Katherine Boo’s
[amazon_image id=”1846274494″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum[/amazon_image]
The business at the centre of the tale is recycling rubbish, which also featured in the episode of Welcome to India I watched last week. I won’t spoil it by giving away the ‘plot’. However, I was particularly struck by the absolutely central role monetary transactions play in everyday life. It is a commonplace to say corruption helps trap countries like India in poverty. I suddenly realised that there is a vicious circle, because poverty also traps people in corruption. The sort of favours and kindnesses that people in my society wouldn’t dream of demanding payment for all require handing over cash in the slum. Money is so short that nobody will do something for nothing. Besides, there is a chain of transactions to sustain. Policemen are paid so little that they demand bribes, a slum entrepreneur needing to pay the bribe to keep the police from closing her business as it lacks a permit therefore has to ask for cash to help out a neighbour, and so on.
Anyway, it was thought-provoking to realise how monetised all these relationships were in the light of having read recently Michael Sandel’s
Worth reading alongside this book: Sukhetu Mehta’s

Annawadi
I have spent some time in India and I think you’re highlighting an important point about how monetised relationships are in the slum. I think I’d generalise out and up (since Nesta have just produced their report on innovation in Britain) that entrepreneurialism of all kinds is affected by the level of monetisation – which in turn is related to the level of general wealth. So many startup stories seem to hinge on some element of if not gift then at least a very loose loan – “you can use this office and pay us back later” or “we’ll spot you this service for now” – but it’s all dependent on various kinds of general wealth.
Yes, I think you’re probably right – entrepreneurship as making a profit from something not previously done for profit.
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