NAYI DISHAYEIN
Summer School on Interrogating ‘Development’
30th May to 4th July 2024
Background
Most countries in the world seem to have adopted a similar ‘development’ model. We in India are also following suit. Like everyone else, we too are aiming to be a predominantly urban, fossil fuel-based, industrial technology-intensive, consumer economy and society of the Euro-American variety.
A careful look, however, reveals that the adoption of this model in India, more explicitly and aggressively since the 1990s, has resulted in very different outcomes for various groups. On one end, we find glittering malls making available high-end consumer brands and goods, state-of-the-art cars, booming air travel, dazzling gated apartment complexes, a dozen sports leagues on TV, and much more.
However, there is a not-so-glittery side to this story. The top 10% of countrymen hold over 75% of the country’s wealth and 57% of the total income! Consequently, most of the ‘glitter’ mentioned earlier is accessible only to the top 10% of India. The other 90% struggle to make ends meet, often living right next to the dazzling apartment complexes in slums with no water, sanitation, or housing to speak of. Most rural India continues to depend on agriculture, which provides meager incomes. There has been an alarming dearth of well-paying, non-agricultural jobs in urban or rural India. Little wonder that youth unemployment is 42% for graduates under 25, the highest in the last 40 years (PLFS 2021-22).
We need not argue here about the state of air, water, and soil and the rising waste dumps across the country resulting from our model of ‘development’ and living. This model of ‘development’ has also pushed the cities to encroach upon the land, water, and other resources of the rural areas for mineral extraction, power generation, cement-steel production, and connectivity via roads and airports. It is evident that this is a model of development for a few, at the cost of many.
The usual defense of the propagators of this model is that if we do not ‘develop’ in this way, there is no way we will be able to eradicate the poverty rampant in our country. However, the report card on poverty removal, job generation, ecological balance, or reducing deprivations due to caste, class, and gender continues to be abysmal!
How does one make sense of this huge gap between the promise of ‘development’ and its actual delivery? Why does it not work for all? Does it even work for a few? because it is also well known that the lives of the ‘haves’ are often devoid of meaning, belongingness, and fulfillment!
If the fallacies are so blatantly in our faces, what compels us to push down this road with even more gusto?
Why do we never hear a politician or mainstream economist talk about human well-being? Of things that really matter to us, like education, health, clean air, and water, rather than a constant refrain from increasing the GDP?
What theories of economics legitimize this model of development? Where did it come from, and why have we adopted it so wholeheartedly?
About the Program
Sambhaavnaa Institute has been organizing a participatory, reflective, and perspective-building program called Nayi Dishayein that interrogates ‘development’ and seeks to understand its history and origins, its workings, and its ramifications on people and the planet.
In this program, we invite curious young people to:
- Critically examine the notion of development: Where did it come from? How and why have we bought into it so uncritically?
- If it is all about economics, economic systems, and economic models, what exactly is an economy? What is our current economic system, where did that come from, and can there be other ways of organizing our economy? Can we have infinite growth on a finite planet? Can GDP be the be-all and end-all of human well-being?
- Can we discern the root causes of growing inequality and the unequal opportunities in this model of development? Can we understand its compulsions to crush both people and the planet on its way?
- We are, to start with, a country quite fractured along the lines of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and knowledge: Does this kind of development heal those fractures or further deepen them?
- Finally, how have people been countering these onslaughts, if at all? What role and impact do these people’s movements have against this juggernaut? What is their contribution to a more just and sustainable society?
- What can my role as a young individual be in all this?
This program aims to interweave theory and practice. The first part of the program is a 10-day campus-based component that will focus on building a varied and dynamic understanding of some of the pertinent issues facing our society today. It deploys a mix of lectures, classroom discussions, exercises and presentations, field trips, theater, film/documentary screenings, songs of resistance, and the sharing of lived experiences by activists and scholars.
The second part of this program shall involve field immersion for three weeks with some ongoing social change initiatives (in groups of 2–3). Participants will be sent to grassroots organizations across the country for three weeks.
Participants will return to Sambhaavnaa Institute for the third part of this program (for 4 days) to reflect on their learnings and experiences based on their internship.
NOTE: YOU MAY CHOOSE TO BE A PART OF EITHER THE 10-DAY RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM OR THE ENTIRE PROGRAM, INCLUDING THE 3-WEEK INTERNSHIP AND REFLECTION SESSIONS AFTER THAT.
Who is the program for?
This program is open to anyone in the age group of 21–28 who is:
- Seeking to engage with the above questions
- Someone who aspires to work in the development sector
- Seeking to make sense of the contradictory world we live in
- Grappling with one’s role in a humane and sustainable world.
Resource Persons: Rahul Banerjee, Anirban Bhattacharya, Mohammad Chappalwala
Senior activists and academicians will also be joining. We shall release the final list of resource persons soon.
Language: This program will be conducted in English and Hindi. Basic proficiency in both is required. (Speaking either English or Hindi is sufficient, but the ability to understand both is essential.)
Contribution to the Program: We request participants to contribute an amount of Rs. 6,000 towards workshop expenses, inclusive of all onsite workshop costs: boarding, lodging, and all the materials used in the workshop. Travel will be borne by the participants.
Do not let money be an impediment to your application. Need-based fee waivers are available. We have a limited number of scholarships, so please apply for a fee waiver if you really need it. Do remember that there may be others who need it more than you. The fee waivers will be offered to people from marginalized groups and non-funded social, political, or student movements. Also, preference for scholarships will be given to those opting for the entire 5-week program.
Dates: 30th May to 8th June 2024: Time at Sambhaavnaa (First part)
10th June to 30th June 2024: 3 weeks of internship (Second part) Travel days included
1st July to 4th July 2024: Reflections (Third Part)
Venue: Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari, Tehsil, Palampur, District Kangra, PIN 176061, Himachal Pradesh
How do I apply?
Please select one from among the three field exercises detailed below, and then fill out the application form. The field exercise is compulsory for your application to be considered. There are 2 methods to submit your exercise. You can choose either of these:
Method 1: You can make a brief video, look into the camera, and articulate your experiences, specifically as per the requirements of the exercise. The video has to be at least 3 minutes long. (Please note that we will not be assessing the video on the basis of video editing, camera quality, or the efficacy of the presentation). Please write in no more than 500 words. You can share this video on WhatsApp with us at +91 889 422 7954
or
Method 2: Write about your experience and learnings from the field exercise. We are interested in your reflections, interpretations, and analyses of social realities. (Please note that we will not be assessing the exercise on the basis of language, grammar, or the efficacy of the presentation.). Please write in no more than 500 words.
Field Exercise options: please choose only one of the exercises below
Exercise 1: Interview an informal worker in your area (peasants, domestic workers, migrant laborers, etc.) and write a note about how they are treated/used/compensated/cared for by the current economic system. You can also cover elements of their personal, physical, psychological, and family conditions and how the current economic system brings these about.
Exercise 2: Follow the garbage trail from your place of residence to the final place where it rests. Locate one person in the life-cycle who manages your garbage, and speak to them about the nature of their work, their wages, their family and who else earns in their family, the living conditions of their family, and so on. Provide a description of the garbage trail and any insights you obtain from it. Share about the garbage worker as well as your reflections on his/her life and working conditions and if and/or how they could be changed for the better.
Exercise 3: Visit a government school in your neighborhood. What did you see about the infrastructure, social class of the students, and the teachers, and what can you make out of the quality of education being imparted? How does it, if at all, differ from the kind of school you went to?
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