As someone who is preparing for a trip to India, the account of poverty is not a suprise to me. I believe it has been addressed on this board in many posts.

I guess you can't dwell on it, though. If you want to travel to India, poverty is unfortunately part of the experience. While there, we plan to shop at (and donate to) a women's cooperative and give to any other charities we stumble upon where the emphasis is on education and skills. But what else can we do? We don't want to come away feeling guilty for staying in nice hotels and eating good food when so many Indians enjoy a similarly comfortable lifestyle.

I was not suprised to find poverty in India, of course I knew beforehand but the sheer scale of it simply took me by surprise... it made me feel very sad ...

Anyway that doesn't change the fact that India is one of the most fascinating countries.

Erika-In no way did I intend to make anyone feel guily about enjoying their five star hotels or good food in India. I only intended to give a balanced account of my experience in India. There is certainly not much that we can do as visitors to change the condition of the masses. That can only be done with massive government intervention,if it can be done at all. If you want to feel that you are making a small difference, donate to whatever Indian charity you deem worthy. If you intend to do this, I would research this before you get to India, as our guide could not give us any helpful information regarding charitable giving along our route except to say not to be taken in by the many charity scams going on-ie he mentioned that in one of the cities we visited, Khajaraho, people on the street will strike up a conversation with you, offer to take you to see a school in the village where 24 students are doing their lessons, and then ask for a donation of $10 or $20 for the school. The guide said the school is not a real school, the students are not really students, just "display students" for the day, and the money is divided up among them at the end of the day. When people ask me how my trip to India was I say interesting and eye opening. I don't feel guilty for having gone, but the overwhelming and massive poverty was part of the trip, and it did affect my perception of India.

The hotel group we like to stay with (and trust) has at least one charitable venture in place so that is good. They'll have a good pulse on what we can participate in and where the most value will be for the locals.

Shelleyk - wow, the fake school thing, good to know. And no offense taken.