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Comment by pessimist | Hacker News Reader

Most Indians do in fact go out and poop in the fields every day. Most Indian commenters here are from the urban middle class and have literally never spent a minute thinking about the vast and miserable rural lower classes around them, and get incredibly offended when a westerner does in fact notice and write about them.

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I can second that. I have lived in Mumbai my whole life and a large portion of the population is slum dwelling and you can find them lining up the railway tracks or to poop in the morning with a bucket of water in hand. And this is in the city, extending into the suburbs and outside. The truth is that the country is a huge study in contrast. Slums exist right next to five star hotels and luxury residences. It is true that the number of people rising to the middle class has gone up considerably in the last decade. But what goes by unnoticed is the number of people growing up and living in poverty here has grown much faster, a side effect of the enormous population.

What you are saying is true to a large extent. What is also true is that a significant percentage of westerners continuously look for the next big shocking thing out of India to "enrich" their experience of life. That is also quite exploitative of the unfortunate people who are the subject of all this drama. There is this thing called "poverty tourism" in Europe. One of my acquaintances in Western Europe didn't think that it was worth visiting India cause he has seen it all in China. At that point I had no idea of what to make of that.

1. You don't know that ("most").

2. Water is fairly scarce in certain regions. Considering how unhygienic such toilets end up in such far off places, I probably would too.

It's not like they can't afford it (most folk carry a smartphone these days, while earning <$200 a month).

3. Rural India is generally way more hygienic than Urban India; apparently has a more even sex-ratio too.

4. I've spent time in villages from my childhood. I know why toilets were kept separated in the backyard, and why they've now moved closer home.

Please don't give me the old "white saviour" line. Chomsky and his starlings may use this line with gusto, but the vacuity of it is readily apparent for those not afraid of not being fashionable.

I also understand how the stupid policies of the state driven by such sentences of native courtiers, led to widespread agricultural failures, ridiculous price fluctuations and rural depopulation.

Do you care ? No.

5. I've also seen homeless Americans poop on the streets.

6. I'm not a fan of the whole post-colonial affair of "white guilt" milking. If you do indeed care, please tell me something that's not religious. Your experience is not divine.

Let me address your points:

1. See the latest numbers heres: http://www.thehindu.com/data/most-of-rural-india-still-opts-...

I should have qualified "most" as "most of rural", sorry. Of course rural India is 70% of the population.

2, & 4, it is indeed true that people are choosing to poop in the fields out of choice and it "feels" more hygienic to people. But it is a misguided choice - likely a major cause of disease and childhood stunting - http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjourna....

btw, I am an urban middle class Indian too. Not white by any stretch of the imagination. And where I did I say the white man is the saviour? I just said that the plight of rural Indians is completely ignored by those who complain loudly about western media views of India.

In fact I give full credit to the current government for raising awareness about toilets and trying to fix the issue.

I'm from the urban middle class but my parents grew up as miserable rural lower class. They still go out and poop in the fields at his native village. My grandfather died before my father had turned 20 and he had 3 younger siblings to take care of.

Until a couple of years ago, I used to believe the liberal claptrap about the 'vast and miserable' lower classes despite the counter example of my father's life or for that matter the other urban middle class folks around me who came from similar backgrounds.

But then I thought about them some more and came to the conclusion that their criminality and lack of effort to better their lot in life is written in their genes. The quotas will only do so much to improve their lives.

I think what bothers me the most is "never spend a minute thinking about the vast and misserable rural lower class around them,".

Yes--I'll get hammered over this, but whenever I see those pictures of huge beautiful skyscrapers overlooking absolute poverty below them; I wonder why the upper/middle class isn't sickened by the depravity, and demand change. I don't know how they can sit in their fancy condos, while overlooking people dying in the streets.

And yes--I am very dissapointed in our American middle/upper class who look at homeless/poverty stricken areas in the United States as something that could be prevented if only they "applied themselves", or "If only they got their diploma, or didn't do drugs.". I have seen people step over homeless in New York forever. I never liked the NY attitude. I now see it in San Francisco, and I'm bothered by the attitude. I'm not saying they should take the person in, but complaining about them is just something I didn't want to see here.

I know people in America have become desensitized to homelessness, and poverty, but most of still care, and are very bothered by it. We still have a lot of people who want change, and will hopefully never become complacent about it.

I hope we never become so desensitized, we don't spend a minute not thinking about it.

Being an American is helping out those in need, and not just being o.k. with it. Some people don't understand that about this country.

Some of the foreign push back is not racism; we just don't want to become your country.

(I won't be back to defend this post. And I know some Americans don't give a dam about anyone besides themselfs, or their family, but this county used to be great. We are sadly sliding.)

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