Complexity of Poverty in India – Dignity denial at death to Bhagyalakshmi

23/05/2026: 

Recently while have a dialogue around poverty we were discussing the 2-dimensional nature of measurement and addressing of poverty. This morning’s newspaper story caught my eye as an example of how poverty can be a complex difficult phenomenon to understand in the Indian context. 

• 75-year-old Bhagyalakshmi died on a Wednesday (20^th May) and her abandoned body found on Thursday (21^st May) as per the newspaper reports this on Saturday (23^rd May) morning. 
• A decade and more ago her husband died and she was abandoned
• None of her 10 children refused to care for her
• She later began living with Mohammed Hassan who is 10 yrs younger to her 
• Hassan lost job recently due to the shortage of fuel triggered by the Iran war by USA
• Bhagyalakshmi took ill recently and succumbed to the same
• She died and Hassan could not afford even a funeral expense for her and 
• So decided to tie her body up and wrap it in a sack and abandon so that someone who will find it can perhaps give her a funeral

Poverty is complex because of the socio-political geographies in which it is located. Increasingly in India, urban poverty will be far more vulnerable than the rural poverty. Vulnerability will be due to so many complex factors that it will require not a targeted, but a socially immersive approach to resolve. 

Take the case of Bhagyalakshmi – 

• Assuming she was married at a young age of 15-20, she would have been married and had her 10 children over the next 15-20 years between 1970 and 1985. During this time the country saw the end of license raj, imposition of birth control which she and her husband ignored or weren’t aware of. India went through emergency, assassination of Indira Gandhi and the Rajiv Gandhi era. In TamilNadu it saw the emergence and the Dravidian parties and MGR. Maybe she was a fan of MGR. Her children could have had the benefit of mid-day meal scheme and free education. 
• Her husband died perhaps in 2015, which means she had a 30 yrs of her life perhaps caring for her children and her husband in whatever capacity. So, between about 1985 until 2015, she would have worked during the peak of her health (between the age of 35 and 65) during the liberalization and globalization era, maybe her flower vending period.  What did her husband do? Is one of the several questions for which alas we may not have an answer… Did her children survive, did all get jobs during this period? How many of them got married? What had happened to them? Why did they all abandon the parents? Did the parents have property that was apportioned to the children? …there are many more such questions.  During this 30 yrs period the city landscape changed rapidly, it expanded engulfing several smaller towns from a 170+ sq km to 420+ sq km area. Tirusulum must have transformed from a sleepy rural neighbourhood of the airport into the urban extension that it is today. 
• Being abandoned in 2015, she had to find a manual labourer 10 years younger from another religion to give her shelter.  This happened around the same period when religion-based violence and the loud campaign of love jihad was going on across the country. Movies were made about this phenomenon, court cases fought and elections won. Also during this time, the city's established shelter for the homeless increased to over 50 in number, providing them with facilities to stay in the night, and food during the day.
• she died without any medical help in a city that has over 140 health centres which are supposed to provide free medical care for anyone who is in need of the same 

• when she died her partner couldn't afford to provide her with a decent burial of cremation in a city that has more than 40 crematoriums functional of which at least a few are operated in collaboration with a large spiritual charity foundation

  The complexity of her poverty - from large family, no healthcare, no shelter, to being abandoned at death are all societal, maybe the abandonment by the children and the helplessness felt by her partner was cultural and ignorance. But the first thing that hit me on reading her story this morning is the loss of dignity at death. 

  The complexity of this story is unique or one-off. Every story of poverty, denial and depravation is a complex socio-political economic phenomena that needs to be addressed through knowledge, facilitation and follow-up.  In recent times there are a few more stories that  I have encountered of similar complexity. Every one of the variables that works against a poor person further aggravates the sense of helplessness and  vulnerability. There is a vulnerability spiral that overtakes their lives after a point in time from which it is difficult to escape. Unless every single institutional and functional aspect of social security is working at the highest level of sensitivity and responsiveness, such vulnerabilities cannot be sensed and responded to. 

  Today also in the news was a talk by the World Bank President in which he has spoken of the effectiveness of a local AI that can respond in local conditions. But, his example was the same old farmer's market issue that every information and communication solution provider career in the last three decades has been built. Many have 'solved' this repeatedly with successive technologies, become famous, won awards, and retired comfortably as well. Farmer's condition has not changed substantially. 

  Yes, local AI could be helpful if someone from the World Bank or elsewhere can actually take the effort to study the entire set of vulnerabilities in the life of the poor person and how each one of these can build on top of a previous weakness, ignorance or a failure. If the AI can proactively indicate who can commit a crime, obviously it can proactively suggest who is more vulnerable among the poor today and may need extra help as well! 

  But such targeting and development needs political will, committed leadership,  clutter less experts, and creative problem solving beyond the existing 'models' and 'templates'.