Even more than 58 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India. India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.

More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected. But not all poverty reduction programs have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth has been very erratic and uneven.

The main causes of poverty are illiteracy, a population growth rate by far exceeding the economic growth rate for the better part of the past 56 years, protectionist policies pursued since 1947 to 1991 which prevented large amounts of foreign investment in the country. Today India is growing economically but yet the poor remains poor and rich remains rich.
We believe we can make a difference in these people's lives.