Figure 1.--Here we see the orphans being cared for by the ministy of a Pentecostal Church in Melmonavur Village near Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

India since the introduction of free market reforms (1990s) has made great economic progress. Even soit is still a country where huge numbers of people live in poverty. nd where ever poverty exidts, children are in trouble. Not only does endemic poverty result in large numbers of children being abandoned, but famine, drought, natural disasters, AIDS, malaria, other problemsadd to the numbr of children being abandoned or left without their parents. Some of the children are killed (especially girls) if their parents can't care for them. Aa a result, government statistics show many more boys being born in India than girls. One report indicated that 7,000 fewer girls are born in India every day than the global average would suggest. [UNICEF, 2006.] Other children are abandoned or sold into a life of manual labor or sexual servitude. The situation for handicapped children and baby girls is especially severe. Poor parents often can't aford the doweries required for marriage. As axresult girls that are not abandoned are killed might be married off while still very yound (preteens) to adult men, sometimes even middle-aged men. As a result, there is a great need for orphanages in India to care for abandoned children. We do not know a great deal about Indian orphanages. There are apparently a number of government-sponsored orphanages. The Indian Government announced plan to build a nation-wide series of orphanages for girls (2007). [Ramesh] Officials were apparently alarmed by the continuing practice of female foeticide. We do not know if government orphanages are a new phonemon or if this was an entirely new activity. Most of the orphanages we know of in India are charities founded by Christian churches. Muslims and Hindus do not seem very active in addressing this problem. This seems to reflect deep-seeded traditional attitudes toward the lower classes (on the part of Hindus) and alack of interest on abandoned children without family ties (on the part of Muslims). Our information on Indian orphabages, however, is very limited. We would be interested in adding information on Hindu and Muslim orphanages, if they exist. We incoitage Indian readers tgo add to this page.

Sources

Ramesh, Randeep. New Delhi correspondent. "India to open orphanages to take thousands of unwanted girls who would otherwise be killed", Guardian (February 19, 2007).

UNICEF, 2006.

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Last update: 4:11 AM 9/10/2010