India has the world's second largest population, with more than one billion people living. The population comprises a wide range of ethnic groups with different languages and religions. There are as many as 21 major languages in the country in addition to the official language (Hindi). The caste system, which is associated with Hinduism, still influences the lives of people.
Recently, the development of IT industries in India has been attracting the world's attention, but there are still a lot of poor people and it is said that about half the population (500 million) live on less than one dollar per day. India also has the largest number of cases of child labor in the world, which is one of the most serious problems in the country.

India has the largest child population in the world: those aged 18 or younger account for at least one-third of the total population.

A lot of women traditionally marry very young and the education of women has not been deemed important, and so the literacy rate of women is particularly low.

Some children are forced to work because their families and communities do not understand the importance of education or because their households are very poor.

Major factors:

• (1) Low-quality educational services
  for the poor
• (2) Long absence of teachers and lack of
  training of present teachers
• (3) Insufficient infrastructure and lack of
  school supplies

In order to solve these problems, the Indian government established a law giving all children the right to compulsory education free-of-charge and has since been endeavoring to encourage children aged six to 14 to receive compulsory education. The school attendance rate is increasing, and now measures are being implemented to improve the quality of education and access to it, prevent children from giving up attending school, and support the education of more girls.

Children studying outdoors
because of lack of classrooms

Lunch is provided to children
to improve their school
attendance rate

Play performed by children
to help prevent young marriage

Save the Children runs projects to support education and protect children's rights in more than 120 countries around the world, upholding the vision of"a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation."
Concerning education in India, the organization has long supported socially and economically vulnerable children who wish to attend school, helping schools establish relations with local communities and training to teachers.