-We have engineers dominating the innovation in Information Technology.
-We have Nobel Prize winning Scientists, Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Astronauts.
-Presidents & CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies.

Indian-Americans, with a median household income of over $60,000 per year, are ranked as the highest income group in this country. 

There is no doubt; we are a successful immigrant community in US. But, we are lagging behind in one important aspect of the American way of life. That is Philanthropy. We fail to recognize that Philanthropy is not an option but a civic duty.

In America, we have seen time and again the heights of philanthropy. Whenever there are calamities such as hurricanes, earthquakes, epidemics or terrorist attacks like 9/11, Americans are always in the forefront to donate money, material and time to help the victims. When it comes to helping the needy, American philanthropy has no territorial boundaries. Whether it is helping the victims of famine in Africa or Tsunami in Asia they are in the forefront

Why are Indian-Americans lagging behind in Philanthropy? Are we too busy traveling our road to success? Are we too busy trying to get rich? What is the meaning of success or becoming rich when we totally ignore the suffering of fellow human beings? What is the meaning of success when we fail to pay back our debt to the communities that helped us flourish?

Some of us have invested back home, in the business ventures of our brothers or brother in laws. When we don’t get any return on our investment or even the principal back – we tend to get philosophical and say, “Hey that is ‘my philanthropy’ towards my family”. But is it? Unfortunately we can’t even get a tax deduction for such a loss. In many cases, not only do we lose our money but our relationships as well.

Here in the USA, our community’s philanthropy is mostly limited to donating money to temples. True, we need temples to practice our religion and to preserve our heritage. Mahatma Gandhi said ‘Manava seva is Madhava Seva’ which translates to ‘serving man is serving God’ because God lives in every human being.

Also, every religion teaches us to help fellow human beings in their need. Even in ancient times, we had philanthropist Indians building lakes and dams for irrigation, ashrams or shelters for the homeless and schools in remote areas. We had our ancestors sharing their wealth with poor during festivals. Some how, it is our generation that is not doing enough to recognize philanthropy as a virtue. Certainly there are some exceptional individuals amongst us who are doing their part and I commend them. But, I must say, simply - we are not doing enough. 

For instance, we had our share of entrepreneurs who became multi-millionaires, especially during the dotcom era. Where are they? Except for a few, many of them just disappeared from amongst us. They may think they are very successful. But I think they are a total failure because, they forgot to share their success with the communities that made them what they are today. 

In contrast, one such American entrepreneur in Atlanta, Christopher Claus, founder of Internet Security Services, just 26 years old, recently donated 15 million dollars to Georgia Tech. He is a dropout from Georgia Tech. Yet, he felt that the college gave him the foundation to succeed and he had an obligation to give some thing back. Indeed, $15 million is something for sure. I wish we could hear such stories involving Indian-Americans. Then I will be truly proud of them.

Gandhi said, “the real India lives in villages” and we have 700,000 of them. The success India has accomplished in recent years is commendable, but is limited to urban areas. We still have thousands of villages without any basic amenities. We have villages with no schools, compelling children to walk miles to one in a neighboring village. We have villages without clean drinking water. We have villages without basic health care facilities. The Government focus being so much on developing urban areas has resulted in total neglect of villages.

Organizations like Spread India.org are working hard to provide these villages at least with minimum infrastructure. But these organizations, cannot accomplish their goals without our support. Why, it is so hard for us to support these organizations with our financial help? Especially, when Spread India says that a $10 dollar a month could make a difference in the life of a student in India, who among us couldn’t afford to make such a small contribution?

As I’ve said before, we should be proud of our success in this great country. But, how did we accomplish this success? Most of us came from middle class families from India. But, fortunately we had parents who had the vision to recognize that the sure way to success is getting good education. Our parents, at enormous personal sacrifices, made it their top priority to get us quality education, which has resulted in what we are today. Our parents deserve a tribute from us for their vision and sacrifices. 

What better tribute could we pay to our parents than helping build a school or classroom in their name? What better tribute could we pay to their vision than helping a poor student get quality education to recognize his/her dreams of success? Our parents, living in this world or eternal world, would be truly proud of us only when we help these under privileged people in villages, by providing schools, health care facilities or clean drinking water. That is when our parents and grand parents would say ‘I’m proud of you’. 

You may even consider your philanthropy as an investment for the future generations. The value of the legacy you leave for your children is immense. The return on your investment is immeasurable with smiling faces of those children who can now study under a real roof, instead of under the shade of a tree at their school. The glint you will see in their eyes is priceless.

Some of us have good intentions to help others. But we don’t know how to execute those thoughts. We also worry whether our hard earned money when donated to projects in India is well spent or not. At times, we are genuinely concerned that our financial aid may not reach the deserving people.

Some of us even worry, ‘O.K. I’m going to help - but not sure who is going to get the credit. May be it will be the President of so and so organization who may take the credit for the money I’m donating’. Robert Woodruff, a great philanthropist and entrepreneur from Atlanta who introduced Coca Cola to the world market, said, “there is no limit what a man could accomplish – as long as he doesn’t mind who gets the credit”. How true it is even today.

Friends, all that it takes is our commitment to help others – if you have a will to help others certainly there is way make it happen – no matter how small or big your contribution could be.

We can make a difference by adopting villages of our choice or a project of our choice in a village that is close to our heart - like where we spent our childhood or summer vacations with our grand parents. A few years ago, few among us, who hail from Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, started a web site called ‘Nalgonda.org’ to highlight the excess fluoride problem in the drinking water of Nalgonda district which has been prevalent for generations resulting in birth defects in hundreds of thousands of people. Since my childhood, prior to every general election, I heard promises from political leaders to eradicate this problem. But still the problem exists. 

This web site has created enormous awareness of the problem in the world media including New York Times, BBC, and finally we are seeing some action from Government and Non-Government organizations to help the victims and provide healthy drinking water to the affected areas. We have Indian-Americans of Nalgonda district origin, voluntarily coming forward to help build classrooms, libraries and other infrastructure to the villages of their choice. 

As our partner, Spread India and its team is doing an excellent job in executing this work with our financial support. Nalgonda.org is proud of its partnership with Spread India and hopes to continue it for many more years 

The point is, we all could make a difference in this world. We are blessed to live and succeed in this great country. We made our dreams. Let us share our success to help others to realize their dreams.

(The article was part of Narender Reddy's speech delivered at the Spread India.org’s fund raising dinner on November 12, 2005 at Detroit, Michigan. The text is edited for this column).

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