“Middle-class individuals live in a bubble unaware of the struggles of real India” - as much as someone belonging to this section of the population might want to disagree, I believe that this is true. And I believe this solely because the issues faced by lower-income families and people living in generational poverty are more than just the problem of finance. The issues lie in not having even minimal security, healthcare, education or opportunities. And we are in a bubble not because we aren’t aware of the issues, it’s because we aren’t aware of their extent. It is because we are largely preoccupied with our worries and struggles that we may find ourselves in this bubble of self-preservation and we may not even be aware of it.
Debating about or questioning the term 'real India' and wondering whether we aren’t a part of it is going to get us nowhere because that is all we will remain doing: debating.
How many of us in class today would have had to constantly worry about not being able to afford one meal a day? Or not knowing if we would be able to pay the bus fare? Or not be able to pay a general medical practitioner’s nominal fee after falling sick? To many of us, these concerns may seem trivial, insignificant even. I think it is safe to assume that amongst us college students attending classes online, we might not have worried about completing our school education growing up. Most of us may have harboured dreams of going to college and securing a job, all while knowing that these hopes weren’t impossible or far-reaching. For people living in poverty, however, this is quite possibly a luxury to even think of. Not being able to afford even everyday necessities - let alone education or basic healthcare facilities - is unimaginable to most of us. And we know this, no doubt, having seen people struggle, I’m sure we are aware of these issues. But awareness does not equal experience and certainly isn’t enough for change to happen.
Nobody is denying the existence of problems in the lives of middle-class individuals, but we need to understand that this problem in question isn’t even about us. Debating about or questioning the term “real India” and wondering whether we aren’t a part of it is going to get us nowhere because that is all we will remain doing: debating. And this to no effect because this isn’t our reality being questioned or debated about here. Like these two gentlemen Matt and Tushar who decided to live like the average Indian for a month, we can step into the shoes of people living in poverty to experience it for a while, taste guilt and remorse, like them and step out of it too, as they did. But to a significant portion of our population, this is the inescapable reality they have to deal with every day.
The experiences of Matt and Tushar serve as a harrowing reminder of how little we know about the harsh everyday realities for a significant portion of the Indian population that lives below the poverty line. And even if we were aware of it, we realise how little we may have contributed to improving the situation for such people. Without having experienced it closely, we can only ever manage to scratch the surface of understanding such a multi-pronged issue that has its roots deep in our society. We need to understand that the reality of this problem is much darker and deeper than just numbers and percentages on a dashboard. Understanding that this is not about us and learning to exercise empathy is probably the first steps we need to take towards doing something about the metaphorical bubble we live in, and hopefully, improve the situation for the better.
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