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On Slumdogs
Sumeet Banker
 Today I made my first trip to an Indian village. Most of the land in Bihar is used for farming, whether or not the people use the right techniques or the right land. As a result of being a largely agrarian society, families seem to place a lower emphasis on formally schooling their children, especially if the family is poor. Without school, the children don't have a safe and clean environment in which to interact with other children, and without education, the children don't have a future outside of farming.
The entire burden of educating children falls on the local community because there is no government support. However, the parents, who have no lack of concern, do not have enormous amounts of time to devote to raising their children for higher things. It's a tough cycle, yet many families struggle to free themselves from this routine for a better future for their children. They work hard at whatever they do to put their kids through the only school in the district so that sometime later in life, their children will grow up and be able to provide for them with more ease.
We go to the village to speak about simple things like the importance of cleanliness, hygiene, and respect for one another. But I quickly realize that these concepts are second nature to me not only because they have been infused in me since an early age but also because I was raised in a land of relative plenty. I don't know if these residents realize that many of the problems of the community stem from these issues. Crime, illness, crop failure, disease—they all can be traced back to these central principles.
 For example, there is just not enough infrastructure or planning to set up a central site for garbage disposal. Instead, the villagers throw their trash out their doors into the streets, where people meet and children play. To complicate matters, men and boys often urinate on the street sides while livestock also routinely leave their feces in public places; these are the streets where children play without any footwear and search for used treasures. When you factor monsoon rains and stagnant water into the equation, it's not hard to see how people fall ill.
I often wonder whether the root of the problem is the abject poverty or lack of education. It's definitely not easy to find a solution to these problems; whatever work is to be done must be done slowly, patiently, and respectfully. |