Slums in India

The Origins of Poverty In India
Many Indian children suffer from poverty; more than 50% of India's total population lives below the poverty line, and more than 40% of this population are children. Reasons for this are embedded in India's social structure: first children are taught to accept the conditions which produce poverty, and then they perpetuate those conditions. If they are poor, Indian children and their families will do anything they can in order to survive. Often, this means repeating for themselves in generating the conditions in which their ancestors came into poverty. We contend that the following three conditions have caused India's poverty for many generations: (1) traditional cultural values, (2) discrimination, and (3) the societal oppression of children's ability to create change. Children are first born into the experience of poverty. Then, they reproduce it.

As we have stated on our "Family" page, Indian families place tremendous emphasis on religious and cultural tradition. The Indian civilization has survived for hundreds and thousands of years because of complex, perpetual socialization practices where children are taught to accept the cultural values of their ancestors.

The experience of discrimination is another origin of poverty. First, there is a clear distinction between the traditional socialization of Indian boys and Indian girls. Parents teach their daughters to be passive, dependent, and subservient so that they will grow up to be obedient wives. In contrast, Indian parents prepare their boys to be independent caretakers and providers.

Indian children find themselves categorized, however, on additional bases such as by age, and by caste. Their caste is a community, as well as a socio-economic status, that they are born into. As we have stated before, Indian children, especially those in minority groups, learn not to value their own ideas, but rather to accept their poor fate and perpetuate India's trusted cultural traditions. The suppression of women, children, and lower class Indians significantly limits the amount of humans who may contribute to this nation's growth, and keeps many of these individuals impoverished.