Social justice issues in SOLD

Imagine that you are poor.  So poor that you can't even afford a tin roof to keep the rain out, or even a bottle of coca-cola.  What would you do?  How could you get enough money to pay off your debts? To support your family?  I am sure that the last thing that you would say is to sell your family member.

That is basically what Lakshmi's stepfather did.  I am in the book club that is reading SOLD by Patricia McCormick.  This book is packed full with social justice issues, but the one that I chose is poverty.  Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl living in extreme poverty in a small village in Nepal.  In order to make more money, Lakshmi's greedy stepfather sells her for ₨800, about $11.25 in U.S. dollars, to be a maid in the city.  Her pay would be sent home to her family,  only the stepfather would probably spend it on silly things hats and or use it for gambling.

But what disgusts me the most is the fact that Lakshmi is willing to do this in order to support her family.  she is willing to go away with a strange person that she doesn't know and not see her family for a very long time just to get money for her family.  People will do ridiculous things to help loved ones, but some people will do even worse in order to get money.  The thing with Lakshmi is that she, by being sold to be a "maid", is really causing a lot more issues for herself that she doesn't know yet (I wont mention that issue because, one, it would spoil it for some people, two, it's not what this post is about so it would be a distraction, and three, I just don't want to talk about it). 

This worries me about our current population of people living in poverty in New York.  I would say that the average New Yorker sees about two poor or homeless per day, if not more.  I just wonder, what do they do in order to stay alive?  How do they make money or get food?  Begging is most certainly not enough.  Do they do things as cruel as Lakshmi's stepfather?  Or things as naïve as Lakshmi? Do they know how many things that they might do can lead to many more problems?  Unfortunately, It is a hopeless situation that they cannot solve themselves.  They need help from others.

Lakshmi is faced with a hopeless poverty that she attempts to fix by selling herself, but this only leads to more problems.  The situation on our streets may be no different, for all we know.  Poverty is a long chain of problems that can only be broken by others.  It can be broken by us.  It can be broken by you.