WEALTHY Americans are paying more than £3,000 to go on controversial package tours to India that mix shopping and sightseeing with handing out food and medicines to the poor.

The tours, organised by Alexander Souri, who has worked on special effects for Hollywood films, take groups of up to 15 people on horseback through the western desert state of Rajasthan, stopping off at villages along the way.

Poor villagers are said to be bemused at the sight of the American cavalcade galloping towards them across the dunes. But curiosity turns to pleasure when free livestock, food and medicines are handed out.

Caroline Duncan, 31, an actress from Los Angeles, who was on the first tour organised by Souri’s company, Relief Riders International, last October, was also delighted.

“To hold a sick child in your arms, give her the medicine she needs and then ride into the desert on a beautiful horse under a starry sky to have a fabulous dinner in a fairytale fort is an extraordinary experience,” she said.

Some Indian commentators have dismissed the tours as condescending and an easy way for rich foreigners to achieve a “moral high”.

“I’m sure their motives are sincere but they need to understand that poverty is part of a wider reality,” said Ranjana Kumari, a social worker. “They’d do better to work in their own country to get their government to pursue policies that help India.”

However, Mahesh Arora, a Red Cross doctor who attended the medical camps, has applauded the tourists’ desire to connect with ordinary Indians. “I know holding camps is not much but it doesn’t do any harm, does it.” he said. “Both sides get something out of it.”

Souri, who is half-Indian and half-French and said to have worked on films such as The Matrix and X-Men, revealed that the idea came to him when his father’s death made him take stock of his life.

“People are looking for a life-changing experience away from the tourist circuit,” he said. “They want a good time but they also want to leave an imprint on people they meet.”

The tourists set out from Dundlod Fort in Rajasthan, a seven-hour drive from Delhi. They then assemble their caravan: 15,000lb of food, medicines, educational materials, booklets on Aids and other supplies — all of which they have paid for — are loaded onto camel carts.

The group visits five or six villages during their fortnight’s stay. Souri arranges for a medical team to give the villagers routine check-ups and treat them for minor ailments and infections, mainly of the eyes or teeth. Some 1,800 villagers were treated during last October’s tour.

Souri is keen to extend the project and is planning trips to Sri Lanka for a mixture of sunbathing and rebuilding schools devastated by the tsunami.

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