The Pipe People
It’ s been a hard day of work, and Joseph is looking forward to a home cooked meal. Just before the sun goes down, he walks home to be greeted by his wife and three children. He plays with his children and some of the neighbor kids for a while before dinner. Finally, it’ s time to relax for the evening and he sits with his family on the cement floor of their twenty-foot long cylinder shaped home to enjoy the rice his wife prepared.
Joseph and his family live in Pipe Village just outside of Hyderabad, India. Pipe Village is a town made up of cement sewer pipe homes. The men of the village are enslaved by the owner of a nearby pipe factory. The owner believes he’ s being gracious by allowing the workers to use defective and unwanted pipes from the factory to make homes for their families. Because the workers who are forced to survive on $ 2 a day have no other choice, they make the cement tubes their homes with little complaining. The pipe people accept their lot in life and make use of whatever they can find in the pipe graveyard. They’ ve built doors and porches on their pipe homes, using abandoned wood from the factory. And the women gather household items when they can afford them from nearby markets.
Joseph’ s family and his neighbor’ s lives revolve around getting enough food for their families and working long hours at the factory. Just like the pipes they live in, the people of Pipe Village are rejected and discredited in society. Joseph has lost all sense of hope for a better life for him and his wife, but he holds onto hope for his children.
Joseph knows that his children need to escape the Pipe Village. That is the only chance they have of breaking the cycle of slavery.
By Julie Slagter Photography by Rebecca May nonfiction
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