boost income and inspire permanent change
Why India?
As global citizens we have a social commitment to help others in need and Shivia has chosen to help those that are the world’s very poorest and generally excluded from the globalised world.
- Despite now being a middle-income country and home to some of the world’s richest, one third of the world’s poor live in India.
- India has more people in poverty than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
- Nearly 70% of India’s population lives on less than USD $2 per day.
- More than a third of India’s population live below the international extreme poverty line of USD $1.25 per day.
- India does not have the tax base to eliminate poverty through internal wealth redistribution.
- India has poverty incomprehensible in the UK
Why West Bengal?
- It is one of the poorer states in India and living standards for the majority are declining.
- Kolkata (The city of Joy) is not a booming city like Mumbai or Delhi and is being left behind, like its people.
- Olly Donnelly, founder of Shivia, has extensive knowledge of the people and the culture; her MSc and MA theses were based on the poor of Kolkata and West Bengal.
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