The Real Slumdogs

No one can deny the sad state of Indian slums and the despicable conditions under which women and children have to lead their lives. I remember going to school on rainy days through the low lying areas of G.N.Chetty Street in Chennai and witnessing the slum dwellings half submerged under water. I would envy these kids because they were playing in the rain while I had to go to school. Whereas if you assess the situation as a grownup it makes you cringe in disgust of the appalling truth, that this inequality has permeated our society like an epidemic, a society that boasts of equal opportunity for everyone (or does it?). It is so blatantly visible, but either no one notices or no one cares. When someone who recently saw ‘the slumdog millionaire’ enquired if India really was infested with slums as depicted in the movie, my instinctive reaction was to deny that and talk about the tall buildings, the economic boom, the city life, our rich culture, our moon probe and the other what not’s. (I am truly proud of what we have achieved in 60 years of independence.) But when I think of the real situation, I am reminded of the animal farm where ‘All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others’. And the napoleons of our country, equated to the power hungry monsters called politicians, have let us down in every possible way. To fix a system that is not working we have to identify what is broken. The question is where do you start?

I would start with blaming the lack of empathy among the great citizens of India. If we drive through slums we not only close our nose and eyes but also our minds and hearts. I don’t know about God, but beggars surely are omnipresent, in front of temples and mosques, in bus stops, train stations, beaches, movie theatres, you name it. Sometimes we shoo them away, other times we give them a buck but we don’t stop to think how to elevate these lives out of misery. The practice of giving seems to be lacking although one often hears of it in films and political meetings. The aathichuvadi’s and thirukural’s have plenty of words of wisdom urging people to give to the less fortunate, but those just remain words we ‘mug up’ for school exams. The idea of looking out for one another probably took a walk years ago and never came back.

When I say people don’t give, it is not completely true. In India, people have to ‘give’ to get even the simplest of things done. We have to ‘give’ the mail man to get our mails delivered properly, ‘give’ the electricity board officer to keep power in our homes on rainy days, ‘give’ the water board personnel to keep water running in the taps, ‘give’ the metropolitan building authority to get the land certified, ‘give’ the police man every other week to make it to work on time, the list is endless. I feel that our economy is fuelled more by these unreported ‘givings’ than by our paychecks. Everyone knows bribes are illegal, but no one cares because we believe nothing can be done since it is prevalent at all levels of office. Almost everyone in public office is a scam artist and it is sadly an open secret. We give so much to the greedy that we don’t have anything left for the needy.

Following this lead will ultimately bring you to the root of all evil, the blood drinking hounds of our society, the real slum dogs of free India, our own home grown politicians. These are probably the most corrupt lot on the face of this earth. Statistics suggest that out of the funds allocated for any public project less than 15% actually goes towards the project. The rest is spent bribing these “public servants” and their loyal bureaucratic counterparts in office. To make things worse, the steps one needs to go through to implicate these criminals are so complicated that you would grow old trying to initiate any action against anyone. More recently the media seems to be undertaking sting operations to shine some light on the bribery problem, but the attempts are few and far between. I know that no country is perfect but to be one of the worst 5 in terms of bribery is not something to be proud of. I believe this nonchalantly immoral way of conducting business at the highest levels of public office does trickle down. Ultimately the laws remain only as effective as those who enforce them.

In spite of all these challenges we will continue our growth because of our hard working middleclass. However, in order to see the end of slums and poverty as only we know it, the attitude of entitlement paraded by politicians and government officials need to go. Who ties the bell around the cat’s neck and how seem to be the open questions. Only time will tell!

-Vijayasarathy-