The Economic Disparity

The Economic Disparity- the hard way...

I am a law student. I am in the last year of law. & I am also interning at the present. During my internship, I need to visit the civil courts or the high court at times, either for submissions or obtaining statuses or receiving copies.

Yesterday was one such day. I had to visit the District Court at Alibag for receiving certain documents from an Advocate appointed. As I reached the Court, I was welcomed by the familiar hustle & bustle that you find in every court. I could see so many advocates, so many interns & so many people- people who were parties to various cases- people who had come there for their own good reasons.

As I waited outside the Chamber before the Court began, I saw 3 people sitting just opposite me. There was a woman of around about 35, a girl of around 5, with maybe her brother who was around 15. By their appearance, it was evident that they were very poor. The lady was wearing a torn saree- rather, two different pieces of sarees torn out & sewed together, the girl was wearing a frock, & the guy was wearing a pant-which was completely torn from beneath with a shirt which barely resembled a piece of a cloth. Now,nobody needs a wise man here to tell that they were poor than the poorer.

The day passed & I was done with my work - partially. As the court's first half ended & they  broke for lunch, I again sat down at the same place. All this while, that family of 3 hadn't uttered a single word- even amongst each other.

Being the ever intriguing one, I asked the advocate accompanying them as to what had happened & why were they here. He informed me that the lady had lost her husband in an accident near the village & they had claimed an amount from the insurance company.

I instantly felt bad for them.

Before I could ask anything else, the advocate excused himself for a call.

I asked the lady, "Kitne ka claim hai?" The lady just stared at me. Maybe she didn't understand what I had asked her.

"4 Lakh ka", the boy answered me.

"Oh.." I uttered & smiled.

He smiled back & said, "Ye vakil Saab bohot acha hai. 4 lakh milega humko unka wajah se. Sab thik Ho jayenga ab."

I didn't know what to say. Here was a guy of 15, who had lost his father, had a mother & a sister- all three illiterate, with clothes barely covering them, with a vast life ahead of them - & they were grateful to God, rather the Advocate, for helping them get 4 lakh rupees.

"Kya karoge ye pese ka?" I asked.

"Ghar banayega." He answered back excitedly.

"Ghar banaoge? Usse acha bank me daalo na pesa, ghar banane me adhe se jyada khatam Ho jayega. Bank me daloge toh bachega aur badhega."

"Nai madam. Ghar banana hai. Uss din baarish aya dekho, jhopda udd Gaya. Bohot taklif hota hai. Ghar hi banaunga me." He replied.

I felt upset. Not because I thought he was to give up the entire amount In just building a house. But I felt upset because of his economic condition. 

Here was a guy who was happy on getting an amount like 4 lakh, he dreamed about building a house from that & he also felt that his & the families' life was secured by the amount. The disparity amongst people of our society is very disturbing at times. It puts your mind into a temporary shock. Not that we do not know that there exist people out there who are poor, who have nothing to eat on days, who are maybe poorer than this poor kid in front of me. But when you suddenly witness such a situation before you, that is when the intensity strikes you like a thunder.

Meanwhile,their advocate returned back. 

I later got to know that the lady's husband was a workman, a majdur. Somebody took him to the city for "work", where he slogged for an entire year, & came back at the end with a sum of rupees 2000 only. & that was one of the highest earning the family had encountered ever. So these 4 lakh rupees meant a lot to them. Maybe equivalent to our 4 crores. Rather maybe even more.

All this made me realize once again that there are people out their who are so poor, so much economically backward. They have no means & ways to come up in life & that's a reality. I am not saying that they can never come up in life- some of them do, but after a lot of struggle & a lot of help. Just building schools for poor kids won't educate them really. Or just providing them free or subsidised grocery also wont really help them. Because their condition is so much beneath all this, that they would rather prefer taking the free meal & selling it off to earn them something. I had heard this incident where a social activist built a free school for such downtrodden kids, but the parents just did not send them there- because as per the mothers', the kid better go & hunt a bird to get it home to cook so that they at least have a meal for 2 days. - (& that's a real incident)

Yes, that's the condition of a huge portion of the society. They are backward, they are economically paralysed & neither do they have any help, nor do they wish to take the help that's being offered to them- because they need something altogether different.

I wont go into the economic differences or the issues or effects, neither the circumstances nor the measures for or against the "economic disparities". All I wish to say is, when you look at such people, you realise how lucky you are. You realise how you do not have to struggle for the very meagre basic things - rather the basic necessities of life. You are so much luckier than the ten thousands of people out there- who struggle every day- for every basic thing- for no fault of theirs.

& being there- sitting outside the Chamber of the Judge, I also realize another philosophy of the society- Money is what separates classes & draws the line amongst people. But when you are in the Court of Law, a person with a 100 crore property sits down on the same bench with a person whose income for the entire year is just Rs.100- both awaiting equally for the law to bestow justice to them.

(Image Source: Google Images. If used your image by any chance, contact me. Incidents hypothetical at places to express the point.)