Facts About India

  Population - 1 billion

§  Time Zone - 12.5 hours ahead of CST

§  Language(s) - Hindi

§  Currency - Indian Rupee

§  Compulsory Education - 6 to 14 years

§  Literacy - 73% (male); 48% (female)

§  Religion - Hindu (80%), Muslim (14%), Christian (2%), other (6%)

§  India is located in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan.

§  Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population.

§  There are an estimated 35 million orphans (all of sub-Saharan Africa has 43 million). 9% of all children in India are orphans.

§  No country can rival India’s children in need. Of India’s nearly 400 million under 18, over 70 million are child laborers, 10 million are bonded laborers (a form of slavery to pay off family debts), 13 million are homeless, 2 million are street children without families.

§  There is widespread child abuse, and there is a deficit of 40 million girls because of female feticide — over 20,000 ultrasound clinics thrive on this illegal practice. There are 575,000 child prostitutes and there is a massive trade in Bangladeshi and Nepali girls sold into prostitution.

§  Malnutrition affects nearly half of all children under age five.

§  The adult literacy rate has a wide discrepancy between males – 73%, and females – 48% (2000-2004).

§  Only 59 percent of boys and 47 percent of girls attend Secondary school (1996-2005).

§  AIDS has spread rapidly in India and some estimates have said that by 2020 there could be 200 million carrying HIV.