India

The outdated caste systems of India continues to contribute to the perpetual marginalization of millions of poor people. The right to a healthy and happy life for a baby born to one of these villages is denied even before birth. The fact remains in India today that ones caste largely determines the socio-economic class he or she will be locked into. The poor people who fall into the lower class face extreme discrimination on all levels with little chance for upward mobility. All the people KSSS works with are from the lowest classes. They all have unique stories and environmental situations but their similar suffering is a common uniting link. Impoverished unsanitary conditions means 90% suffer malnutrition or a disease of which they can't afford to treat. Social exploitation means 100% of them can't get a stable decent paying job. They only get work 10-15 days per month doing jobs such as rock breaking, railway or lorry labor, or coconut leaf thatching for around a dollar a day. These families have children and often times elder people to support on such menial wages. The children end up working young or they go to the government schools that provide very poor education. They don't have enough money for pens, notebooks, textbooks, or shoes to walk to school in. Over the last few years there has been severe upheaval politically and economically as a result of India's latest experiments with the free market. The new middle class and wealthy class have been strengthened and expanded, putting at risk the resources available to the poor. These national governmental changes have magnified the suffering of the poor who are forced to rely on services that the current government is not willing or able to provide. These resources include decent primary education, non-formal or vocational adult education, health care, and funding for economic generation projects amongst the lower class.