Before I start writing these answers I have to clarify that what’s going to be written is my own reflections upon the things I see and sense in the context I’ve been put into. Therefore these answers can’t speak for the people of India, these answers speak for a young Swedish woman on an outpost in Mumbai.
The economy is growing. The salaries are getting higher, there are more and more jobs and on every level in society the living standards are increasing. Among the rich the wealth is growing rapidly while it in the lower society classes takes more time.
Among most Indians a proper education believes to be the way to happiness and an improved life style. As more people can afford sending their children to higher studies India’s amount of well educated youths are increasing. While the ultimate goal for most of the students is to get a great, well paid job there’re also a lot of other positive effects to it. For example the knowledge of the outside world and the systems running the own country is increasing.
When talking about the education system, Dr Savat, one of the professors on the University of Mumbai has as a vision of getting the university to become one of the worlds 200 best universities in 10 years time. He also believe that India in 20 years time will have the super powers of the world and replace the US. This also seems to be a common belief among people from the higher classes.
Over all there is a feeling of possibilities. International companies are expanding in India and there’s a lot of young people coming to Mumbai to make a career. As the economic are growing you can feel the mix of capitalism and traditions. Right now it’s almost a trend of explaining traditions in the language of capitalism and vice versa. A couple of interesting examples you can find in these two myths below:
1. If you come to work in Mumbai you will never have to sleep hungry.
2. If you make a million in Mumbai and reinvesting it in Mumbai you will make another. If you choose to invest somewhere else though you’ll loose it all.
Another trend that seems to grow is the business connected to social responsibilities. In comparison to the western countries they have a long way to go. Still a lot of larger companies and organizations are working to find ways of making money at the same time as they take care of society issues. To take a great example of this we’ll look at the real a stating business. It’s a huge business here in Mumbai and a lot of people are making a lot of money going in to it. One of the latest trends are rehabilitating of the slum areas around the city. This is a social business witch is disputed. While some say that this is a great way of getting the people in the chantey towns into new buildings other calls this an exploitation and believe that this will make the rich man richer and leave the poor man with nothing left.
How does it work?
Decades ago the people living in the chantey tows got the land from the government to build houses. When the urbanisation got massive more and more people moved into the slums and the buildings grow closer. The idea with the slum rehabilitation is to offer the people owning the land to give it up in exchange for there own apartment in the new build houses. The people with the finances can with other words get land to build upon for free by giving away some apartments. The apartments that’s left they can than sell off, making money. But to do this they have to get approval from 70 percent of the people living in the area. This is a problem when most people have their business on ground level and lives on the second floor. If moving into an apartment they cannot keep there business going and risk loosing their income. Another problem is that some businesses and families own great amounts of land and would by taking part in this give away a lot more than they would gain. So it’s a difficult situation and it’s making the rehabilitation of the chantey towns slow.
As I said in the beginning things are happening on all levels and as with every change some people will gain on it while others will risk losing.
