India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty

by Abraham George

Book Overview

Provides an account of one man's struggle against a well-entrenched system to make a difference. Offering an insight into why previous attempts to improve the quality of life in rural India have failed, this book presents the story of years of poor governance, and talks about what can be done to improve the lives of millions of poor people.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594111227
• ISBN13: 9781594111228
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Writers' Collective
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Global Analysis

With an understanding of globalization and public policy, the author dissects the problem of rural poverty in India and advances bold new ideas on how to improve the situation. Illustrated by his own extraordinary personal experience in south-central India, the author provides lessons which cross national boundaries for those who want to make a difference in the lives of the world's poorest citizens. The problem is deep-seated and the obstacles to improvement are many, but one finds hope in the book through the improvements one committed man has made in the lives of a small portion of India's rural poor.

A Successful Experiment in Alleviating Poverty

India Untouched shows what a determined individual can accomplish to alleviate the suffering of the poor. The author had his undergraduate education in India and was an artillery officer in Indian army. He comes to the States, gets a Ph.D. in Business from New York University and starts a company to help multinationals to manage their foreign currencies. He is successful in his business. Now he decides to sell his business and goes to India to do some thing for the poor. He selects for his operation one of the poorest areas in whole of India where caste and class have combined to make life of the poor unbearable. A residential school is started and four year olds from the poorest are selected. The author makes use of his business acumen to get a highly motivated staff to give these kids a high quality education. Once you get involved with kids, you come face to face with the problems facing the rural folk. There is practically no good health care in the rural areas. The author successfully installs a computer based "Early Detection and Prevention System" in the primary Health Center run by the government which has now become a model for other centers to provide better health care at minimal cost. The author then starts a banana plantation to give jobs to the poor women to raise their status in society. Each of the women working in the plantation will get half an acre if she puts part of her wages in a deposit scheme. With ownership of productive land the woman will have her place in society. The author tells what has to be done to raise the standard of the poor and has shown that it can be done.

A manifesto to work against cruelty, disease, and illiteracy

Ably and informatively written by Abraham M. George (a businessman who has undertaken numerous humanitarian projects in South India), India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty assesses how economic liberalization measures have left much of rural India behind, particularly those belonging to the lowest caste, called "untouchables". Chapters address the reasons behind this disparity, promises for hope, global perspectives, and offer solutions to more equitably bring improved quality of life to all of India's people. A manifesto to work against cruelty, disease, and illiteracy, India Untouched is a cutting-edge political and social analysis of far-reaching problems in dire need of solutions.

India Untouched: Vision for a Global Family

Recently, Dr Abraham George, author of India Untouched was honored at a function in Chicago. Mr. P S Nair, introduced Dr George with words along these lines- Five thousand years ago, India came up with the idea of vasudeivakudumbakam (the whole world is one family). For Dr. George, the whole world is one family- the global family. While reading the book, one finds out how aptly the description Mr. Nair gave fits its author. It covers the experiences of a person trying to provide equal opportunities to people in the lowest ladder of society and the mechanisms he has set up to accomplish the objective. Dr George was in the forefront of the IT revolution which brought about the reality of global village. It is in a way a strange coincidence that Dr George chose Dharmapuri near Bangalore for his model for global family. Multinational corporations in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of the East, go after the best coming out of India's schools. George Foundation founded by Dr George also goes after the best but with a difference. The Foundation is after the most deprived children of Dharmapuri. These are kids who `had never used toilets, slept in beds, sat in a chair, worn footwear, eaten a square meal in a day, or played with toys". They are given access to the same technologies as the children of the rich and are getting a world class education. Dr George has come with an innovative workable model in social sciences, which is transportable anywhere in the world where there is poverty and despair. The book should be a required reading for global studies in high schools, social/political sciences in colleges and policy making bodies in national/international organizations.

A New Look At India.

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to read a great number of books on India and while they've all been informative, few of them have given the sort of insight, the insider's look upon the nation, especially the rural poor, that "India Untouched" gives. Dr. George provides a first-hand account of some of the most pressing problems today in India, from women's rights to the environmental concerns, that can only be gained from his long years in the field. Complex enough to engage the mind, while being simple enough for the layman, it is a book that awakens the soul, open the eyes and leaves one most certainly touched by the humanity of the subject. What is striking about this work, in comparison to other pieces of literature in the subject is that Dr. George offers real solutions, practical options, that can be implemented in the current atmosphere. This book is about a crisis and solutions. I would also recommend P. Sainath's "Everybody Loves A Good Drought" as a companion piece to this book.