Corruption is Opportunity for the Poor

In her 2012 book, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” Katherine Boo wrote of a government program in India that encouraged poor women to pool their savings so they could make low-interest loans to each other in times of need.

Some of the women, however, excluded other women from their savings circle. Instead of making low-interest loans to help each other, they profited by making high-interest loans to women outside of their clique.

In the West, and among some in the Indian elite, this word, corruption, had purely negative connotations; it was seen as blocking India’s modern, global ambitions. But for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remained.