Behind the Beautiful Forevers summary

Though the Husains are considered well off by their neighbors, they too suffer in the harsh living conditions prevalent in the slum, which spawn a variety of health problems for inhabitants.

Animals are allowed to roam around freely, feeding on what they want. For instance, when Abdul Husain, the family’s eldest son, is at work sorting garbage, goats will come up to him to lick the labels off discarded plastic bottles. But because the goats drink out of a nearby lake of sewage, they also suffer from diarrhea, which they then spread around the slum, infecting others.

Can you imagine living in a place where basic human rights mean nothing? For the slum dwellers of Annawadi, this affects every aspect of their life.

Workers are so scared of their employers that they might as well have no rights at all. For example, when one little boy loses his hand to a shredder at the garbage recycling plant where he works, he actually apologizes to the owner. He says: “Sa’ab, I’m sorry. I won’t cause you any problems by reporting this. You will have no trouble from me.” The boy does this because he knows that poor young workers are easily disposed of by plant owners if they threaten to be troublesome.

In slums, corruption is omnipresent. Annawadians have to pay bribes all the time and are always likely to be taken advantage of.

One example is the way government funding and charitable donations get misused.

In the previous blink, you learned how slum dwellers face corruption in education and democracy. But this corruption also reaches into their health care system.

A prime example is the way doctors manage to charge patients for services that should be covered by the Indian state.

Life in the slum is dangerous and hard for everyone, but it’s even worse for children.

Something as simple as crossing the road outside the slum can be a life-threatening experience: children are frequently hit by cars on their way to school because many inexperienced drivers talk on their phones while driving and don’t pay attention to the road. And most of the time, when a child is hit, the driver won’t even stop.

Now that you know something about life in Annawadi, ask yourself: if you were living there, what would you be willing to do to survive and improve your situation? Would you lie, steal and take advantage of those worse off than you?

Many in the slum try to use whatever power and influence they have to extract money from others.

Those who live in slums like Annawadi don’t have many ways to get out, but an education is seen as one way to improve their lot.

This is why many children prioritize getting their schooling, despite the difficulties. Take Sonu, a young boy who enrolls in school every year even though he can’t attend due to his day job as a garbage collector. He works during the day and studies at night, so that once a year he can go and take the standardized final exams. He optimistically tells his friend: “Educate ourselves, and we’ll be making as much money as there is garbage!”

In the previous blinks you learned how tough life is in the slums. Though Annawadians try their best not to lose hope, many still succumb to the everyday pressure and choose the only possible way out: suicide.

One reason for this drastic action is fear. Slum dwellers have almost no protection from criminals, so they know that simply witnessing a crime means they could soon be forcibly silenced.