India

So, not only did I forget my headphones Friday (no lecture), I also forgot Case For Christ (one of the books I'm reading for this class). Therefore- it was research day. I have to eventually pick a country to do my project on, and I figure that the sooner I decide- the better. This past week at church a man from India came and spoke (heads over 2,000 pastors and around 22 orphanages- ICC people, correct me if I'm wrong on those numbers). It was great. Extremely eye opening though. So, today is going to be a look at India. Just a hodgepodge of stats and info that I've found.

From Central Intelligence Agency- World Fact Book:



Population: 

1,205,073,612 (July 2012 est.)

Religions:
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages: 
Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9%

Physicians Density: 
0.599 physicians/1,000 population (2005)
(America has 2.672 per 1,000) 

Hospital Bed Density: 
0.9 beds/1,000 population (2005)
(America has 3.1 per 1,000 people)

HIV/AIDS:

2.4 million people (2009 est.)

country comparison to the world: 3

Literacy: 

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 61%

male: 73.4%

female: 47.8% (2001 census)

Children under the age of 5 years underweight: 

43.5% (2006)

country comparison to the world: 1
That stat really got me. India is number 1 in the world for Children under 5 that are underweight (Which is a huge indicator of it's Nutritional Status. 

Population below poverty line:
25% (2007 est.)
Maybe this doesn't sound like a huge number- but when you take 25 percent of 1,205,073,612, you get 301,268,403. Thats 300 million people below the poverty line. Ouch. 


Agriculture: 
rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, lentils, onions, potatoes; dairy products, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

Industries: 
textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software, pharmaceuticals

I found this stat particularly interesting: 

Refugees and internally displaced persons: 

refugees (country of origin): 100,003 (Tibet/China); 69,998 (Sri Lanka); 9,094 (Afghanistan)

IDPs: at least 506,000 (about half are Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir) (2012)

This next stuff is from Mission India.org: 

I LOVE this link. It basically just explains "Why India?". Why support it, send missionaries to it, help it out. Instead of just copying all the stuff, I'm gonna put the link. Please check it out. 

http://www.missionindia.org/about/whyIndia

Main points- ("Why support missions in India?")
Because India is Hurting...
Because India is seeking...
Because India is Where God is at Work...

I also checked out their statement of faith- great stuff. (http://www.missionindia.org/about/StatementofFaith)
Something I noticed though- this particular website doesn't have anything in their ministries page about medical outreach. They're probly apart of some sort of medical mission work there, but I would have LOVED to see it on their page. I'll have to do some more research into that. (For those of you who don't know- I really want to be a doctor, with an emphasis in missions work.)

Found this video. Almost in tears. Please, take the time to watch it. It's not a guilt video. It's something that opens eyes- and helps us to see. This world is full of hurt and paint. And whats more? We're called to do something about it. It doesn't have to be in India. Not all of us are called to overseas missions- but we are all called to mission work. Let me ask you this, (A question I've asked myself almost daily since my first missions trip to New Orleans), If we don't share Christ, who will? We're all called to be fishers of men.  http://www.missionindia.org/ministries

Every time I look at these sorts of sites, my heart breaks. I want to jump on a plane and fly to India. Like- right now. Obviously, that's not going to happen. But that's how I feel. I really am excited for the second half of this class though. Learning apologetic stuff has been great, but especially after a day of reseraching India, I'm ready for some application. This is starting to look like my project country (Who knows, I might end up changing my mind. For now though, India's looking like a good canidate).

Something interesting though- I had always thought that the country I would pick would be from Africa. I'm absolutely in love with African cultures, and I suppose those were the countries I was most familiar with. My family also sponsors two children from Africa through World Vision, and Compassion. I still have a heart for Africa, but India's been tugging at me as well. We'll see. Both are really great options for an end of semester project.