Summary Of Behind The Beautiful Forevers

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In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo puts readers into the shoes of slum dwellers in the Indian city of Mumbai. This is a place where the people have to hustle and bend the rules in order to survive and provide for their families. Hardly anyone who lives in Annawadi has a real job. In order to make a living, the people rely on and even fight over the garbage they find which is thrown out by the nearby airport hotels. The hospitals are unclean with no medicine because doctors sell it on the black market, police are only there to help whoever gives them most money, and schooling is hardly even considered due to the lack of funding. Instead of what America is accustomed to, in this area of the world education, safety and good…show more content…
In Annawadi the only free school is the municipal school near the airport. This school stops at the eighth grade, and the teachers are often absent and lack the ability to give a proper education. Due to this issue most parents do not waste time sending their children to the municipal schools. Since there are a lot of parents who do not send their children there it is also why no one seems to make an effort to change it. If the slum residents want to attend the ninth grade and beyond, then they would have to pay for a private school. This is not possible for a lot of these people. College is even more unthought of because how competitive it is. Since school is not required the majority of the parents do not want to send their children because they believe that they would be better off helping the family sort through garbage. For example Abdul’s parents took him out of school in order to replace his father as a garbage sorter when his father became ill with tuberculosis. “You didn’t have a mind for school, anyway, his father recently observed. Abdul wasn't sure he’d had enough schooling to make a judgement either way. In the early years, he'd sat in a classroom where nothing much…show more content…
I believe if education was mandatory and if there were equal education opportunities for all the people in Annawadi the amount of poverty would be minimized. I believe it would also decrease the amount of corruption in the society. I think it would make a positive impact on the hospitals and other government ran facilities. Without education, people are not exposed to new ideas and innovation. Education one of the things that derives people to change what is not benefiting them. India would be able to have a more globalized economy and the people would have more opportunity if they became educated to speak English too. For all theses reasons I believe education is the most significant way to end the poverty among the people in

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