Urban poverty is real — and Buzzfeed does not get it
In a Buzzfeed article titled “The Urban Poor You Haven’t Noticed: Millennials Who’re Broke, Hungry, But On Trend,” author Gayatri Jayaraman makes an interesting case for what she believes is poverty. However, she does not quite get it. Without going into the semantics of what constitutes poverty, here is a handy listicle (Buzzfeed’s favorite format), to identify if you are urban poor or not.
It’s ok to not be poor, but it is extremely churlish to make fun of poor people’s circumstances.
Six signs that you are urban poor (in India)
- You borrow money for school education and healthcare, because the free government schools and hospitals will ruin your child’s future and health respectively
- The fare in the non-ac crowded bus is too much. You hope the conductor doesn’t have the time to reach you before your stop
- You have borrowed money from the local hustler, and pay upwards of 20% per annum as interest
- You think that banks are only for rich people
- You can get a job at babajobs, only if you knew that it existed
- The local politician has offered you liquor/biriyani/watches to vote for him
Nine signs that you are not urban poor
- You pay your rent in checks, and not cash
- You have entered a microbrewery, Starbucks or even Cafe Coffee Day
- Your education loan is in dollars
- You have bought an Apple product
- You are familiar with surge pricing and UberPool
- You have ordered stuff from Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart or Amazon
- You have bought multiplex tickets
- Your parents send you money
- You are reading this
