Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

To me, the above photo instills several immediate thoughts. On one hand, there is a modern shopping centre, complete with many of the same brands that one could find in Western Europe or the United States. To me, this shopping centre represents the emergence of India as a modern world power, and thus, some can see it seen as a symbol of national pride. On the other hand, underneath this symbol of Indian economic growth lies an entirely different emotional experience, the slum. This slum can be seen as a symbol of how much is still needed to be done in India in order for the nation to realize it’s full economic and human potential. This glaring contrast, of course is not entirely common, many people in urban India enjoy a comfortable middle class lifestyle, however, it is certainly evident. What I have seen here though shows me that much is being done at the absolute micro, or grassroots level to alleviate this problem of the day for future generations.

What has stricken me most about India is a certain collective understanding of the merits of education and how it contributes to diminishing the glaring socioeconomic contrasts found in the photo, that, from my experiences, seems to be shared by many.  Of course, my limited experience in India cannot entirely validate this claim, however, what I have seen leads me to believe that, barring any unfortunate external circumstances, the proper education of children is an almost universal want.  I can think of no better example of this want than that of our apartment’s maid. This man, who works incredibly hard (we often see him early in the morning before we go to school, and he works until around 1830 when he comes to our apartment) and who most likely makes a very nominal salary, has dedicated himself to the idea that his daughter can realize her full intellectual potential and enjoy a more economically successful lifestyle than he. In fact, although his salary is not a great one, he sends his child to a private English-medium school so that his daughter can realize this potential. It truly is a beautiful story, a father who wants no more than for his daughter to be economically successful and will work incredibly hard to achieve this goal. This story gives me great hope for the future of India. If people continue to have this understanding that education can allow their children to live in a higher socioeconomic strata of society, and continue to do whatever it takes to realize this dream, then the problems of the day, evident in this photo, may be alleviated and the cycle of poverty, again evident in this photo, may be broken. And I am certain that this is a universal want.