By Kali Villarosa

Poverty is universal. No matter where in the world, there are always discussions and debates surrounding the poor: individuals who are struggling economically and unable to maintain a comfortable livelihood. But the issue with the term “poverty” itself is that it remains an umbrella term; it moves the conversation away from the specific groups (whether defined by race, religion, ethnicity, or some other category) that make up an “impoverished” population and instead lumps them all together under the general category of “poverty.” This is a problem because different groups have different needs, yet most methods and discussions of poverty alleviation rarely take these distinguishing circumstances into account. In Part IV of her Covering the Margins series, Kali Villarosa investigates how this plays out in news coverage of urban marginalization in Ahmedabad, Indian.

By Kali Villarosa

In the first of her series comparing news coverage of urban marginalization, Kali Villarosa introduces us to two cities on opposite sides of the world that share important patterns in how marginalized communities are represented: Buffalo (NY) and Ahmedabad (India).