(From Mission Network News online, mnnonline.org, October 20, 2026, by Lindsay Koh) – India (MNN) – In India, the caste system shapes your whole life. It’s a social hierarchy, and you’re born into a high or low caste based on your actions in a past life.
For kids in low castes, this lie sets them on a path of hopelessness and shame.
Raina Miller with Mission India explains, “Someone who is born into a lower caste has been taught their whole life that they deserve it and that determines their worth. So, if bad things happen to them, if they are mistreated, then the narrative that they have grown up hearing their whole lives is that’s what they deserve.”
Although caste discrimination is illegal in India, its influence still runs deep. For many, social standing affects everything from relationships to opportunities for education and employment.
But the Gospel offers a very different path. “The idea of a God who loves them and does not punish them for living poorly is just unheard of. It brings them hope like they have never known was available,” says Miller.
Mission India’s Year-Long Bible Clubs introduce children to that hope while challenging the divisions they’ve grown up with. Even something as simple as playing sports together can teach kids to love across caste lines.
Miller explains, “On the surface, it might just seem like a fun way to engage. But what it does is it builds in these kids an understanding that you can pass the soccer ball to kids of a different caste. You can share a jump rope with a child of another caste. You can all play together and not treat people differently because of the caste that they came from.”
Mission India’s new short film, The Path, premiered yesterday, sharing stories of lives changed by Jesus!
“In the film, we highlight two boys – Naveen and Praveen – and they’re brothers,” Miller shares. “They attended a Year-Long Bible Club and it changed their lives, it changed their family, and it’s a perfect example of what Year-Long Bible Clubs can do for India’s kids.”
Miller says, “We’re just excited for people to watch it and have a deeper understanding as believers of what the Body of Christ is doing in India to reach the unreached.”