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
5