Being poor in Hyderabad

The 1800's marked significant change in India as skilled weavers were replaced by British manufacturers that industrialized the cloth making industry.  In many places in India, the art of weaving was lost as skilled workers moved from the looms to the fields to grow cotton, indigo and opium.  During this time, cities in India dropped significantly in population as these workers moved into rural areas to farm making education of the population even more difficult. Today, the poor are moving back into the cities as unskilled laborers. Women in these villages, as in rural India, lack public sanitation and must wait till night time to simply go to the bathroom. There is a great article here about how India is trying to tackle this problem, but it highlights the lack of infrastructure and sanitation available in India. Sanitation is not the only problem for these people.  The level of poverty and disparity of income are more substantial than the United States, and clean water for these families is at a premium. The difference between the educated and uneducated is stark.

When I discussed the homogenous nature of rich and poor in Hyderabad, one of my coworkers quickly pointed out that the poor are needed in the cities to build Hyderabad's expanding skyline. Laborers don't have the money to travel long distances from home to job sites, so tent cities and tin villages pop up where ever there is unclaimed or unused land that may be right next to a multimillion dollar Bollywood mansion. This morning, I walked into one of these enclaves between my hotel and an amazing residential area in Hyderabad.  Compared to some of the tin villages I've visited, this one is a pretty nice one.

The village pilfers electricity from a nearby apartment complex and a few of the residents even have television. The women of the village spend part of their day collecting water while the men of the village work as laborers or other unskilled jobs. In some cases, the women go with them to job sites and sell water, tea and food to the workers.  The children in these villages do not receive an education and are stuck in the cycle of poverty that many are in India.

This little boy in the picture was as intrigued with me as I was with him.  He's one of the many children that lived here. Many people passed thought this area oblivious to this child.  When I watched the people cross through this little neighborhood, I realized how numb they were to the life of the people here. The lady in the picture below is traveling from a her upscale residential area through this village to get to work.  

This is a sharp contrast to where I sleep and where I work. I've travelled with other employees from America that only travel to the office and back to the hotel to stay inside their air-conditioned bubbles safe from the site and conditions of the Hyderabad. Sometimes, people worry about their safety. Other times, I realized that people are uncomfortable seeing this level of poverty. 

Even though these people live in  their tin huts, I still love seeing the colorful dress of the women in India. This young lady is telling asking this boy to fetch something from another villager. The purple dress and orange shirt remind me of India's Moghul period when India was known for it's cloth and weaving.  Before I left the village, I shot two more shots of some children there. 

    









I left the village back toward my hotel and caught a picture of a few Indians ruffling through the discarded wastes looking for anything of use. I knew this was their morning ritual because it's the second day I've seen these men scavenging near this village.

I also waited to post a few pics from yesterday that highlight this contrast between the skilled and unskilled. The first picture shows a camp of indian men that spend their nights under the stars of India.  It's hard to call these guys homeless in the traditional sense since some it appears that most of them are laborers for the nearby construction projects. I also caught a little girl selling tea to laborers on a construction site. When I left the office yesterday, she was still serving tea and water, not getting an education. 

I'm a firm believer that education is a difference maker in Hyderabad and in India, but India is yet to develop an education system that can meet the masses. I find it ironic that India has socialized medicine, but it can't educate it's future. In the past, I've watched students take their entrance exams at a local testing center while their parents wait outside. When scores are posted, there are tears for those that score high and look forward to a new life.