Topic for this week’s Insights Weekend Debate is:
“We Need an Alternative to that of ‘Growth and Development’ to Eradicate Poverty and Bring Prosperity.”
Agenda:
Development as we know has failed to uplift millions of people from poverty. Over emphasis on economic Growth and Development, and the promise of its benefits trickling down to help the poor has been convincingly proved wrong in many ‘Developing’ countries.
India adopted different development models since independence, yet it has utterly failed to change the lives of its people for the better. While rural poverty perpetuates, urban poverty is exacerbating.
Corruption is basically an offshoot of reckless pursuit of Development. Recent instances of mega scams are in a way the result of the neoliberal policies that strive to impose Development upon the people. There has been a paradigm shift in the way the Development has been imposed on the people from 1950’s to the present. Post independence, socialist touch was given to the Development discourse and post cold war, capitalistic Developmental model was imposed by force by the ‘Developed’ countries and their global institutions in the name of reforms. The result is the increase in inequality and accumulation of wealth by the few.
Has time come to question the very definition of Development? Are there alternatives to it? Is it imposed against the will of the majority? Was the discourse on Development a deliberate attempt by the West to make the South subservient and dependent on it?
Guidelines:
This is more like a discussion rather than a conventional debate. Here participant are invisible and anybody can argue in favour or against the motion.
To make this ‘debate’ interesting and intellectually stimulating, adhering to the following guidelines is requested:
- Never abuse anyone. Be polite.
- Do not use informal language and personal references.
- Respect others’ views even if you find them immature.
- If you find someones’ argument irrelevant to the topic, gently remind them of the same.
- Come up with innovative ideas without resorting to the internet for information.
- Cite the source/names of scholars if you are mentioning a borrowed idea or thought.
- Mention if you are arguing For or Against the motion.
All the best. The ‘site’ is yours.
