Day 118 Sunday November 28th Ashok Country Hotel, Delhi

We move into this expensive hotel and join the tour group that we will be with for the next 17 days as we travel around Northern India. In the afternoon we visit Delhi again, this time on a tour bus-not our preferred way but our personal efforts failed yesterday. We stop for a visit to India’s largest Mosque but the more interesting part is the view of Delhi’s street life through the bus window. India is the world’s largest democracy and most of its 1.2bn people seem to be right here in Delhi.
Our guide Anu, tells me that he is an atheist and also tells me that his father is a Muslim and his Mother is a Hindu “it is a love-marriage”, which is an interesting and revealing phrase.
60% of the population is in the country although many are moving to Metro areas now.
Education: state schools but very little government oversight as a national system. Taught in Hindi with English taught in last grades only= partial fluency. Private schools teach in English, variety of funding sources, sometimes Christian charities and schools (left-overs from British Raj) which are accepted due to the parent’s ambitions for their children’s education. People in Metro areas typically spend 25% of family income on their children’s education.
India (supposedly) has a 16% unemployment rate but it is slowly dropping. Only 5% of people pay taxes, farmers and other poor people are exempt and there are many other exemptions so not much money is available for Government programs.