The growth of the Indian economy over the last two decades has been incredible and the future looks just as promising. India has more billionaires than most other industrialized countries and the size of the Indian middle class in on a par with the entire population of the United States. Indian expatriates are a very significant presence in the American IT community, which includes entrepreneurs, inventors and C-level executives. Finally, the Indian university system is both large and effective, turning out an enormous number of trained professionals, especially engineers. All of these factors have led many to predict that this vast economic engine will overtake the United States, making the Indian economy the largest and most productive in the world.

The Indian culture is one of the oldest continuously operating civilizations in the world, a point of pride but also a source of difficulty. For centuries, Indian society was based on a fairly rigid caste system with an underclass that was rarely able to rise above the higher levels of poverty. Although laws were passed to eliminate the discrimination, tradition dies slowly and the social order in India is still largely based on the traditional underclass being kept there.

With rapid economic growth, there are always social upheavals and displacements and India is no exception. In fact the sheer rapidity of the economic growth in India has led to greater upheaval than other nations experienced in the industrial revolution. In combination with the caste system, this has led to an enormous problem, a very large underclass of children that are extremely poor and generally not cared for. While the estimates vary widely, there is no question that it numbers in the millions, the only real question is the number of digits in the millions column.

This book is an outsider's story of the lives of some of those children, where Seale travels to the country and does what she can to achieve the role of the insider. It is an honest appraisal of the country; while there are times when the accounts are those of someone sensitive to the personal tragedy for the most part Seale remains realistic in her descriptions of the situation. She is appalled by the conditions yet does an excellent job in describing the context and the successes that India is experiencing. This is important, for a problem of this magnitude can only be solved by the children being more integrated into the Indian economy, something that cannot be done without some understanding of how the Indian economy and culture functions.

This book will move you, although not as much as one that contains only detailed descriptions of individual cases. For as Joseph Stalin once said, "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." The sheer enormity of the problem makes it difficult to wrap your mind around it and while you try to do that, the fact that each of the millions of children is a starving child is overlooked. However, the problem cannot really be solved by saving individual children, any solution must be holistic in form. Seale takes that approach and is to be commended for doing so.

If this book doesn't shake you to the core than I question if you are even really human. A few months ago I was watching The Amazing Race on CBS and heard a couple of the participants who had come from the United States and had never lacked for anything, comment on how horrid India smelled and how dirty the people in the slum areas were, and I had to shake my head and quietly utter 'ugly spoiled Americans'.

Then came the movie Slum Dog Millionaire and the stories of how the children in the movie and their parents and siblings were being removed from the slums and given clean homes and much needed educations. Then as the months went by we heard that none of this had happened. This is where the book has value. It notes that most children in India are forgotten throwaways, but need not be. Compelling stories about those who are trying hard to change things, and the hurdles they must overcome.

The book also gives you pause as you shop. Why? Because that item you are buying dirt cheap at some American store, that was made in India may well have been made by a child who gets paid pennies a day and never has access to a school. Love that new leather item? Did you know it may have been made by a child and made using caustic materials that lead to early death? That new hand woven rug may look nice, but did you know there are dozens of children in cramped spaces working 12 hour days to weave that rug? Do you care?

In the back of the book are some excellent groups that are doing a good job with most of the money (unlike some groups) goes to the needs of the children and their communities. Makes giving easier and safer.

I highly recommend this book. Not just to those that have an active interest in India and the plight of its abandoned children. But also to those who may be curious to learn more about India because of it's increased exposure in business and popular culture. This book will open your eyes to aspects of India that get little coverage - both good and bad. And open your heart to the millions of children that are in desperate need but have no voice and, often, little hope.

In "The Weight of Silence", the author does a remarkable job of unraveling the complex issues that drive India's spiraling population of unwanted children. Ms. Seale provides comprehensive and in-depth research regarding the abject poverty, rampant disease and cultural inertia that fosters such dire circumstances. But the book is not just about that. This book is about the children that are left in the wake of these issues. It's a book about individual children, their individual stories and the people that are committed to helping them.

Despite the bleak nature of the subject matter, this book is as much about hope as it is about tragedy. It provides the reader with a balanced view of the overwhelming need offset by the compassionate, heroic efforts of those that refuse to be overwhelmed by it. You will be heartbroken by what you read but you will be heartened by what is being done and what you can do to help.