The findings of a nationwide survey of the slums in urban India, carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation from July to September, 2002, are startling. However these are likely to be lost in the election noise. As many as 8 million families live in about 52,000 slums, constituting 14 per cent of the total urban population in the country. These are the government's own figures, which reflect a dark reality sharply different from what the "Shining India' campaign tries to present. The worst-affected states are Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, which together account for 63 per cent of the slum population. Others like Punjab are not far too behind. (Editorial).