Orphans in India

India is a country roughly one third the size of the United Sates, yet it is second only to China in population, being the home to more than one billion souls. More than half of this nation is coastal and it is bordered by Burma and Pakistan, the latter of which they have had a border dispute for some time. Air pollution is a serious issue and nearly all of the water is undrinkable due to pollution by raw sewage and pesticides.

More than 47% of the young children are malnourished and there are 400 million under the age of 18. Poor infrastructure, slow to moderate social development and social inequity due to deep rooted political and cultural / religious conflicts have resulted in a large population of orphans that are not being adequately care for , if at all. Nearly one third of this massive population languishes below the poverty line!

Many of the orphans belong to social and cultural or religious minorities that live throughout the 550,000 villages in rural India. Poor social status has left these children with little or no help and many are subjected to slavery just to survive.