Poverty

My recent visit to India was incredible. It was a vacation like no other I have ever been on. I saw amazing sites, ate delicious food, and met fascinating people. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. But, the experience itself was not always enjoyable.

Forget the rats crawling over my legs, the lying taxi drivers, or the filthy conditions, what truly upset me was the overwhelming crush of poverty that is so unavoidably present in Indian life. From the minute we arrived in Mumbai, it was obvious that wealth was not pervasive in this society. This was expected from all that I had heard of the place beforehand. What I was not prepared for was the omnipresent destitution.

It was nearly impossible to glance around Mumbai (or frankly, many of the other cities in India) without seeing at least one homeless person. It was truly impossible to stop on a street, whether in a car or on foot, and not be accosted by beggars. Tiny children wandered around without clothing and full of vacant stares, yearning for loose change. Shifty adults eyed the children, collecting their earnings before they could be spent or lost. Cripples abounded, twisted by deformities that surely would have been corrected in childhood had they been born in a more affluent country.

Perhaps most disturbing, though, was my gut reaction to pull away and act niggardly with my money. I repeatedly turned down beggars whose demands represented minuscule fractions of not only my own accounts, but even what I had in my pockets. I was able to mollify myself partially by making a point of buying handmade crafts when I could, thereby seeing the money go where I wanted it. But there was still a pressing sadness, and more so, a sense of futility. No amount of charity could 'solve' the poverty in India. Only a true, top to bottom vitalization of the economy could.

I am not a socialist. I do not think that this is the role of the government, entirely. Rather, I find hope in a cross of government subsidized assistance (such as medical care) and the encouragement of an open and fair market economy. This is why I believe in the work of microfinance organizations such as Kiva.org. They offer an opportunity to support the base of an economy, not charity. If this interests you, and you like the idea of donating money and being repaid, please take a look at the link on the side of the page.