Summary Of Behind The Beautiful Forevers
Sitting in a university classroom, coming from a fairly privileged socioeconomic background it is difficult to image the experiences of inhabitants living in Indian slums. Katherine Boo’s novel, ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’, coupled with course material helps begin to depict a story of poverty that many North Americans have been sheltered from. Therefore, in this paper chapter’s one and two from Boo’s novel will be analysed based on theoretical content presented in the first half of the ‘Development and the City’ course. Discussing such topics as socio-economic relations, gender differences and aspirations of those living within slums, this paper will attempt to highlight some of the constraints these individuals encounter. In addition,
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this information will help illustrate on image of Mumbai, a rapidly urbanizing city developing in terms of economic growth which is rather difficult to witness especially within slums.
Individuals and families often come with high aspirations of making a better life for themselves to often be left disappointed by the lack of opportunities in overpopulated cities, such as Mumbai. With the vast migration from rural to urban centers, Mumbai is a perfect example of the complications of rapid urbanization in the developing country of India. “As the population of Greater Mumbai pressed toward twenty million, competition for jobs and housing was ferocious”, resulting in the expansion of slums like Annawadi where this particular novel it based (12). From ‘Development and the City’ as well as other development courses one learns of the hardships of residing in slums beyond housing and employment. Due to a lack of development in infrastructure there is almost never any sanitary running water, proper human waste management facilities and due to the overcrowded nature illnesses and diseases are contracted and passed easily. In addition to this, the air quality within Mumbai is described as “spoon-it-up air” due to the immense construction and large amounts of garbage littering the city in which “people seemed to die of it all the time- untreated asthma, lung obstructions, tuberculosis” (14). And to make a bad situation worse, “Mumbai’s public hospitals were supposed to do [such] operations for next to nothing, but the hospital surgeons wanted under-the-table money” (24).
Before taking this class it did not make sense that a growing economy could have such stark inequalities in terms of development measures, such as basic infrastructures taken for granted here. However, the issue in Mumbai is that the city cannot keep up with the demands of an ever growing population. Moreover, as discussed in class India does not allow cities to except taxes for development projects and even so politicians do not know how to properly spend the surplus of income coming into the city. As a result, “a section of the city’s first metro rail was being constructed” to alleviate the congested roadways (15), while this is arguably an important issue to address, especially in reducing the levels of smog, it is not the most dyer development project needing to be taken up. For instance, it is hard to believe while sitting in a university classroom that India has not only neglected to ensure basic health care for everyone, but also education. The reality is that in the Annawadi slum “the free municipal school near the airport stopped at eighth grade, and its teachers often didn’t show up” (13). Furthermore, education past this point was even rarer, particularly for girls with “Manju, the only collage-going girl in Annawadi” as evidence of this glaring situation (23). Consequently, arguably one of the most important development measures, education, is unsatisfactory when it is actually being provided. While this is an issue in and of itself, a lack of education also impacts ones opportunities and capabilities to find employment, especially ones that pay well.
The above constraints to increasing ones socioeconomic status are substantial, but despite this people are still resilient with the novel providing evidence of many still holding on to high aspirations of a better future. While individuals such as Abdul cannot imagine a greater employment opportunity outside of being a trash collector he still envisioned money enough to provide for a family one day. In comparison his brother and friend sought to work in one of the hotels nearby the airport they resided next too, though the reality is that “many of the waiters were college-educated, tall, and light-skinned, with cellphones so shiny their owners could fix their hair in the reflection”, an image of people not known to the slums (9). As a matter of fact it is “true, only six of the slum’s three thousand residents had permanent jobs. (The rest, like 85 percent of Indian workers, were part of the informal, unorganized economy)” (6). Furthermore, in comparison to men, women living in slums face even more inequalities as well as threats that impeded their socioeconomic growth. In India women’s positions are often below that of their male counterparts and if their status changes it is through the power of a man. As a result, women more than men end up working in the informal sector doing jobs seen as traditional to their gender with working in the sex trade also a common employment opportunity. Nevertheless even for Asha “her long-term goal was to become not just slumlord but the Corporator of Ward 76” a political position giving her power over Annawadi and other slums in this district which was “made plausible by progressive, internationally acclaimed legislation” (29), which demonstrates that changes are being made.
Despite the grandiose aspirations of the young and middle aged, there is still a common norm among individuals in these situations in which “most eyes dulled with age and disappointment” (21).
As this novel so beautifully describes the constraints of migrants residing in the urban slums of Mumbai, development does not benefit everyone. In ‘Development and the City’ it is well iterated that India holds two-thirds of the world poor with a continually increasing population that is expected to surpass that of China in the next decade. Unfortunately this means that the current problems are only going to become even more exaggerated as development is unable to keep up with urbanization. Although there has been progress “in which many of India’s old problems- poverty, disease, illiteracy, child labour- were being aggressively addressed” many others have not, including “corruption and exploitation of the weak by the less weak” (28). Therefore, it would appear that the longer India avoids investing in their poorer urban population through development in infrastructure, heath care and education, the worse the situation will become. In the novel this question is asked, “Was there a soul in this enriching, unequal city who didn’t blame his dissatisfaction on someone else” (20)? From what can be seen from both ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ and ‘Development and the City’, the current answer is no, though hopefully the future will change this outlook on life by those residing in
Mumbai.
this information will help illustrate on image of Mumbai, a rapidly urbanizing city developing in terms of economic growth which is rather difficult to witness especially within slums.
Individuals and families often come with high aspirations of making a better life for themselves to often be left disappointed by the lack of opportunities in overpopulated cities, such as Mumbai. With the vast migration from rural to urban centers, Mumbai is a perfect example of the complications of rapid urbanization in the developing country of India. “As the population of Greater Mumbai pressed toward twenty million, competition for jobs and housing was ferocious”, resulting in the expansion of slums like Annawadi where this particular novel it based (12). From ‘Development and the City’ as well as other development courses one learns of the hardships of residing in slums beyond housing and employment. Due to a lack of development in infrastructure there is almost never any sanitary running water, proper human waste management facilities and due to the overcrowded nature illnesses and diseases are contracted and passed easily. In addition to this, the air quality within Mumbai is described as “spoon-it-up air” due to the immense construction and large amounts of garbage littering the city in which “people seemed to die of it all the time- untreated asthma, lung obstructions, tuberculosis” (14). And to make a bad situation worse, “Mumbai’s public hospitals were supposed to do [such] operations for next to nothing, but the hospital surgeons wanted under-the-table money” (24).
Before taking this class it did not make sense that a growing economy could have such stark inequalities in terms of development measures, such as basic infrastructures taken for granted here. However, the issue in Mumbai is that the city cannot keep up with the demands of an ever growing population. Moreover, as discussed in class India does not allow cities to except taxes for development projects and even so politicians do not know how to properly spend the surplus of income coming into the city. As a result, “a section of the city’s first metro rail was being constructed” to alleviate the congested roadways (15), while this is arguably an important issue to address, especially in reducing the levels of smog, it is not the most dyer development project needing to be taken up. For instance, it is hard to believe while sitting in a university classroom that India has not only neglected to ensure basic health care for everyone, but also education. The reality is that in the Annawadi slum “the free municipal school near the airport stopped at eighth grade, and its teachers often didn’t show up” (13). Furthermore, education past this point was even rarer, particularly for girls with “Manju, the only collage-going girl in Annawadi” as evidence of this glaring situation (23). Consequently, arguably one of the most important development measures, education, is unsatisfactory when it is actually being provided. While this is an issue in and of itself, a lack of education also impacts ones opportunities and capabilities to find employment, especially ones that pay well.
The above constraints to increasing ones socioeconomic status are substantial, but despite this people are still resilient with the novel providing evidence of many still holding on to high aspirations of a better future. While individuals such as Abdul cannot imagine a greater employment opportunity outside of being a trash collector he still envisioned money enough to provide for a family one day. In comparison his brother and friend sought to work in one of the hotels nearby the airport they resided next too, though the reality is that “many of the waiters were college-educated, tall, and light-skinned, with cellphones so shiny their owners could fix their hair in the reflection”, an image of people not known to the slums (9). As a matter of fact it is “true, only six of the slum’s three thousand residents had permanent jobs. (The rest, like 85 percent of Indian workers, were part of the informal, unorganized economy)” (6). Furthermore, in comparison to men, women living in slums face even more inequalities as well as threats that impeded their socioeconomic growth. In India women’s positions are often below that of their male counterparts and if their status changes it is through the power of a man. As a result, women more than men end up working in the informal sector doing jobs seen as traditional to their gender with working in the sex trade also a common employment opportunity. Nevertheless even for Asha “her long-term goal was to become not just slumlord but the Corporator of Ward 76” a political position giving her power over Annawadi and other slums in this district which was “made plausible by progressive, internationally acclaimed legislation” (29), which demonstrates that changes are being made.
Despite the grandiose aspirations of the young and middle aged, there is still a common norm among individuals in these situations in which “most eyes dulled with age and disappointment” (21).
As this novel so beautifully describes the constraints of migrants residing in the urban slums of Mumbai, development does not benefit everyone. In ‘Development and the City’ it is well iterated that India holds two-thirds of the world poor with a continually increasing population that is expected to surpass that of China in the next decade. Unfortunately this means that the current problems are only going to become even more exaggerated as development is unable to keep up with urbanization. Although there has been progress “in which many of India’s old problems- poverty, disease, illiteracy, child labour- were being aggressively addressed” many others have not, including “corruption and exploitation of the weak by the less weak” (28). Therefore, it would appear that the longer India avoids investing in their poorer urban population through development in infrastructure, heath care and education, the worse the situation will become. In the novel this question is asked, “Was there a soul in this enriching, unequal city who didn’t blame his dissatisfaction on someone else” (20)? From what can be seen from both ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ and ‘Development and the City’, the current answer is no, though hopefully the future will change this outlook on life by those residing in
Mumbai.