7
Oct

Development

   Posted by: gargi   in India

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For me, development is not the number of roads we build or flashy flyovers or cars on the road. For the simple reason that there will always be those in society who have the money and power to demand and receive it.

For me, development is the sight of children from abjectly poor backgrounds, especially the girl child, on their way to school. And a school set up by the capital earned by their mothers.

Last year when i was filming in rural Marathwada - that more than anything else brought hope on development.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2005 at 9:19 am and is filed under India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 comments so far

Charu
 1 

yes Harini. tu ne meri muh ki baat cheen li :)

October 7th, 2005 at 10:07 am
TTG
 2 

Sigh.
Getting to school on time. How will that happen without Roads, I wonder?

October 7th, 2005 at 11:53 am
gargi
 3 

well, u jump over the pot holes sweetie - as we do in mumbai all the time.

and, if you read the post carefully it doesn’t advocate the building of one over the other. all that it says is that infrastructure building is a given. maybe not at the pace we want or the quality we demand. But, a given all the same. There were road wroks , and railway expansion and steel mill construction before liberalisation, and likly to be around after this economic phase passes.

Development for me - and it is afterall my POV - is illiterate Dalit women pooling together resources to start a school where their kids can study without discrimination.

It has nothing to do with government spend - in fact the government does not spend on this, the women do. It is development in the true sense of the word because the traditionally oppressed are empowering themselves via self help groups and succeeding.
Oh and Tarun, the road u see in the picture. the villagers pooled in labour and monies to build it themselves.

October 7th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Aklanta Kalita
 4 

Hi..
Loved your blog…it show’s the clarity of your thoughts…I’ll have to find time to visit again…

October 8th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
TTG
 5 

here were road wroks , and railway expansion and steel mill construction before liberalisation, and likly to be around after this economic phase passes.

The scale with which these occured pre-liberalisation is there for all to see. Post-liberlisation is not much better.

and, if you read the post carefully it doesn’t advocate the building of one over the other.

But it does.

For me, development is not the number of roads we build or flashy flyovers or cars on the road. For the simple reason that there will always be those in society who have the money and power to demand and receive it.

This statement says it all. Roads only benefit the rich. Or pander to western media to show them what a “world-class” place India is becoming. You haven’t said any such thing, but it’s there in the way you dismiss road-building.

Why does one have to be casually dismissed. Why can’t it be: Development for me is the number of roads we build or flashy flyovers or cars on the road and the sight of children from abjectly poor backgrounds, especially the girl child, on their way to school. And a school set up by the capital earned by their mothers.

Sure it’s your POV. But this is mine. :-p

October 8th, 2005 at 9:25 pm

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