Mumbai Workshop – 2
Mumbai is dirty! There are piles of refuse and waste littering the streets, the waterways are black and their banks littered with plastic. Its Hot, sweaty, smelly and crowded. There seems to be no plan in how the city has developed.
Mumbai is a city of contrast, with extremes from “wow!! to whoa!?”. From poverty to riches.
But I look at Mumbai from my western perspective.
I was driven past slums and my first western glance was these are sad places, people are suffering, are abused and used, and it is abject poverty. Its not right! Its unacceptable! Its wrong! I think most of us would associate them with lack of choice, disease, filth and poverty.
The teachers attending the economics workshops here, had the opportunity to do a slum tour. I did not have the chance to go and I regret this as an opportunity missed. I suspect that I would have gone in with a preconception of the slum based on my limited experience and sheltered perspective. I know from talking to the workshop leaders and the participants that these pre-conceptions would have not been changed they would have been shattered.
Those who went saw a vibrant community, where every one had a job, where people shared and community was central. The slum they visited was incredibly productive, generating over 100 million dollars per annum. The people they saw had a happiness quotant that was higher that most people in the western world. The families there were close, with positive relationship, supportive and caring. Many of the people in the slum chose to live there. There were airline hostesses, lottery winners and people who owned apartments in South Mumbai. There were businesses exporting to Europe, including a very interesting bakery producing pastries for a major retail chain.
Yes, the slum was disorganised, ramshackle and dirty. Is there poverty and disease Yes. Yes, some of the industries there were unsafe and dangerous and Yes, people there were (in some cases) be exploited. Its not perfect, but it is also not what it appears on the surface from our, often limited, perspective. many choose to live, many happily work there to. My driver from the hotel, immaculately presented and bueatifully spoken, lives in the slum.
I was guilty of using a broad brush to paint my opinion. The conversations I had have caused me to step back and reconsider what I have believed and the assumptions I have made.
Interesting Huh? I wish I had gone on that tour.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I realized there was something different about poverty in India when I saw families living in little more than cardboard boxes who were washing and ironing their children’s school uniforms by the side of the road. Of course, ironing clothes by the side of the road was also an occupation, so perhaps these were the uniforms of other youngsters. Much of what we do by machine is done by a vast corps of working people in India — for very little money. I remember that the curbs and the white lines on the roads were all hand painted.
When I think of poverty here in New York City, I tend to think of individual homeless people in filthy, smelly clothes, trying to stay warm and sleep on the subway. While poverty in India is a huge problem, being really poor does not equate to losing your ability to live with your family and friends, or to hold a job.
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December 1st, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Wow, this was a great post – thank you. I also would have similar perceptions of the slums as you have spoken about. It would be a mind-changing situation to be able to walk through them and hear the stories these people would have to tell. Thanks for sharing.
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December 9th, 2009 at 2:34 am
I am that guy who pretended to be so experienced in ITGS – now in may villaage school in Addis Ababa.
Seriously though, you were excellent in content mastery and amazing at presentation. i think those who new the syllabus a little more gained much while the newbies had an awakening momonet.
Kudoooooos.
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