Charity

For those that don’t already know, although I’m British and grew up in England, I moved to India at the age of 25 to work for a software development company. I’m still out here and still working for the company (out of choice), but I’m also running this online business in my spare time because I absolutely love it, it’s more than a hobby, it’s my passion.

But getting back to India. This is a country of 1.1bn people of which over half are living well below the poverty line. If you think America has no social safety net, try coming to India. On my way to work I pass decrepid old men and women, stripped of any dignity, sitting at the side of the road smashing up bricks all day with a tiny hammer. I pass young children working on the construction sites with their parents, people who call home a pavement under the bridge, old men working for pennies a day in the blazing sun, blind, disabled beggars standing at the side of the road at junctions, hoping for a couple of rupees to buy some food.

And that’s just in the cities, out in the rural areas, life can be even worse for those on the lowest rung of society.

Despite being touted as the next global super-power, India has got a very, very long way to go in terms of social equality and social services provided by the state. Despite having a middle class population of some 300m people, not enough money finds its way down to those that really need it. In my experience here, people are more interested in hoarding the wealth and keeping it within the family rather than handing out money to charity. It’s a sad fact that despite all the ambitions, India still very much relies on the charitable contributions from developed countries to help the poor. That’s not to say there are no charitable organizations here, there are tens of thousands, but the need is so great that they hardly make a dent in the help that’s required.

For this reason, I’m pledging to contribute 10% of my earnings to charitable causes each month. In particular, I’m keen to see the money go towards the younger generation, to charities that can educate children to allow them to escape the grinding poverty that they are growing up in.

Orphanage

Development Charity