9 Specific communities requiring specialized ministry:

a) The increasingly affluent 250 million of the middle classes

b) Students numbering over 10 million in 250 universities and 10,000 colleges

c) Young people – the statistics are solemn:

d) Children in crisis – no country can rival India's need

e) Leprosy sufferers number 1.5m,

f) The blind

g) AIDS has spread rapidly

10 Minority religious communities:

a) Muslims may number 140 million making India the second largest Muslim country in the world

b) The Sikh community

c) Buddhist Tibetans

d) The 3,500,000 Jains and 150,000 Parsees

11 Help Ministries play a vital part in the evangelization of millions who have no meaningful contacts with Christian churches

a) The Bible Society

b) Bible translation is a major challenge

c) Literature distribution

d) Christian publishing and bookstores

e) Bible Correspondence Courses sent out from over 70 centres

f) Cassette ministry is significant with over half the population functionally illiterate

g) Christian medical work

h) Christian films and video are important:

i) Christian radio and TV have won an enormous following among Christians and non-Christians

12 Indians in other lands number 22 million

Politics

Independent from Britain in 1947.

Religion

India's constitution provides for full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions.

Churches in India

Missionaries from India

over 44,000 in 440 agencies of which 60% are working cross-culturally in India, 440 in foreign countries.

Expatriates to India

approx. 1,000 in 184 agencies.

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Geography

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Area 3,166,000 sq.km. A further 121,000 sq.km. of Kashmir is administered by Pakistan and China.

Population (2000) 1,013,661,777 +1.66%AGR

Capital Delhi 11.3 million.

Peoples

The racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity together with the caste system complicates any analysis of the population.

Castes

Races and Languages

Forward castes (FC) 15.4%; Backward castes (OBC) 56.6%; Scheduled castes or Dalit (SC) 18.1%; Tribal or Adivasi (ST) (580) 9.5%; Other 0.4%; Indo-Aryan 75.3%; Dravidian 22.5%; Austro-Asiatic 1.13%; Sino-Tibetan 0.97%; Other 0.1%.

Literacy 62% (44% in 1981). Functional literacy much lower. No longer the world's least literate country. Official languages Hindi (language of Union, 66% speak it); English (legislative and judicial language and language of wider communication, 19% speak it). Scheduled languages 18. All languages 1,652 (1971 census). The SIL Ethnologue lists 407 living languages.

Languages with Scriptures 53Bi 42NT 40por 68w.i.p.

Economy

Predominantly agricultural with 64% of the labour force, but rapid industrialization and urbanization is taking place. HDI 0.545; 132^nd/174. Public debt 22% of GNP. Income/person $370 (1.2% of USA).

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