When you go in India, the majority of what  you see is poverty … It’s emotionally difficult because you can’t do anything to change it. You just have to accept their reality.

     Everything is so different in India. The streets of the city are full of cars, but mostly motorcycles, bikes, tuk tuk, cows and thousands of people passing by. The ground is covered by trash, dust, water, other kinds of liquid, cow excrement, offerings… The air is badly polluted. Most of the time, it smells garbage, cows and gasoline. The sky is grey; everyday. The heat is unbearable. We can hear all the horns, and just the horns because they are just so loud and there is just so much, we can barely hear ourselves talking.

There is millions of people in the streets, just so much people at all time. There is people from 00:00 to 23:59. Some people are selling objects or food, some bicycle or motorcycle are so much loaded that it causes circulation problems, overflowing buses, disabled people, beggars, people who go to work… Over all this you add cows who walk wherever they want causing a lot of traffic,  and thousands of tuk tuk. I think it’s the perfect definition of chaos.

     As a mather of fact, there is 1,70 millions homeless peoplein the country. It’s one of the biggest issues in India. They live on pavements, roadsides, railway platforms, staircases, temples, streets, in pipes or other open space. Just to cross the streets is a big deal, but to live there I can imagine that it’s a nightmare. India is the country where the growth rate is the highest in the world but also where the number of poor people is the highest. 54.8% of the population which is about 622 millions of the population who is living under the daily income who is at only 1,35 dollars. This means that more than the half of the population receive less than 1,35$ per day. How are you supposed to buy a house and buy food for all your family with this small amount of money? Quite simply,

the  majority of the Indians leave in extreme poverty.

      We count the homeless when they don’t have a roof but…

Do you really consider this as a house? They sleep on the ground without anything. They don’t have a door or window are a real roof. I chose this one, but the majority leave in similar houses, worst or just a little bit better.

The majority of the tourist go to see the most beautiful things like: the Taj Mahal or the Golden Temple where there is no garbage on the streets, no people sleeping next to cars and cows, they  just want to see the beautiful part. I think that when you go to somewhere like this you can’t hide the fact that they are poor or live completely differently than us. It’s an horrible reality for them and I think we have to be conscious of their situation.

     When you see the surrounding, the odour ,the sky, the heat, the sounds… You quickly understand their reality. Even when you saw all this, it’s when you live it that you can’t exactly know what is like to live in this kind of conditions. It helps you understand the chance you have to live in Canada and increase your awareness. You can help one family or a small community, but it’s impossible to change the poverty around the complete world. 

Written by: Audrey Côté

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Photo taken by: Audrey Côté