SEATTLE — The transformation of poor villages in India is crucial to its development. Like many developing countries, India faces a huge rural-urban divide that is a major cause of poverty. While progress can be seen in many cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata, the rural areas and districts remain untouched by the light of development. One of the major reasons for this divide is technological backwardness, also known as the “digital divide”. While cities in India gain access to technology, poor villages still remain without basic internet facilities. To bridge this gap, two IT professionals from Uttar Pradesh…
Author: Shruthi Nair
Shruthi Nair
Shruthi writes for The Borgen Project from Canton MI. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and worked as Assistant Professor for The Department of Mass Media at SIES college, Mumbai, India for two years. Shruthi is passionate about poetry and art.
SEATTLE — It will be a night of music at the FNB Stadium at Johannesburg on December 2, 2018, as celebrities from across the globe come together to celebrate the 100th birthday of Nelson Mandela and his outstanding efforts to alleviate poverty in South Africa. The Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 aims to highlight the importance of fighting for the world’s poor and is an attempt to urge world leaders to arrive at more successful solutions to end extreme poverty. Many celebrities have stepped forward to participate in the festival and show their support for alleviating poverty in South Africa.…
SEATTLE — “If children cannot come to school, then let’s take the school to them”. This is the motto of the Door Step School, an organization started in 1988 by Rajani Paranjpe and her former student Bina Lashkari in Mumbai, India. In developing nations like India, making education accessible to the poor and marginalized is still a challenge. Despite the many efforts undertaken by the government, about 1.7 million children remain out of school in India. As a solution to this issue, the Door Step School group started going from door to door offering education to the poor and the marginalized.…
SEATTLE — Very few people have the courage to give up a comfortable life to work for a social cause. Two such people who have devoted their time and energy to uplifting the rural poor in India are Dr. Rani Bang and her husband Abhay Bang. Dr. Rani and Abhay Bang Rani and Abhay Bang both have MBBS degrees from Nagpur University in Maharashtra, India, as well as masters in public health from Johns Hopkins University. These two professionals decided to embark on a lifelong journey to help transform the lives of the rural poor in India. Dr. Bang started…
SEATTLE — The Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting wishes to children suffering from critical illnesses and making dreams come true since its inception in 1980. While it started as a small organization in Phoenix, Arizona, today it is spreading happiness in many corners of the world which still remain untouched by the light of development. The role of Make-A-Wish International in developing countries is of extreme importance. The World Health Organization, in its Global Health Risks report, explains that critical illnesses in children are high in low and middle-income countries, as children in these countries are vulnerable to malnourishment caused…
MUMBAI — SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, a city college in Mumbai, adopted Kathewadi, a poverty-stricken village in India, in 2013, and since then has been transforming it with the aim of improving the living conditions of the villagers. Today, this village, which is located in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India, sees new rays of hope as it has a functional school and improved sanitation facilities. The college conducted a survey of every poverty-stricken village in India within a radius of 100 kilometers from Mumbai. The survey revealed the poor living conditions of many villages. Among them,…
SEATTLE — The National Institute for Transforming India, also known as NITI Aayog, is a policy think tank of the government of India, formed on January 1, 2015. It aims to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and address the needs and aspirations of citizens in a more effective way. Its premiere policy has devised a few systematic approaches to achieve the goals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of New India 2022. These include the Transformation of Aspirational Districts Programme, the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 and Empowering Farmers. The Transformation of Aspirational Districts Programme The United…