January 18, 2024

What is your purpose here?

“What is your purpose here?” asked the apparently drunk man who rather aggressively confronted our group as we were leaving a slum community on the outskirts of Northwest Bengaluru, where we had spent the previous ten or so minutes speaking with community members. After some back-and-forth arguing in Kannada, the man turns back to our group of students and again asks: “What is your purpose here?” After the situation was diffused, we rather quietly made our way back to the school we had just visited, allowing for some important reflection. To the credit of the drunk man, a group of nine or so foreign tourists would generally have no business being in a slum other than exploitation as a part of the ever-growing poverty tourism industry. Despite our seemingly best intentions of visiting the slum to have a firsthand account of the lives of some of the individuals we were most hoping to support with our projects, we could not escape the moral dilemma of visiting a slum. In the eyes of an observer, a valid criticism of our visit could be that we are no different than zoo visitors: we show up, look around, maybe get some information, and then leave without any benefit to anyone other than us. We extract information and impressions but leave nothing of value behind. However, one could also argue that we would never be able to adequately address the needs of the urban poor if we do not see, smell, hear, and feel it for ourselves, if not just to understand but a fraction of their lives a bit better. While this may not be a popular opinion, I would argue that, best intentions be damned, we will have participated in poverty tourism if we in turn do not make a genuine attempt at improving the lives of the slum residents if not just at the margins. As long as we use the information we learned for advocacy and action as opposed to self-satisfaction, I believe we will do right by the members of the community we visited and any future communities we interact with. While I don’t believe I have any delusions of grandeur about what we(I) can achieve over these remaining seven and a half weeks, I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish on the road to making a positive change in the lives of the residents of Bengaluru if ever so slightly.

By Yak

Here’s a picture of a dog eating a chicken foot