Rethinking Development: Strengthening the Grassroots

Madhukar Shukla, XLRI

Just around the time of Indias 67th Independence Day, an unprecedented development in the history of India was unfolding in a remote place in Odisha. For the first in history of India, the government had asked the inhabitants of a place whether they wanted development!! What made this exercise significant was the fact that people who were asked to voice their opinion were part of the mostly neglected 9% Indian population, the tribals those too from just 12 villages on a hill, Niyamgiri (under which there is a huge deposit of bauxite) . In absolute numbers, they comprised of merely a few hundred; but the fate of a Rs 4500cr mining project depended on their opinion. By 18th August, the gram sabhas of all the 12 villages had voted against the project; they did not want to be the victims of development. Whether they were right or ill-informed, whether they will finally have their voice heard or not, whether the referendum by just 12 villages out of more 100 which will be affected by the mining project will suffice to scrap the project, etc. etc. is something we will only know in the times to come. But, in these developments was a glimmer of hope what development/ progress can be! Why?.... because, in many ways, our concept of Development/ Progress is warped; it suits the aspirations of a certain segment of society who dont have much to give or lose - that:

Somehow, the development projects which aim to create benefit for the larger

society never include a clause that ensures that the worst-affected by these plans will be heard and will be the first beneficiaries and not the victims of the development/ progress...

Somehow, those who talk about the "need for some to sacrifice for the larger good" are not really those who actually sacrifice their lives/ homes/ livelihoods
for the "development of the country"

Somehow, those who were supposed to make this magnificent sacrifice for the sake of the country are the same set of people - and they make the sacrifice time
and again!!!...they lose their land because of an irrigation project/industrial development, and become a slum-dweller - and then they lose their slum because they are part of the urban squalor that needs to be removed, etc...

It is in this context that what unfolded in Niyamgiri is the metaphor of what development/ progress can look like!... :

That, local remote voices however small and marginal have a say in
determining their own fate in the saga of development/ progress

That, the measure of progress/ development are people and environment

and not merely number (GDP, FDI or whatever) for economists/ governments to gloat over

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So what would such an alternative model of development look like? Some of the elements of such a model would be: Community-led, empowered self-governance systems (development / facilitation of participative/democratic local institutions for decision-making, planning and execution, which also include socially and economically weaker section of the community) Sustainable and equitable use and regeneration of local natural resources (e.g., rain-water harvesting, composting, land-leveling, etc.) Application and innovation of environmentally sustainable and appropriate technology to solve local developmental problems (e.g., low-cost housing, local medicinal plants, renewable energy sources, etc.) Strengthening the capacities, confidence and skills of the community to solve problems, and engage in livelihoods and income-generation activities. Overall reduction in poverty and inequality, and strengthening/ development of local socio-cultural fabric and economy.

After all, as Gandhi had said many years back: True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men at the center. It has to be worked by the people of every village.

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