Behind The Beautiful Forevers

Behind The Beautiful Forevers will make you more grateful for what you have, look for ways to tear down corruption in the world, and help the poor by sharing the experiences of people living in the Annawadi slum in India.

Danger is everywhere in these areas. This comes in the form of diseases, violence, and lack of protection from police, among other things.

Because the land that they live on is not a legal settlement, Annawadians don’t have any sewer and are forced to dump their waste into a nearby sewage lake. Animals drink from the sewage waste and disease-ridden excrement all over, which gets the residents sick. Not only this, but the waste lake also breeds mosquitos with malaria and diseased rats.

When they do get sick or injured, access to medicine is a huge problem, because even the healthcare system is corrupt. Even when medicine should be covered by the state, hospitals charge the Annawadians and take advantage of their desperation.

Children of the slums are frequently hit by cars while crossing busy streets to get to school, and most often, the drivers do not even stop. When a child dies, the police don’t even bother to investigate.

When a 15-year-old boy is killed, everyone around can see it was plainly murder. The cops call it tuberculosis so they don’t have to investigate further. In cases of utter desperation, sick children may be killed by their own parents because they know they have no way to pay for their care. Others turn to suicide because they feel so trapped.

Corruption is also everywhere.

An example we learn of this is the school the Annawadi children attend. It is funded through charitable donations, but unfortunately, these get misused.

The woman who runs it puts her daughter who is unqualified in charge of the school. And to make it as profitable as possible, she has her daughter only teach on days when the charity supervisor drops in to check on things.

Though the people long to take part in the political process and vote, the government makes it hard for them. This is because they are seen as criminals just for living in the slums. The only way they can get a voter card is to bribe the officials.

The people know the police will only help them with bribes. When one of the residents, Abdul, was arrested unlawfully for something he didn’t do, the police beat him and try to terrify him into taking out a loan to pay them huge bribes. This is the only way he can avoid having the false charges filed against him.