`` Red Tape : The Bureaucracy, Structural Violence And Poverty

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

During the film, the subject of poverty was actively depicted. Even though this issue has raised great concerns for India in the past, statistics show that this problem has gradually decreased. In 1978 the percentage of people living on less than $2

The Gilded Age in American History was a time period of great controversy. Those in wealthier classes believed the changes that had been made socially were for the best. For instance, Andrew Carnegie in the The Gospel of Wealth sees the industrialization in a positive light. He, along with other Robber Barons of the late nineteenth-century are the ones that created the idea of a “Gilded Age”. His class of folks believed their contributions to society was bringing back a Golden Age. Carnegie, though, didn’t necessarily approve of the wealth distribution and was aware there was an issue. However, others didn’t feel exactly the same. Upton Sinclair shows this in the novel, The Jungle. The novel highlights the social injustice and unfair treatment of the working class in the nineteenth century. Although a work of fiction, the novel brings to light true occurrences from heavily populated cities during this time period. In several instances, the novel details how the quickly rising issue of poverty in the United States wasn’t treated, as it should’ve been. In addition to Sinclair and Carnegie, there were several other views on either ends of the spectrum. Whether it was a view of the poorer class; or that of the wealthy class, the opinions were very controversial and gave a strong sense of the issues that occurred throughout the Gilded Age.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mahatma Gandhi’s words still ring true in today’s society. Poverty is nothing to sweep under the rug or put on the back burner. While many statistics state that poverty is decreasing, other sources state the opposite. Poverty is a hot topic in the U.S., foreign countries, and speaks true about many genders, ethnic groups, and children.

In his book, "Promises not kept" Isbister explains to us that most of the people living in poverty stricken Asia, South America, and Africa are plagued by disease, danger and uncertainty. Isbister asks us the question of why social change in the third world has come to a halt and how come there is massive and swelling poverty that continues to plague almost all of the developing countries. Social scientists have developed different approaches to help understand why there is poverty in the third world and also to help seek out the answers to why poverty keeps on persisting.

Despite the many attempts to eliminate poverty, the problem has never been solved. Even though these efforts have helped lower the numbers of people becoming poverty-stricken every year it the numbers still seems to progress. In the novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers Author, Katherine Boo brings a different perspective. Boo takes the reader into the Annawadi slum of Mumbai, India. The Slum was presented a jumbled, filthy and impoverished area hidden from the view of westerners and better-off Indian citizens beyond the concrete wall. Her Novel Serves as a snapshot into the lives of the impoverished people of Annawadi and a great comparison to poverty lines in America. In this essay, I will compare the way that Katherine Boo has presented the miserable lives of those in the slums and the poverty-stricken in America today.

The Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research conducted a study using data gathered from 46 developing countries to examine child poverty. The results found over a third of children lived in absolute poverty or in homes of more than five people.134 million 7-18 year olds lack basic education and over 375 million drink unsafe water. Civil war added to all of this makes for a hard existence  (Newbold et al.,

The government also promises to the poor, better schools and hospitals. Balram’s father died because there was improper medical care in their home town, and the life expectancy in India is only 66.8 years. There are nearly 1,189,172,906 people in India and only 61% of the people living in India are literate. In New Delhi, though, the government does fulfill its promises to the rich. They live unaware and uncaring of the slums surrounding their middle class lives. The government makes promises of better livelihoods to its people that are never fulfilled; causing India’s poor to remain in the slums and the government to have little understanding of the problems poor people face.

Poverty and oppression is a serious condition that is prevalent even in today’s modern society. Women and children are exposed to poverty and subjected to a life of injustice. One of the countries where such problems still occur is in India. Despite the country’s modernization, there lies an undercity where the disparity of wealth is transparent. These social problems are thoroughly described in movies and literature such as Slumdog Millionaire and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Catherine Boo, the author describes slum life for a set of individuals and the hardship that their social conditions confined them to. Another movie that gave insight to slum life in India is Slumdog Millionaire

Katherine Boo, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former reporter and editor at The Washington Post, has worked for over two decades “reporting within poor communities, considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty” (Boo 257). In November 2007, she and her husband, an Indian citizen, moved from the United States to India to study a group of slum dwellers in Annawadi, Mumbai (Boo 249). While studying this group of individuals in India from 2007 to 2011, Boo’s goal was to learn why the individuals within this slum have not banded together against a common enemy in order to gain upward mobility. She illustrates several common issues of developing nations including: corruption, education, the mismanagement of foreign aid, and the possibility for social mobility in her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In this literary work, Boo accurately portrays the acts of corruption and as well as how corruption has entered the sphere of education, which is typically an individual’s only avenue to social mobility and success in that area. She argues that instead of rising up against a higher power, the individuals within the slum fight against one another to get a leg up on their competition, even if it keeps them in the same social class.

One of the largest areas of concern around the globe is the poverty levels. Over the last 40 years governments have been influenced by neoliberal ideologies and poverty has increased on a

Amartya Sen presented a path breaking argument for the measurement of poverty. Capability school of thought presented a multi dimensional approach for the measurement of poverty. According to his capability theory, it is not having the capability that causes and brings about poverty. For instance, he suggests that urban poor are deprived because they do not have the capacity to produce adequate incomes to consumer adequate food and nutrition and to make informed decisions and act in such a way that would ameliorate their living standards. Therefore, following Sen’s capability theory, the important elements in describing the urban poverty entail, one’s health, gender, ethnic status, nutritional and educational (Sen, 1992).

India is a country in central Asia with a population of over 1.22 billion people making it the second most populous country in the world. Its high population is one of the factors that results in India having such a high poverty rate. In India today over 37% of the population live below the poverty line. The reality of such a statistic means that these people live in conditions unimaginable to people of the western world. In the film Slumdog Millionaire by director Danny Boyle deeper ideas associated with this poverty are developed including destiny, loyalty and how poverty frees us. These deeper ideas are developed through visual techniques

This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main

Thousands of individuals are living in poverty. Why is it that this worldwide dilemma is still rising in rapid numbers till this day? Is it because of a lack of authoritative power, or a lack of one’s self control to do good? Despite the unknown cause, it has managed to drastically affect the lives of many. Poverty is like a curse, one that is wrongfully placed, difficult to get out of, and resistant to many forms of help.