Madam, - Having had the privilege of spending four months in India this summer, three of them working with the Irish NGO Suas in Calcutta, I read with great interest about the Taoiseach's first official visit to the country. Media coverage of India in the past few days has focused on its recent economic growth, its expanding middle-class population, and its increasing role in the international community. All of these developments are to be welcomed and commended.
However, India is a land of striking contrasts which faces significant problems on a scale almost unimaginable to an Irish person.
To take some figures from the UN Human Development Report in 2003, only 28 per cent of its population of over 1 billion have proper sanitation, 111 million children are engaged in child labour, and the country accounts for 40 per cent of the world's poor, with 350 million living below the poverty line - defined by the government of India as 10 rupees (20 cent) a day.
These are only some of a whole host of statistics which paint a much bleaker picture than that portrayed in this newspaper and others in the past week.
My own personal experience of India is that the economic development of the past few years has had little impact on the poor. Your Editorial of January 16th highlighted common factors in the histories of Ireland and India.
Indeed, as both countries' economies have grown dramatically in the past few years it is hoped that in both cases a more equal society can be built in future. To use one of the Taoiseach's own phrases, "a lot done, more to do". - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'REGAN,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.