How Do You Define Poverty? When is Someone Poor Enough to Help?

Each week, I spend anywhere from 4 to 10 hours hours in the slums teaching the children, talking with the families, and learning about their lives. The children and families are living in very poor conditions. I figured if anyone is making a living sorting trash and living in a landfill has met the definition of being very poor. Many of the families I have met live in a tiny shack made from bamboo and plastics. The floors are a mixture of cardboard and plastic sheets to keep the water out, but often not very successful when it rains too long or too hard. These tiny shacks about the square footage size of a full size bed (8×6 square feet) normally house 5-7 people, adults and children.

In India, the Hindi word for naughty is “budmas” and they use the word, “cheater” to describe an Indian man who is a bad person, abusive, a drunk, and unfaithful to his wife and family. There are many “cheaters” in India and many in the slums are “cheaters”.

For children living in this environment, I would define them as being very poor and being at-risked. However, if a child has two parents regardless of their living conditions, many people in India and the government don’t considered them poor enough or at-risked enough to qualify for assistance since the “cheater” father and mother can go find jobs to care for the family. For them, they don’t view a child living in an impoverish environment with a father who drinks and is abusive as being poor enough to help. At least, that has been my experience working with many of the Indians here in Kolkata.