Gated Enclaves Soar Above Indian Slums

Gated communities are emerging across India  to offer the country's growing group of wealthy professionals Western luxuries that the government cannot. One exclusive high-rise complex in Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, has its own security guards, landscaped lawns, and private school. Air conditioning, elevators, running water are all uninterrupted, while the slums that literally surround them suffer without power and water.

India's amenities are reserved for the few who can afford them, in contrast to Asia's other booming economy, China, where the government used public works projects to provide more of its citizens with clean water and basic schooling, reports the New York Times. The poverty rate in India has dipped in the last 17 years, but more than 25% of Indians still live on $1 a day and almost half of all Indian children are malnourished. (More India stories.)