I will always remember the sight of those families living in small and precariously built slum houses spread out near Mumbai’s modern international airport. My recent visit to India, the second most populous country in the world, made me realise how oblivious many of us are to suffering in other parts of the world.
India is a country with a remarkable history and a rich and diverse culture. I enjoyed interacting with its people and exploring the historical ties between them and the people of the UAE. We share a lot of traditions and practices that draw us close to each other.
My first visit to India was a learning experience. I had read about the poverty, through newspaper articles and books such as Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram, a novel that vividly portrays the tumultuous life in Mumbai. But seeing all this in real life hit me. Poverty, disturbing as it is, must be seen in order to be comprehended.
Urban poverty and homelessness is inescapably visible in India. You see it on every street. The country is home to more than a third of the world's poorest people. In 2012, it had the highest fatality rate for children under five, according to the UN Millennium Development Goals report 2014. Yet it is also a technologically advanced nation that recently sent a spacecraft to orbit Mars.
On the streets of Mumbai, children of all ages, with ragged clothes, their feet bare, beg for food and money. You see them hanging around shops, smiling at you or singing out loud to get your attention. Desperate mothers plead for money to feed their children. Some of them sell handmade gajra (a traditional white jasmine garland) to tourists.
When we were in a taxi, a woman tapped repeatedly on the window with her right hand. In her left hand, she held a sickly looking infant, who was crying. As soon as we noticed her, she took her fingers and put them to her mouth and then to the little baby’s mouth. They were hungry.
On each occasion this happened, the taxi driver would warn us against giving money to street beggars. “If you give money to one of them, they will tell others about it, and soon enough you will be surrounded by many people asking you for money and food,” he would tell us.
I wondered how well-heeled Indians could continue to live their lives surrounded by such visible and alarming poverty. How could they turn a blind eye to such scenes every day?
But this is the harsh reality of India: pervasive corruption, lack of opportunity and extreme poverty.
In the UAE, we are privileged to have a much better standard of living. Most of us have everything we need. And when we travel, we mostly go to more developed places, avoiding the visible poverty of countries such as India.
Our children grow up surrounded by expensive toys, not realising how children in other countries struggle just to meet their basic daily needs. Many of us in the UAE can’t imagine living without branded clothes and accessories, or without the latest most advanced smartphones. It is easy for us to lose sight of what is happening elsewhere in the world, even in our own neighbourhood.
According to the World Bank, 1.2 billion people around the globe are in a state of extreme poverty, living on less than $1.25 (Dh4.59) a day. When those of us in developed countries hear of such statistics, we may feel sorry for the poor and, perhaps, we will donate some money – but then we continue to live our lives as before. How many of us take account of the fact that we spend substantial amounts of money on unnecessary things?
I don’t think I will ever forget what I have encountered in Mumbai – the crying children, the desperate mothers, the homeless families. I can’t help thinking that something must be done.
To be clear, I am not advocating visiting slums for tourism purposes. This has been rightly criticised as portraying poverty as exotic, exploiting slum residents and misrepresenting their culture, without doing anything to help them on the ground.
But there are positive steps that can be taken. One approach could be to get more Emiratis to participate in programmes such as Volunteer Globally, which allows young volunteers to visit developing countries and help improve lives in impoverished communities. For example, they could help people build houses and learn new skills.
This would provide our young people with a greater insight and understanding – and encourage them to continue to do something meaningful for the less fortunate people of the world.
aalmazrouei@thenational.ae
@AyeshaAlmazroui
