Scottish Catholic Observer

However it very rapidly became clear this nation of a billion people was home to staggering inequality. For all a small percentage seemed have gained great wealth, for millions upon millions grinding poverty is still the norm.
One of the key organisations fighting to change this is, one of SCIAF’s chief partners in the region, Caritas India. This Church led organisation celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and is a vital lifeline to some of India’s very poorest people.

To give you some sense of the scale of the country, and it’s problems, India has 164 diocese, and Caritas India is active in all of them.
A key part of their work is on disaster relief and from the 1971 Bangladeshi refugee crisis, to the 2004 Tsunami and the present, Caritas India has helped save lives after  some of the very worst disasters in India’s history.
Sadly climate change has resulted in a surfeit of such disasters in recent years including, droughts, floods and cloud bursts but on each occasion it has risen to the challenge.
The charity also places great emphasis, on developing community rights, women’s rights and helping rural famrers manage their natural resources.
Wherever there are very poor people in India, Caritas India can generally be found, even in the most remote areas where there is no road access and the wealth seen in  New Dehli might as well be on another planet for all the difference it makes.
I was fortunate enough to visit some of the these  projects in Jarkland State in the east of the country and you will be able to read all about the extraordinary work done there by SCIAF and Caritas India in these far flung regions in future editions of the SCO. Suffice to say that the lives of people who have spent their whole lives hungry are been radically improved by the work done by these agencies.

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