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India: An Overview
Although India is the world’s fourth largest economy in purchasing power, it suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. According to the World Bank, India has one of the highest percentages of under-nourished children in the world. In addition, more than 350 million people in India still live on less than a dollar a day (DFID). Due to poverty, lack of access to healthy food, lack of nutritional knowledge and hygienic food preparation practices, 53% of children under the age of four are malnourished and 60% of women are anaemic. Almost one third of babies are born with a low birth weight and nearly 50% remain underweight until the age of three (UNICEF). Mumbai is a city of huge contrasts. Home of Bollywood and the world’s diamond polishing trade, it boasts some of the most expensive real estate in the world. However, statistics indicate that more than half of the city’s swelling 16 million population lives in ‘informal’ housing or slums.
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India has an estimated population of 1.095 billion, making it the world’s second most populous nation in the world after China. With a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society, India is home to 17 major regional languages. It has a sophisticated civilisation dating back 5,000 years and is the birth place of four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism whilst Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism add to the religious diversity.