After decades of economic stagnation, life in India’s cities is changing and changing fast. Yet, with all the talk about India’s integration into the world economy, there remains a stubborn fact: only small fraction of India’s billion plus people are seeing any benefits from globalization and information technology. The rest – some six hundred and fifty million in rural areas and merely spectators to the progress for a few, and live in conditions of abject, unspeakable suffering and perennial despair.
Something’s wrong. The wide economic disparity between urban and rural India will erode India’s democracy, fuelling violence and breeding terrorism that puts the whole world at risk. Why hasn’t globalization reached the hundreds of millions of impoverished Indians earning less than a dollar a day? Even after the enormous assistance by international agencies, governments and private donors how have so many people failed to come out of poverty? And what are the implications of India’s example for the rest of the developing world? Fresh answers and insights into the problems can be found in India Untouched by Abraham George, founder of the George foundation, a not-for-profit organization focusing on alleviating poverty.
India Untouched in the remarkable story of Dr George’s first hand experiencing operating one of the largest non governmental in India. It is a story of suffering, cruelty, disease, and illiteracy, of corruption, waste, prejudice, and superstition. It’s the story of fifty years of poor governance, and a stunning rebuke to the myth that globalization alone will distribute wealth to where it’s most needed.
Formerly an officer in the Indian military, Abraham George arrived in America in 1969 with eight dollars in his pocket, a research scientist working for NASA. By the time he returned more that twenty five years later, he had earned a doctorate in developmental economics and finance, as well as enough money and acumen from his business venture to establish the George Foundation. He was determined to tackle some of the perennial problems facing the poor in this native country.
A tall order, to be sure. How does one individual even begin to change the lives of a billion people, whose social status in their communities is “……….below the holy cow, the potent snake and the spirited monkey?” India Untouched is a vivid portrait of Dr George’s dedication to changing the unchangeable.
Not surprising for a man of Dr George’s self made accomplishments, he begins his undertaking in the arena of education for the poorest of the poor – India’s untouchables. In 1995, with his own funds, he established a world- class boarding school called Shanti Bhavan (Haven of Peace) designed to bring the kind of educational opportunity reserved only for the rich to the most impoverished of India’s children. The fact that no one had ever even attempted such a n enterprise speaks volume about the education system of rural India, which is nothing more than holding pen for shepherding a vast population into their lifelong roles as low level workers. Despite prejudices, bigotry and local suspicions that Dr George was a recruiter for the slave trade, Shanti Bhavan has succeeded beyond all expectations. Today, there is a waiting list into what is now recognized as the best schools in India – An extraordinary environment which serves as a microcosm for the possibility of transformation in the developing world. Since then, Dr George has expanded his efforts at social reform and development to include major initiatives into the areas of women’s empowerment, health care, environmental health and a free press.
India untouched is nothing short of inspiring. It offers a wealth of innovative ideas for social and economic reform, borne of one man’s vision for change – ideas that have, in a remarkable short time brought about dramatic improvements. Most importantly, it a book about solutions: solutions for assuring good public governance, solutions for r building strong human foundations through education and health care, and solutions for creating economic opportunity an assuring justice for all. And to that extent, it is most decidedly a book about hope.
“I’ve seen with my own eyes the enormous difference we can make in people’s lives when we roll up our shirt sleeves and focus our resources on things that matter most,” assures Dr George. This extraordinary chronicle of an entrepreneur-turned –philanthropist who has taken a full-circle-journey to the land of his birth is a profoundly important work, with large scale implications for the viability of democracy in the developing world and the impact on poverty of economic globalization.
India Untouched, in short is a major milestone in economic and developmental thinking. It deserves to be read by anyone who wishes to see the world’s human rights issue – poverty-addresses effectively. For those who believe that some of these problems are so intractable that nothing – no one –can make a difference, India Untouched is an eye opener.
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