtedly, you or me, sitting under a permanent roof, with educational merits, digital accessories, and knowledge, writing or viewing this blog can never relate to what life is for them, how they feel, what they think, and what do they want. They want freedom. Very similar to us, yet different. They want freedom from being treated differently. They want freedom from the continuous economic vulnerability. Freedom from diseases.

Without acknowledging their way of life, you can never acknowledge how to extend support. Know what they want. Learn what you can. And, make them stand shoulder to shoulder with you, in a line, making a barricade to resist the fascist and pave way for revolution, the revolution for freedom, the revolution for life.