NEW DELHI, INDIA, October, 27, 2011: Earlier this year, billionaire-philanthropists, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, arrived in India to try to convince India’s wealthiest that they could, and should, do more. India is now home to 57 billionaires, according to Forbes, and a multiplying number of millionaires. However, India’s super-rich has been relatively slow to give. Bain & Co.’s 2011 India Philanthropy Report, found that India’s wealthy are giving away between 1.5% and 3% of their yearly income. The number marks an increase, but still pales in comparison to the 9% donated each year in the U.S.
Creating a culture of philanthropy will take time, says Gurcharan Das, author of The Difficulty of Being Good. “You have to measure that speed against the fact that money has just come to India. In America, there’s been a 100 years of Carnegies and Rockefellers and time to build a certain tradition and culture. In India we’re telescoping all of this in 10 or 15 years.”
Even for those who are looking to donate, giving away large sums of money in India poses logistical challenges. India has seen an explosion of NGOs seeking funds and doling out help. Over the past three years, an average of 700 NGOs open daily in India and the country is now home to 3.3 million NGOs. That has made deciding where to donate funds and making sure the money’s going to good use, a difficult task.
Instead of giving to charities, the most popular form of giving is donations to temples, which in turn open schools and hospitals for the poor. “In the West there are a lot of things that are taken for granted that the state will provide, here these things are provided through the private sector, individuals, and community institutions, like the temple,” says Gurcharan Das. “That means in India people have to look after their own through the joint family, caste and other community institutions.”
[HPI note: As the last paragraph explains, this research differentiates charitable giving to secular institutions and donations to temples and religious institutions. Indians are famously generous toward the latter, and the social works of ashrams and similar institutions form a social net that is often especial to the survival of millions. The idea that “Creating a culture of philanthropy will take time” does not do this religion-based system justice.]