All kinds. The simple answer is that all kinds of people need help with all kinds of things. Of course, we are going to explore what makes a difference in the kind of help people need, how there are different strata of people who need and how do we ‘categorise’ the help they would benefit from, but the eternal truth is that everyone needs help. And everyone needs help at every point of time in their life, and if not every then most of the time. There is no expiry date on the necessity of help, it isn’t like we stop needing help past a certain age or after gaining a certain skill. We will always need help, and so we should always be ready to extend it to those who need it to.
Sometimes we just need a reminder to do the things we had already planning to do, you know how some people look for ‘signs’ from the universe to do something they are unsure of or just need a little push for? Think of this as a sign to help someone you have been wanting. The intent to help others is only as good as the degree you are successful in executing it. And like all major things we do in life or need direction for, having a ‘plan of action’ will help you reduce the hesitance or anxiety surrounding it. Once you have a plan ready, the only part that remains is to carry it out, go through the motions until you have reached the end of it.
So who needs help? What kind of people need help? The following kind-
People below the poverty line.
Money makes the world go round, and that is an uncomfortable fact. Sure we would love it if positive virtues like kindness, friendliness, hardworking nature, perseverance, brotherhood etc… contributed to the standing of a person in our world, but the fact is that money influences most of it. It is true money can’t buy everything, but it can buy you a comfortable life. This is something people below the poverty line are not privy to.
A majority of the basic amenities that a human needs to survive, let alone live a comfortable life, are deprived from those who cannot afford it. It is difficult for them to afford an education that can help them move up above the poverty line, it is hard for them to find employment in many cases despite credentials due to stigma, they are either exploited by loan sharks due to their desperate circumstances or by their employers by not paying them their due because they cannot contest it. People are driven out of their homes and left roofless if they cannot pay their rent. Everyone struggles, but the poor especially do because their poverty affects them in every aspect of their life.
The onus to help them then falls upon us, those who can afford the basic necessities in life. While donations help, monetary help is not what they require. Well, not what they require in the long run. We need to help them by working on creating an environment that works along with instead the one currently that works against them. We need to formulate and put in place policies that encourage their growth holistically, rather than just make provisions that fulfil their temporary and immediate needs.
People who are specially abled.
There is an adage where I’m from, that we don’t realise the value of something until we no longer have it. If you are a healthy person raised in a healthy environment, you might empathise but never fully understand how limiting it can be for specially-abled people to navigate our world. Accessibility is the biggest challenge they face. From people who are physically chapped to those with conditions such as ADHD and depression, life is more demanding to them than it is to us. And what they don’t need is our pity or our help, per se. Rather what they require is equal treatment, because they are in no way less than us. When we have to go from the first floor of a building to the second floor, we need stairs and elevators as well right? We don’t call that special provision, do we? Then infrastructural facilities for people who use wheelchairs like ramps or chair-lifts should not be considered special provisions either.
Even those with less than ideal eye-sight and those with hearing aids should be involved in the decision-making process for things that affect them. And for individuals with ADHD, Asperger’s or other conditions like depression, anxiety and schizophrenia should be helped to reduce the stigma around such topic and be assisted in creating an atmosphere that is encouraging towards their wellness.
Young people of today and the citizens of the future.
The youth of today especially needs our attention. Saying that they need our, your and mine, help can be taken as an insult to their sensibilities in fact. So let me rephrase, the youth of today needs our assistance more than our help. It might come as a surprise, but the young-adults, teenagers and 20-somethings of today are growing up to be more mature than their elders give them credit for. They realise the importance of moving forward as a community just as much as they value individuality. But often they are dismissed for their age, and their (very valid, might I add) opinions and ideas are often overlooked for being too idealistic, as people presume that they don’t know the ‘real world’ works.
But what they need instead is guidance, not advice. They don’t want people who came before them to change their destination or even map out their journey for them, they need those older than them to guide them so that they can make the best of their journey. The young people, those who are going to be our future, are just learning the ropes of living life, they are learning about the world and are entering the workforce, and voting and helping elect our leader. They have a lot of raw energy, enthusiasm and drive, what we need to do is harness this energy, polish their ideologies and channel their efforts to make an actual difference. We should use the resource they are to help them make a brighter future achievable and feasible for them.
People who suffer from societal redundancies.
The best example of this is the caste system. In India, the caste system is no longer relevant to the society we live in today, and quite frankly it never was. The entire structure the caste system relies on is redundant. But unfortunately, even as we work to eradicate thought-processes such as those that created such differences in the society in the first place, there are still many that still believe in those ideas. It results in many opportunities being snatched from purely because they belong to a certain cast, we hear of stries where youngsters are murdered in cold blood in the name of honour killing because they didn’t decide to fall in love with someone of their own cast, as if anyone can decide who they fall in love with in the first place. Not just in situations that are noticeable, but also in the manner of behaviour, people look down upon them or treat them harshly and meanly. All of this is not right, you know it and I know it, but unfortunately many do not realise it because these are ideas that have been fed to them since birth. People who suffer from societal redundancies are not only those who belong to the lower classes of these social classification, but also those who believe in these social classification in the first place, as they welcome these sick and rotten thought into their minds without even realising. How do we help them? By educating them, by showing them and making them realise that these labels and classes mean absolutely nothing if they choose to assign no value to them. That at the end of the day we are all human, and we all deserve equal opportunities or atleast opportunities based on something we can be responsible for, like merit, as opposed to aspects of ourselves that we cannot control, like what and where we are born.
People who help others.
People who help others need help for themselves too. In fact, the more in need of help a person is, the more likely they are to go out of their way to help others in need. Quite possibly because they best understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of needing help. So if you see someone who is wlays trying their best to help others, take care of the needs of others, especially selflessly, realise that they need help too.
And if they are too shy or hesitant to ask for it, try your best to offer it to them from your end. Take the first step here, as they probably have for other innumerable times.
Elders.
In ancient societies, elders were revered as the sources of wisdom. Older people have seen and experienced things that we may have never thought of, and you would be surprised to learn that they notice and observe things that go past the notice of those who are young and are supposed to be sharp. Experience, does indeed, lend them an air of distinction. Their experiences don’t just grant them wisdom, but a deeper understanding of how humans work. Life teaches us a lot of lessons, and those who have seen more of life, also have more of such lessons. We only stand to benefit from their wisdom, which they would freely impart to us if only we seek it and show genuine appreciation.
Unfortunately, sometimes elders are not respected when they are perceived to be no longer ‘useful’ or be seen as a burden. But they are just as human as we are and deserve just as much respect, more even. They have spent their lives enriching the lives of those around them, but as time passes they are left to their own devices. We need to help them not out of pity or from a place of superiority, rather from a place of respect. They don’t need our help, as much as they deserve our care and company.
Women.
It is truly saddening that nearly half of the world’s population needs help, and more than they need safety, something that should be provided to them regardless. But women do face a host of challenges simply by virtue of them being women, be it physical challenges or societal. It is very inspiring to read the stories of and watch movies centred around women who have made it through despite the challenges they may have faced thanks to being women, but it is imperative we realise that these are not challenges they should be facing in the first place.
But we need help, all of us, not just women, to bring about that change in society to ensure that women don’t need help in the future. That we can make way for a society where women are not looked down upon, where women don’t have their capabilities questioned despite proving time and again that they are just as capable as men, where women are don’t have their growth in the workplace stunted because people have a problem with women succeeding in the workplace, and one where women don’t have to face sexual harassment from their family, strangers, employers etc.. and YET have to stay silent about it to not have it affect their lives ( which is affected anyways, even if they don’t speak up they have to grapple with the trauma alone that ultimately destroys them and their relations with those close to them).
These were just some kinds of people that need help, this is just the beginning of the conversation, but I would like to reiterate that everyone needs help, with different facets of their life. And there are a number of groups of people that were not included here but need help...not in terms of help directed towards them but help in the upliftment of their community. There are people from the LGBTQIA+ community who still face reproach from people who lack the ability to empathise and face challenges through no fault of their own. There are people who face racism, there are people who face xenophobia, there are people who are native to the war-torn areas with peace snatched away from them, there are people who have had to leave life as they know it and flee to be refugees. There will never be a dearth of the kinds of people who need help, but we can still try. With enough willpower and a genuine drive to make things work, we can reduce, if not completely eliminate, the number of people who may need help.
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