A Walk In The Slums (pt. 1)

A television, a radio, a refrigerator, a bed with a mattress. Electricity.

Amenities that are supposed to be the flagships of the working middle class. Not of the poor living in tarp huts on a barren stretch of land.

During the past week, I had the opportunity to witness these “slums” firsthand in what one would expect to be an eye-opening experience.

It was, in fact, an eye-opening experience, but quite different to what I expected.

I believed the stereotype of the life of a poor laborer struggling to feed his family: working from dawn to dusk, with meager meals the highlight of a gruesome day where drudgery was the only means to survive in cruel, cruel world. And while this stereotype may be true to a certain extent, I was shocked at how this idea was so easily discarded in the slums. Led by two students from the slums, Avi, Anamika, and I walked to the slums to gather children that didn’t attend school. As I was only Duke student present that was fluent in Telugu, I had to interact with parents of the children to get permission for them to attend school. While I waited for parents to come out of their huts, I caught glimpses of an array of modern appliances – a surprising spectacle considering I was in an area with no sight of power lines.

The parents took their time to come out of the hut. The sound of the TV and laughter coming from the hut made it obvious that adults were sitting around watching TV while they left their children to play in the yard. When I requested for the children to come with us to school, the majority of the parents claimed that they were already enrolled in a nearby school. But when I questioned why the children weren’t there, the parents had no answer. It struck me as to how these parents would let their children loaf around while they themselves wasted their day watching television instead of taking care of the family.

A circle of poverty. Quite a (true) cliché.

However, it was a breath of fresh air when I met one or two parents that were actually enthusiastic about sending their kids to school.

To be continued…

A Walk In The Slums (pt. 2)