UPSC SOCIOLOGY MAINS – Paper 2 – Part C – Challenges of Social Transformation – Crisis of Development
GS 3 – Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?
- ”Development refers to the strategy of planned social change which is considered desirable by members of the society”. – Yogendra Singh
- In general terms, “development” means an “event constituting a new stage or a changing situation”.
- “Development” is implicitly intended as something positive or desirable.
CRISIS OF DEVELOPMENT?
- A paradoxical situation which refers to the development combined with its negative fallouts.
- A type of un-development resulting from development.
- Manifested in forms of displacement, loss of livelihood, emotional stress, migration, environmental problems and increasing inequalities.
- In the zeal of collective welfare, marginalised sections suffer due to displacement and discrimination.
EXAMPLES OF CRISIS OF DEVELOPMENT
- Frequent floods and aggravated consequences due to unplanned urban development.
- Climate change.
- Pollution
- Regional imbalances.
DISPLACEMENT AS A MAJOR CRISIS OF DEVELOPMENT
Displacement results in
- Results in loss of livelihood.
- Gender impacts.
- Cultural conflict in cases of migration.
- Unemployment.
- Poverty.
- Cultural threat to ethnic groups like tribals.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENT CRISIS IN INDIA AT PRESENT
- India’s unprecedented economic growth during the last two decades has been spearheaded by lopsided spatial development, with clusters of economic activity concentrated in a few highly dense megacities.
- Engines of growth have failed to spread to less dense secondary cities.
- Only those districts that have improved their physical and human infrastructure have attracted manufacturing enterprises.
- This phenomenon has affected employment, distribution of income and developmental process.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
- Sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live and meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- The “official” definition of sustainable development was developed for the first time in the Brundtland Report in 1987.
WAY FORWARD
- No more reliance on trickle-down approach.
- Bottom-up approach and role of local self governments.
- Government schemes for the vulnerable and effective implementation of these policies.
- Planned urban development
- Strict adherence to Nationally Determined Contributions.
