Middle Class Consciousness

A group of us visited St. Charles all girls private school. We went into a classroom of about forty 10^th standard students who challenged us to re-think our lifestyles in the US and look at India in different ways. Through an exchange of questions and answers we ascertained three basic things these young women desired. They wanted to be better represented in their government, to become more western, and go on to become middle class doctors or have other professions that would lead them to live as middle class people like their parents and quite possibly their parents’ parents.

There is an age limit as to how old a person can be to act as a government official so these women felt as if their interests were not being adequately represented. One reason they really wanted to be represented is because they unanimously wanted to become more developed and one person even went so far as to say that she wanted more capitalism. The views of the up-and-coming middle class youth, as displayed in the film “Bangalamerica,” seemed to be pretty well articulated in this class of the young women in this classroom. They desire the globalization that is occurring and are even eating it up in as many portions as they can buy. Being middle class consumers, they have the means with which to literally buy western products, telling the markets what they want and thereby having more power than they realize to bring about more development. There are ordinances, like the one in Bangalore that has made dancing in establishments illegal, which are restricting advancements in some areas of development but there are always ways of casting your vote in the market by choosing what you consume.

The school these young women attend is a school that is private and only afforded by middle or higher class people, thereby excluding poor people who would seek the higher education for which this school prepares its students. The poor are not allowed to come and there are no scholarships available so this group is completely excluded from this higher education and preparatory classes for university studies. In response to the question about the problem of poverty in India the young women said that if only the rich people would give their money to the poor and the poor would accept the new agricultural farming techniques the gap between the rich and poor would improve significantly. Like many Americans who are middle class, these girl seem to blame the extreme ends of the class structure while possibly forgetting their own responsibilities. When asked what they wanted to be when they grew up many said they wanted to be doctors because that was a good career. In contrast, the lower class girls at the Bandhavi school here at Visthar said they wanted to be doctors to help people who cannot otherwise get healthcare.

I’m not sure that the women of this one St. Charles classroom represent their class in any necessarily accurate way, but their answers do show that there are people of the middle class who may blame others while ignoring their own important role as a consumer and socially conscious individual. In the US, it is easy to consider yourself a middle class citizen and ignore the insights this position gives a person. Being in the middle of the extreme rich and poor people of one’s country allows a person to see both sides of the spectrum and a clearer way than having the poor attempt to fully understand what the rich need to do to help them and vice versa with the rich people wanting the poor to essentially help themselves. Often, however certainly with exceptions, I see fellow middle class citizens in the US striving to become richer than they are, seeking to understand how to themselves get ahead of their competition and have more. Instead, I would urge middle class individuals to see their positions as a place from which they are able to understand the importance of having what they need but not striving for the excess that might blind them to the unfortunate poverty around them. As someone in the middle of class extremes, I see myself and every other person on this trip as having the resources with which to gain a valued education and yet be able to empathize at times with people who do not have the occasional excesses we enjoy. We have the ability to use our privilege to further our understanding of poverty and then address it in productive and hopefully lasting ways.