Does India continue to need outside aid? Undoubtedly, India is in a better place now than it has been in previous decades. When one considers the economic growth of large emerging economies, India is second only to China, expanding almost 9% in the previous fiscal year (read article).

In 1985, 90% of Indians still had to survive on less than a dollar a day, but India now boasts a burgeoning middle class of anything between 50 and 200 million people, a number that is expected to rise to almost 600 million by 2025 (read article). Which will have lifted 40% of all Indians (currently numbering 1.13 billion) out of poverty.

While these developments are impressive, the challenges remain daunting. Large pockets of poverty persist, both in rural and urban areas. In 2007, the Indian government calculated, 27% of Indians (over 220 million people) still lived below the poverty line – more than three and a half times the entire population of the United Kingdom (read article). Indeed, by other definitions of poverty, 77% of Indians (almost 800 million) still fall into that category (read article).

This shows there has been relatively little ‘trickle-down’ of India’s new-found wealth to its poorest inhabitants. But that should not be a reason for defeatism. For there is one crucial condition that can prepare India’s poor to bridge the gap between their own predicament and the new economic opportunities of their country… Education!

In fewer places in the world can a good education make the difference between ancestral poverty and new opportunities of self-fulfilment. The Wings of Hope is excited to be helping to bridge that gap.