Thursday, May 7, 2009

Due to unforeseen circumstances I found myself riding the MTC bus today afternoon while returning from college. As we were sitting in the bus in the sweltering heat, waiting for the bus to start I noticed a woman sitting with her two children in the bus shelter. Obviously she was a beggar woman, just like the hundreds of other such women spread out throughout my country. Now this lady noticed the bus waiting and sent up her daughter inside the bus to beg for money. This child of hers was hardly 3 years old with brown malnourished hair, dirt smeared face wearing dirty shorts and slippers 3 sizes too big. Used to watching her mother beg for money, she aped her walking through the length of the bus.

Now this girl hardly 3 years will be stripped of all her rights. She would never see the insides of a school, would never know the comfort of good family and good food, would never experience the basic things of life. Her family is what we call "below poverty line" in India. They are unable to give themselves the basic necessities of life.

This girl is just one such person living among the millions upon millions of poverty stricken individuals in India. We grow up watching poverty and sickness at our door step. Everyday I see men completely out of their senses scavenging the dustbins for the mere sight of something edible. At every traffic signal I see young girls carrying sick children tap on the windws of newly waxed cars begging for money. Little boys running behind pedestrians. This is the everyday life if you live in India.

Asking what the government is doing about all this is a futile question. Rehabilitating the poverty stricken and slum dwellers all look very ethical in theory, but in practicality yields no fruit. The slums of Daravi in Bombay made famous through Slumdog Millionaire were offered to be rehabilitated in an ampartment complex constructed especially for this purpose. But what did the slum dwellers do? They got their sanctioned flats, rented it and continued living in the slums. If you did not agree to do this voluntarily, the flats were snatched by goondas and were given for rent.

This is the true situation of India. The more you try to avoid looking at it and acknowledging its prescence, poverty continues to glare back at you, grimier than before.


5 comments:

Yasemin said...

I hate that some people want to say that Slumdog was so exaggerated, and children don't live that way. I just figure that even if it was overdone, better. Maybe we can solve the problem with help from the rest of the world.

I always hear from friends who visit that children eat trash, and it makes me so sad.

I just wondered sweet friend, if you see this as an issue of the caste system? Is it never going to be resolved because that little girl is an untouchable? Lots of love.

Zarine Mohideen said...

Many people in India refuse to believe what is shown in Slumdog saying that India isn't actually this way. But unfortunately, it is. The more we try to hide from reality the more obvious it is.

There are many homes and destitute centers for people like this. But such an initiative is just not enough. I don't think the poverty issue will ever be solved.

Yasemin said...

There is no containment policy like in China, but do you forsee them creating one?

I agree that it's all but impossible to erase poverty. But, just the stories of the kids from Slumdog alone that's parents "considered" selling them are so sad, and indicative of the problem.

Zarine Mohideen said...

Even if our Government decides to do anything about it, policies or otherwise, implementing it would not be easy. And even if they do, not all of them wanted to be rehabilitated.

The slums are the main centers of black market goods and smuggling. It acts as a camouflage for many other problems.

Read 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts and you'll know what im talking about.

Fikerz said...

Hey! I just stumbled across your blogs, seems cool.

Ya I recently saw Slumdog Millionaire, its crazy.

Last summer I went to Pakistan and I saw what you just said, it is true. For India, Pakistan (&Bangladesh?) these are true realities. Its really sad. One of my cousins, he actually lived in a place that was somewhat of a slum, I felt so weird, didn't even have a reaction; He was an older really nice cousin who would always take me places.

Anyway, nice blog.

check out mine if you ever get the time.

themuslimkid.blogspot.com

salam.

-The Muslim Kid-