What do Bloggers say about Rural India? · Global Voices
Mridula Dwivedi

While reading different blogs, I have often read that in India blogging reflects a very middle class mindset. So, I thought even if it is true what do Indian blogs say about the issues that are not typically middle class or about urban India.
Dilip at Death Ends Fun   in short post talks about people who leave their villages and come to look for work in the cities.
In taxis and rickshaws in Bombay, you'll often see a brightly coloured sticker of a young woman sitting under a tree, her head on her elbows on her knees. Below, these three words: “Ghar kab aaoge?” (“When will you come home?)
The reference is, of course, to the number of such drivers who have left their wives and families in small villages while they work in the city.
Vasukumar at  his blog Shadamarshanavasu writes about visiting a village school that turns out to be an unique experience for him.
Had a very unique experience yesterday, visiting an institution,Sevalaya. It is not yet another orphanage; neither is it yet another old age home; it is not another village school either; nor is it a charitable institution with an eye on media publicity.
It is a unique experiment of the dream of 3 young men who wanted to follow the teachings of swami vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Subramanya bharati, in letter and spirit.Started in a thatch hut with 3 children, is today a big family of hundreds of students,teachers and staff.I liked the environment which is very friendly.I found all the inmates both old and young and all ages in between genuinely at peace with themselves and happy.There was a sense of being partners in the entire process. The villagers also participate actively in the school activities in return for free education and upkeep of their children.
Stolenchildhood.net reminds us that the practice of childhood marriages is still prevalent in India.
India is a country largely facing poverty, where the common mass hardly has money to buy itself two meals a day. This is precisely the reason why many parents from the poor class gets their girls married in return more money.
Although the Indian Government says that the economy is fast improving and the IT sector is booming the rural parts of India have hardly changed.
Ramesh G. Deshpande at Economics India looks at some figures and debate surrounding the reduction of proverty in India.
For the past several years, there has been a considerable debate going on among “real” economists and “political” economists about what happened to poverty in India during 1990s.
The debate concerned both political and statistical issues in India's poverty. Following the introduction of economic reforms in early 1990s, India witnessed high rates of economic growth but the effect of this growth on poverty remained a controversial topic. GOI’s official numbers showed an acceleration in the rate of poverty reduction from 36 percent of population in 1993-94 to 26 percent in 1999-2000. Many economists challenged these numbers as showing both too little and too much poverty reduction!