Corruption as a Difficulty in Everyday Annawadian Life

Corruption as a Difficulty in Everyday Annawadian Life In Katherine Boo’s novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity we are thrown into a slum in Mumbai, Annawadi and are shown that corruption is an undeniable difficulty that the Annawadians face in their everyday lives. â€Å"For every two people in Annawadi inching up, there was one in a catastrophic plunge† (24) the people of Annawadi are in such a state because of all the corruption. As soon as they get ahead there’s someone there to remind them where they belong, living their lives barely scraping by in the slums. The corruption in Mumbai has become the status quo, denying citizens of even their basic rights making everyday life a difficulty. Early†¦show more content†¦This is what a majority of the government officials are doing to the people who live in the slums; they are taking advantage of them while they are in vulnerable situations making them believe tha t they have no other choice but to pay them off, even if that means sacrificing their families and their own well-being. Later in the novel Zehrunisa is able to pay for papers that prove Abdul is underage and he has to be released from the jail into a juvenile detention center. Abdul is placed in Mumbai’s juvenile detention center in Dongri a neighborhood south of Annawadi where he will do the remainder of his time, but not too long into his stay him and several other boys are taken â€Å"to a small hospital run by the police department, where a doctor had been assigned to check the ages of suspiciously old-looking juveniles† (129). Even though all of these boys had papers that documented they were young enough to be there the police department made sure they did what they could to profit in any way possible. After the doctor ran the routine tests he came back with the results and shared them with Abdul, â€Å"Abdul was seventeen years old if he paid two thousand rupe es, and twenty years old if he did not† (129). Even healthcare professionals who are paid well are taking advantage of these people from the slums, because they can, there isn’t anyone to protect them so they are constantly taken advantage of and treated less than