Ressources > Misconceptions about the poor
Misconceptions about the poor
#1 The poor are defeated and misfits
In India, the poor are aware of their poverty but have exemplary resilience. This resilience is expressed in particular by their desire for their children to receive a decent education so that they can rise socially. This is one of the main reasons why parents entrust their children to HSP, thus offering hope for a better future for future generations.
#2 The poor take advantage of the system
The poor receive almost nothing from the system; assistance is virtually nonexistent. For example, the disability allowance amounts to €10 per month. If no one can take care of them, they have no choice but to work if their disability allows it or to beg, being easy prey for ill-intentioned people. This is why HSP takes care about 20 disabled adults without families because the system does not want to take care of them. Morevoer, they don't have any insurance. For example, one of the girls in our centers was living in decent conditions, then her father died, and she had to move in with her family under the stairs of a hospital in Howrah.
#3 The poor are lazy
Poor people hold the most physically demanding jobs. For example, in brickyard, where they carry very heavy loads on their heads all day long in the heat of the notoriously harsh Indian summer. The same goes for tea field workers, day laborers in construction, and so on. These are all jobs that would be banned in Europe due to their physical strain and poverty wages. Infortunately those jobs are the only available for them in order to take care of their family. Furthermore, children are also working on those jobs.
#4 The poor are responsible for their misery
Blaming poor Indians for their own misery ignores centuries of colonization, systemic inequality, and rigid social structures like the caste system. Their poverty is not a choice but the result of an unjust historical legacy, unequal access to education, land, and economic opportunity. Moreover, it is a vicious circle: financial poverty is compounded by social poverty, health problems and a lack of education. No other path is offered to them than that of misery.
#5 The poor are the source of problems (pollution, delinquency, etc.)
Poor people hold the most physically demanding jobs. For example, in brick kilns, where they carry very heavy loads on their heads all day long in the heat of the notoriously harsh Indian summer. The same goes for tea field workers, day laborers in construction, and so on. These are all jobs that would be banned in Europe due to their physical strain and poverty wages.
