Millions of South Asian women are illiterate. Literacy classes are one aspect of Gospel for Asia’s women’s ministry aimed at helping women find hope in Christ.

PUNJAB, India (WordNews.org) Jan. 15, 2013 – Reports of a second gang rape of an Indian woman allegedly by seven men in less than a month is highlighting for the world the mistreatment women have withstood in India for years, said Gospel for Asia president K.P. Yohannan.
Gospel For Asia is a Carrollton, Texas-based mission organization working in South Asia.
Indian police report a woman was gang-raped by seven men after she boarded a bus Friday night, MSN reports. All seven suspects, including the bus driver, have been arrested. The latest rape charge follows a the brutal rape and death of an unnamed woman in New Delhi, India, on Dec. 28.
“The long-time abuse women in India endure has now been highlighted,” Yohannan said. “Their social stigma and inhuman treatment with impunity make them one of the largest unreached people groups.”
Gospel for Asia specializes in ministering to them through its “Women Reaching Women” outreach in India. Women missionaries are working heavily in rural areas where unlawful abuse occurs regularly without retribution and in urban prostitution centers.
Gospel for Asia said “untouchables” or Dalits face the worst conditions because they are part of the lowest castes and considered subhuman. They make up a quarter of India’s 1.2 billion people.
The ratio of 1,000 men to 850 women is caused in part by “routine murders of women through infanticide, gender-based abortion, the dowry system and lack of proper medical care,” Gospel for Asia said. About 10,000 women are murdered each year for not being able to raise the required dowries for marriage and widows are often kicked out of their homes and abused.
Yohannan calls the conditions for women in India “a horrendous evil that is worsening.” Of all married Indian women, 46 percent are 18 or younger. Marriage of girls age five to seven, although illegal, is still practiced in some rural areas.
But there are promising signs, Yohannan said.
“Education for women in the name of Jesus is bringing hope,” said Yohannan. Indian women, who are often the last allowed to eat and the first to be kept illiterate, are learning to read and write and being educated on their human rights.
More than 59,000 women in India are enrolled in the microfinance system administered by GFA female partners. Women learn to support themselves and their families through gift supplies, such as sewing machines or chickens, from GFA donors.
“While India needs enforcement of stricter laws to protect women, ultimate liberation and hope come only through the love of Christ,” said Yohannan. “In teaching, we are showing women that Jesus cares about their needs, loves them and answers their prayers.”

To learn more about the plight of Indian women, or to donate to “Women Reaching Women,” call 800-946-2742 or visit www.gfa.org/women.