The middle-class, which is a majority in developed countries, represents only 10 to 20 percent here depending on the criteria used. Industrial capital is owned either by the State or by an oligarchy of great families such as the Tata, Mahindra, Birla, Bajaj etc. Half of the population is still illiterate and almost a third of it lives below the poverty line which is defined here as a food intake of 2200 calories per day. These numbers are indicative of the poverty of the Indian masses but one has to go there to see the misery of hordes of skeletal, ulcerated or crippled beggars, to grasp the extent of the problem. And on top of that, sacred cows feeding on garbage heaps at every street corner, whose dung is gathered to be used as fuel for cooking food.
Life here is so difficult that the people in the streets see all tourists as walking banks.
Strangers are immediately targeted by honnest beggars who ask openly, and by the crafty ones who first engage a personal conversation before formulating their demands when they feel their victim's defenses are down. It is a pity. Harassment by these predators puts off visitors and reduces their availability for authentic exchanges. In Varanasi, I spent an afternoon in the library of the Baranas Hindu University perusing books on poverty in India to try to understand. They also recognized that caste discrimination was still commonly practiced and explained that it was borne without revolt because the underprivileged believed that their misfortune had been earned by their own inadequate behavior in their previous lives.