My Journey to Discover Poverty – Twin state Trail – II

My Journey to Discover Poverty – Twin state Trail – II

This blog is more internal. It is about my current state of mind as i go on to my trip to the twin states for the discovery of poverty. There are many thoughts, questions, preconceived beliefs I have about poverty which i am listing them below. After the trip, I shall enlist down my findings and we can compare what an urban guy thinks about poverty and what it is in reality. I also believe that I would be just touching the tip of the iceberg when i go on my trip. The quality and quantity of poverty would be at least a hundred times than what I touch.

My Current Belief:
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1. Discover Infrastructure within Villages (road, electricity, water). The connectivity with cities – roads, internet, phone.
- Average. Need great improvement. At least a 1000% times. Lack exact data.

2. Quality of Crops, Soil, Fields, Water
- Mostly Average but deteriorating at the rate of inflation rate with no long-term measures to preserve. Lack exact data.

3. Quality of People, Talent
- Poor (They prefer Quantity vis-avis Quality). Lack exact data.

4. Who are remaining in the villages?
- My current belief based on my last visit is that most of the young have left (or are planning) for the cities. Remaining people are women, old people and kids. Lack exact data.

5. Are they happy?
- I think they are very unhappy. Lack exact data.

6. Problems? Solutions? Suggestions?
- I think there are many problems and solutions which they have. What they lack is initiative, opportunities and energy. Lack exact data.

7. Caste Problems? Do they get money from the Cities relatives?
- Plenty of Caste Problems. They get very little money from city relatives. Lack exact data.

8. Outsider Friendly?
- They are friendly only for a little while. If they have to accept an outsider permanently, they might not welcome it. Lack exact data.

9. Illness, Disease
- There is plenty of illness, disease and lack of solutions. Drug companies, hospital have no benefit in going to these people. Lack exact data.

10. Have they been to the major cities yet? How long have they stayed out there?
- I think only the young have been to the cities. The rest might have visited for a few days, if at all. Lack exact data.

11. State of the villages in the last 10, 20, 50, 100 years
- The state of villages have grown very little in the last 100 years. Mostly at the inflation rate (10%) whereas considering the population there is at least a need of 1000% growth. Lack exact data.

12. Industries, Companies Nearby
- Very few industries and companies. Lack exact data.

13. Sanitation, Cleanliness
- There is no sense of sanitation & cleanliness. Lack exact data.

14.Superstitions
- Plenty of superstitions. Lack exact data.

15. Birds, Animals, Forest
- Plenty but depleting very fast. Lack exact data.

16. Popular Heroes
- Mostly film actors. I doubt they know much or like off Gandhi and Che. Lack exact data.

17. Definition of Poor
- My definition of poor is when a person does not have food to eat 3 times a day for a month in advance (and no possible means for the future) or is suffering serious illness. Lack exact data.

What I experienced?
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Most of the people i saw across the breadth of my trip could afford a meal and were mostly without disease. I was mostly lingering along the Mumbai-Bengalaru highway, so the neighborhood areas were a bit developed as compared to the remote areas. So as expected there was little chances of me finding any absolute poverty. The trip brought perseverance in me to make another trip into the far interiors of India. The chances to find poor people would be higher. As of now, the trip is planned for Nov’ 11.

Within 100 km of any major highway connecting the major cities of India, any person with the perseverance, will could make it to the top. There is the basic infrastructure to support one’s journey from rags to riches (My Dad was an example of this – his journey from Sirsa to Mumbai). However as compared to the developed countries like America or European one’s, our infrastructure – roads, power, water, telephone, internet in the cities and its neighborhood areas is still under-developed. The towns and cities had no planning and are chaotic. There is a huge need for planning, organization and infrastructure development. Something which the local people can start looking at. otherwise it would pose the same development problem which the current towns and cities of India are facing.

I took of into the depths of India- about a few hundred km from Goa to find poverty in this trip. This area was sandwiched between the Sahyadri mountains on one side and the water on the other side. I could find some poor people in the most remote areas – they were mostly construction workers which had come over to preserve the rain forest of this region (This was being eaten up by the villager’s need to farm and earn one’s living. A classic case of the struggle of man and nature. The other poor people did have the basic infrastructure – schools, home, electricity, water, telephone, transport (public and private).

The only thing which was lacking was private companies and employment. Most of the employment was brought by agriculture and government companies. This made it imperative for anyone who wants to make it big to travel to the cities away from their families.

My next trip to find poverty is in November of 2011 when i would go on into the most remote interior of Maharashtra – Latur.

Latur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latur_District

So long! So long!

* My definition of poor people is one who cannot afford more than one meal a day and has no provision of basic amenities after a month

CAUTION: This might be theory

Tags: Bangalore, Goa, India, Karnataka, Kudal, Maharashtra, Poverty, Pune, Real India, Solapur