Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

India’s poverty is not so different from other places I’ve been like Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar or Indonesia -- it’s just amplified by a few hundred million people.

India is SO much more than its poor. I partly agree with those who say movies like Slumdog Millionaire pander to Western stereotypes of India. There's a huge middle class and judging by the way they work and produce, their economy may overtake us one day. Plus, the existence of poor people in every visible direction is a constant reminder to the middle class what could happen if they fail. Maybe this is why they work so hard and have such ambition. But the extreme poor still exist here, and it's so raw and unavoidable, especially in a city where I’ve mostly taken doorless rickshaws -- the beggars come right up while you're waiting in traffic.

Everyone should experience being approached by a child beggar at least once in life. I doubt it builds character, but it’s a reminder of how much worse millions of people have it. You must face it.

Homeless beggar children act the same way in every country I’ve seen since 10 years ago in Peru. They don’t budge after you try and shoo them away -- just standing holding their hand out for money and pointing toward their mouths. Really tests the nerves and even the most callous asshole will have his heartstrings affected.

The hard part is the way they stand and stare with those eyes, and me having to repeatedly say no, then pretending to ignore the tragedy a few feet below my face. For adult beggars, at least they get the message quick and move on. Homeless children are different, and damn persistent -- like any kid who really really wants something.

At the Delhi train station platform I saw something rougher than I’d seen elsewhere. I was sitting reading a book when I felt small hands on my bald head. I figured it was a beggar child, so I glanced up to see two six-year-old girls holding their hands out for money. I tried to brush them off, but as usual, they persisted. That’s when I looked up to see that one of the girls was holding a tiny dirty baby -- maybe 10 months old -- whom they had trained to make the same hand motion toward its small mouth for food. Holy God.

If you give them money, in five minutes, you will have 10 more children asking for 10 more handouts. It’s exponential and doesn’t help anyway.

On the way back from the station at night, we passed hundreds of homeless men sleeping on the sidewalk -- so many you’d have to step over one every three feet. Life is lived a little closer to the bone over here.

I have no experience in poverty alleviation, but my trite opinion on this heavy issue is that there are at least two things that could help the poor of India: more industry and less fucking.

On the first point, simply put, I am FOR child labor and "sweat shops" in poor countries. Let me offer a photo I took during the business section of my trip to back this point. This was taken three stories up on a feed mill that was being built in rural India. You can see the young boy on the left holding a small dish used to hold concrete for his uncle or father. The boy is probably seven years old:



What is wrong with this in a country where thousands of children beg on the street and dig through filthy trash piles for recyclables? For people in the West, "child labor" is something you're supposed to be aghast at without much thought, but I wonder how many have seen the real alternatives to their perceptions of kids working. This construction site employed hundreds of poor Indians to do paid work. Granted, it's often dangerous work: for example, they use those turbans as substitutes for helmets. This is often the best option to begging on the street or train platforms in India. The choices many children have are FAR WORSE than being employed in projects like this or in some factory assembling cell phones or sneakers. This is something that the NY Times has eloquently said in the past -- and I agree 100%.

The other (less realistic) solution is for Indians to stop breeding so damn fast. In India, we were never asked, "Do you have kids?" -- always, "How many kids do you have?" Because, of course, it would be INCONCEIVABLE for a married couple not to have multiple kids.

Anyway, that's my assessment of the situation.