Development is a dynamic concept with revolving factors over different time periods. Development means a process of growth over a period of time. Since inception, development has seen many phases and different aspects of the society as well as of the economic periphery of the state. With changing societal dynamics, the face and meaning of development have also changed, evolving with/for the society. States with different kind of societal sects have evolved with different perspectives and norms, and they have a different kind of development. Development leads the way for a state to grow and further leads the way for a change which needs development again.
Different types of society and economies require a different kind of development. A country like India with a deep-rooted history and multi-dimensional, diverse culture need development that reaches its core. India is a country with more than 60% of the population residing in rural areas with agriculture as their main occupation. Over recent decades, India has encountered a ‘modernized development-culture’ with the corporate sector as the centre of the development sphere. Somehow this culture of corporate dominance is indeed required for an economy to grow, but a state should never lose its roots.
Villages are the soul of this country and should not be left behind. But with the recent trend, they are being neglected by the state as well as the society. Only development rural India witnesses, is the introduction of different government schemes which only result in scams. These schemes are like Timon and Pumba. Every five years, we find the government introducing new self-proclaimed, highly productive schemes where promises are made to give better facilities to the people but with never-ending faults, the promises remain unfulfilled.
Indian villages and the people do not require new schemes, they need better road connectivity, better medical facility, better natural resource availability, employment, self-sustained attractive education system etc. There is a saying that “the soul of India lives in its villages”, so we have to work on our souls instead of making ourselves beautiful only on the outside. The developmental pattern in these areas need some changes like sensitization on different aspects before introducing new support systems. We also have to make them understand and realise the importance of sanitation, hygiene, education etc.
There are some grey areas as well that still exist, out of them feudalism and casteism are the most prominent. These issues are so pressing in some parts, that people still feel obliged to follow them even in the 21st century as if it is in their DNA to follow them. The authorities aren’t competent enough to keep a check on these issues and the feudal system still exploits people. Feudalism leads to many social problems like physical exploitation including unwilling/forced sexual practices, psychological exploitation, economic exploitation etc. This problem also makes way to some more region-specific issues depending on the situation.
Urban settlements are somewhat a different contextual field to play having different dynamics and exploitation ‘experts’. Rapid urbanization brings economic shift with big corporates pitching in; leading to metaphorical development but behind the scene, this development is eating up the local economy. We are so high on this euphoria that we somewhere forget about the issues like child trafficking, increasing incidents of sexual exploitation, marginalization etc. There are many other issues as well prevailing in the rural areas of the country and can’t be summed up in a closed format. We have to bring in those who are marginalized inside the so-called resource management/distribution setup. We should be moving forward with a positive outlook including each and every person of the state.