India is Growing and Shrinking

So many people have asked my why I come to India, what is it that draws me here. I usually give a pat answer. But really, I believe that India will be at the forefront of the minds of the world’s citizens as this century progresses; there is change afoot here, there is motion. But I think it at least partially the job of the world not only to bear witness, but also to play a role in what will happen here. India is where poverty, real poverty, is smashing into great wealth and new wealth. I don’t anticipate some sort of massive class uprising, but I do anticipate the way that India develops itself in the next decade will tell us all a great deal about the ways that the 21st century will look.

This poverty is important to remember in the face of the flurry of media coverage on India's growth. Western companies are looking to outsource as much as possible in deference to the bottom line, to the point that Obama people have started the chant of "Buffalo not Bangalore." India's own government has begun to promise its citizens growth in the next year.

But this growth is critical. Unicef just issued a new report that South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan) has 100 million new cases of chronic hunger in the past year. This is what recession looks like in a global world. That brings the total of chronically hungry people in South Asia to around 400million. For context -- the population of the United States, the 3rd most populous nation in the world, is just over 300 million. There are more people in South Asia that regularly do not have enough to eat than there are people in the United States.

Of course, it is difficult to keep this in mind, when I am surrounded by daily beauty. Visthar is an oasis, where we work on positive change and empowerment in an environment that could not be more bucolic if we tried. Think of it – Visthar is six acres, where the buildings are built to match the land, where fruit trees are various and heavy with produce, the offices are open air with a lotus pool at the center, where flowers sprout from every available nook and women are as well employed as men and adorable girls run around shouting, “Hi Aunty!” and singing. How do you think of food security in all of this? But it is lurking at the gate. And really, in a "flat" world, it is lurking at every gate.

http://www.unicef.org/photoessays/49854.html

Book to Read: White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. Winner of the 2008 Booker Prize - discusses both the desperation of poverty, as well as the opportunity for advancement.