Some home truths
on Jen's Indian Adventure (India), 03/Apr/2010 04:53, 34 days ago
So far my blogs are telling of my time inIndia– places I’ve been and people I’ve met. I’ve been receiving emails and messages on Facebook from friends saying ‘it looks like you’re having a great time’. And I am.But the realities ofIndiaand why NGOs operate here are as follows:450 million Indians live below the poverty line, $1.25 per day– that’s 1/3 of the world’s poor1 million women die in child birth here every yearDue to urbanisation the urban poor are traditionally forgottenDalits (low caste) and Adivasis (indigenous, tribal people) make up 24% of the populationEvery hour 1 person dies inDelhidue to air pollution40% of the population are between 25 and 30 years oldThis week the Indian government started working on the 2011 census - the first time they will ever attempt to count every person living in this vast countryThis week (2010) the Indian government passed the‘Right to Education’ billEveryone here has a‘Right to Work’. To work you need to have a work card. To know about this you have to be able to read, or at least afford a radio.9% of GDP comes from money brought into the country by INGOs99% of money given to the state of Orissa by the national government never makes it to the people who need itLess than 1/3 of the population have access to toiletsAccording to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing fromIndia's population as a result of systematic gender discrimination inIndia. In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males.InIndia, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population.The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide inIndia, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.Orissa (the state where I’m based) is still in 2010 a ‘starvation state’. As recently as last week it was reported that 50 people starved to death in Bolangir in the west of the stateI could go on, but at least this gives an impression of why there are so many NGOs and INGOs throughoutIndia.