Content like a panda bear...

Today we talked a lot about food security. They defined having food security as being able to supply 2100 calories to each person in the household. The poverty level is having an income of less than 24,000 rupees a year for a family of four. Welfare in India is provided in the form of subsidized food (rice can be bought for 1 rupee a kilo instead of 20, there are also subsidies on kerosene, sugar, and some kind of beans) We visited a shop where the subsidized foods can be purchased, they are run by local women's self help groups because when the government ran them there was too much corruption. Both the government and the people prefer them to be run this way. Everybody in India is supposed to have a ration card, their income determines what they can get subsidized. I guess the entire population with a ration card can get subsidized sugar. It was really interesting to learn how welfare worked here compared to the US.

We also learned that Shanti Ashram gives loans to these women to start their own small businesses and chargers 18% interest (which is improvement over the 60% regular banks charge them) and that half of that goes into training for the women at Shanti and the other half goes directly back to the group.

There is a nice educational rant for you all. We also played with the children at the leadership camp at Shanti Ashram, which is always fun, especially when they steal our cameras and we get a bunch of surprise pictures later.

I'm frustrated with quite a few things about the program director, but I'll spare you all that rant for now.

I'm really enjoying India, pretty much every part of it. Everyday is an adventure, even when we are trying to do the simplest things. Its a pretty amazing place.

:)