Slum walking tours in Kolkata

Arcadia Centre
Level 4th, Premise No. 31,
Dr. Ambedkar Sarani,
Kolkata - 700046, West Bengal (India)
CALL US @ 033 6637 6130/ 9051201818/ 9051201717
E-mail: [email protected]

Our mission is twofold; to help slum dwellers eradicate poverty by empowering them to become independent and help improve life for their families. Secondly we aim to help educate and inform a wider community about the challenges of informal settlements, and one of the ways we are achieving that is by arranging walking tours of Kolkata slums, whereby we encourage positive impact on the slum dwellers lives, on the basis if people aren't aware of the issues, they can't help.

We aim to engage in local projects, initially supporting educational development by providing essential lighted space where children can go and study; cook stoves for individual dwellings and communal kitchens; and better access to clean water.

We feel that this is our collective social responsibility and want to inspire people globally to provide aid and help alleviate the appalling conditions in Indian slums, either by encouraging them to become involved and share knowledge or provide support. Knowledge is sometimes more valuable than financial support, as knowledge of the privileged educated class can often help informal communities have access to better living conditions.

In order our tours are sustainable and provide a positive impact on the community, a proportion of our revenues are distributed to communities, directly supporting education, health and well being for the underprivileged children.
On this walking tour you will get to experience slum areas of Kolkata and to see how many of the population in Kolkata really live. We at Let’s Meet up Tours want you to see 'the real' Kolkata. Take a walk along the community; visit a local nursery school, rubber factory and the friendly families from this friendly community.
On arrival at the slum area you will be told about security and some basic guidelines to follow while on this tour. While we know that the''slum areas” may have a reputation, we want you to ensure that you feel safe at all times. Our guide will explain about the community and its developments, about the urbanization projects, politics, religion etc. You will get a glimpse into the way these communities live, the challenges they face on a daily basis just to get basis essentials such as water, fuel for cooking and access to light. You will experience local life and have a chance to interact with the families as we make our way through the slums.

On your way down you will visit a local kindergarten (*not open on weekends) ) and you will have the opportunity to be part of the local activities, may be teaching or spending some valuable time with the children that would bring happiness on their face.

Frequently asked questions?
1) Why should one take a Slum tour?

According to the Oxford dictionary a Slum is a "squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people," our aim is to show you that a slum is not only about poverty, unpleasantness and deficiency. In the slum our guests get the opportunity to see the gravity and the strength of the people, where they are able to work and live in the small areas. Currently there are more than 7000 slums in and around Kolkata. We are focusing in one of the slums in Topsia- which is the heart of small scale industries in Kolkata and on the tour we try to show you a wide series of these enterprises; . from rubber factories, leather bags, recycling plastic, small bakeries.
The objective of the tour is to show the positive side of this community, their culture and how challenging their life is. Slum tours can positively transform both travellers and communities, but one must insist the most immersive and socially responsible experiences.

2) Our projects?

Our tours are also about helping communities and the environment at the same time.our tours aim to providecreate education of underprivileged children, organise volunteer projects and generate donations to help these communities. The profit generated from these tours is ploughed back into the community projects.

We are also associated with GISTA (Global institute of Sustainable Tourism Alliance), which aims to facililtate a more informed dialogue about the needs and challenges facing informal settlements in mega cities across the world, connecting informal settlements to solutions, knowledge and funds.

As a Global not for profit organisation, GISTA provides access to best practice and solutions for many of the common challenges related to shelter, cooking, clean water access and provision of light from the shanty towns of Lima in Peru to the Flavelas of Rio de Janerio in Brazil to the slums areas in Kolkata. GISTA also strives to provide a code of best practice for tour operators, to ensure that there are transparent guidelines for distribution of funds, respecting the dignity and culture of local communities, and for sustainable tourisim customers, the comfort that their funds are being invested in communities, and that the communities are not being exploited for tourisim.

GISTA also provides international assistance provided in the form of professional services in supporting more effective solutions for dwellings and water access through teams of architects and engineers on a scale not normally available or affordable to individual communities. Finally GISTA supports cross fertilisation of ideas by arranging for community and tour operators to travel to other megacities to see good solutions and transformational projects in progress.