Vegetable Gardens & Internet for Indian Youth

In case you are interested, here are some sources to learn more about the situation facing the Indian people.

1. New York Times Article, March 13, 2009 “As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists” :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13malnutrition.html

“Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — “a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh. But even after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse here than in many sub-Saharan African countries, and they stand out as a paradox in a proud democracy.

China, that other Asian economic powerhouse, sharply reduced child malnutrition, and now just 7 percent of its children under 5 are underweight, a critical gauge of malnutrition. In India, by contrast, despite robust growth and good government intentions, the comparable number is 42.5 percent. Malnutrition makes children more prone to illness and stunts physical and intellectual growth for a lifetime.”

2. Info Change India, Social Development Report – April 3, 2009:

http://infochangeindia.org/200602065997/Governance/Books-Reports/Poverty-in-India-increasingly-region-group-specific-says-Social-Development-Report.html

“Whereas India accounts for 17% of the world’s population, 36% of the world’s poor (those surviving on less than US$ 1 a day) live in this country, as do 68% of those afflicted with leprosy and 30% of people suffering from tuberculosis. India also accounts for 26% of vaccine-preventable deaths among under-5-year-olds.

A report prepared in April 2004 by the United States-based financial services leader Goldman Sachs observed: “India is often characterized as a country of contradictions. This idea is exemplified by the popular phrase that India accounts for close to a third of the world’s software engineers and a quarter of the world’s undernourished.”

The only piece of good news, according to the report, is that India has defied the doomsayers’ predictions that such a disparate country could never succeed as a single nation state. Instead, it has emerged as one of the fastest growing countries of the world.”