India’s Future: The MDGs Way

P.S. Raakhee

India’s path to superpowerdom can be traversed successfully only after crossing the barriers
of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Professor K.S. Jacob’s article “Millennium
Development Goals & India” that appeared on October 20, 2010 gave an overview of the
eight MDGs (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education;
Promote gender equality and empower women; Reduce child mortality rate; Improve
maternal health; Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; Ensure environmental
sustainability; Develop a global partnership for development) while focussing on the health-
related goals that make up three of the eight goals. But this is not the whole picture and it is
my belief that the other four goals also require equal emphasis if India’s economy is to
strengthen.

India, like Africa, has different problems in different areas hence a modified Millennium
Village model is required. In a world threatened by global warming and its associated effects,
the fact that every inch of India is blessed with abundant sunshine must be taken into account
in any development model.

Sustainable Development

One major disadvantage experts emphasize while speaking about non-conventional energy
sources is the wastage in adding the electricity generated by non-conventional sources into
the national grid which almost negates the benefits. The fact that most rural areas are not on
the energy grid may pave the way for in-situ solar-power generating stations in villages. A
portion of village land could be used to house a Millennium Development Centre (MDC)
which could incorporate a solar-power generator of enough capacity to electrify the village,
an Internet centre, a schoolroom to promote the literacy programs, a gender-sensitive
entrepreneurship development cell, a medical centre, housing for the health and literacy
professionals and their families, and an orchard of local fruit-bearing species that could both
fix carbon dioxide as well as provide food-security to the village. Alternatively, the solar
panels can be fixed atop all households in the village to ensure that all the villagers, and not
just the panchayat, become stakeholders in the success of the centre. The funding for the
MDG scheme can come from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of
multinational corporations (MNCs) as well as through the Mahatma Gandhi Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme wherein employment is generated in the constructing and
maintaining the centres.

A “Glocal” Experiment

Professor Jacob rightly said that “Corruption is a deadlier disease which needs urgent
attention than most of the medical conditions affecting the people” but fighting corruption is
not MDG. Hence we need to work in the wastage instead of wasting rhetoric and resources in
dealing with corruption and leave it to be dealt with later. Perhaps by making the donations in
kind rather than cash and making all the involved officials stakeholders, corruption could be
minimized. Also by reducing the emphasis on data, which, as has been revealed since the
MDGs Review Summit, can be manipulated perhaps the avenues for corruptions can be
blocked.

In the millennium village scheme instituted by macroeconomist Jeffery Sachs in Africa 250
dollars is provided over five years to each individual in the village. In India perhaps by
investing in the village infrastructure instead of the individual and by restricting the donations
to materials rather than cash could lower wastage. Corporates from the urban areas could
provide solar panels, building materials, professional expertise to the entrepreneurial cells,
sponsorship of the health and literacy professionals, donation of computers and Internet
peripherals.

This investment in development should be made in the peripheral regions so that the
marginalized populations in these areas (Jammu & Kashmir, India’s North East, the Red
Corridor) can be made stakeholders in the nation’s development and the problems arising
from the core-periphery relationship between the centre and these problematic regions can be
minimised. India’s diversity may be a boon in disguise. Successful local experiments in the
diverse situations exhibited in India’s rural landscape can be extrapolated to be incorporated
across India, including India’s urban slums, and across the globe. By starting locally but with
a global partnership a glocal movement can commence which could ensure that the MDGs
are achieved by 2015.

The Boon in the Social Networking Boom

We live in a unique time in history where there is boom in social-networking sites such as
Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Network marketing is benefitting many start-ups
and MNCs and can be harnessed to bring together like-minded individuals and institutions to
help achieve the MDGs across the nation. The Millennium Development Project, a non-profit
aimed at facilitating the achievement of the MDGs already has many followers in the various
social networking sites. Indians form a significant proportion of these communities and there
are many who are looking to invest in India’s growth.

India’s young population is its greatest asset but this part of the population which is wooed
assiduously by marketers is marginalized when it comes to its social and political rights and
responsibilities. Perhaps by using these social-networking sites, so popular with India’s youth
not to mention the youth of the world, projects to achieve the MDGs can be instituted and
monitored.

India’s development is a hostage to the many social ills that plague it: poverty,
overpopulation, hunger, corruption, conflicts, patriarchy, infrastructure bottlenecks, the caste-
system, illiteracy, and epidemics to name but a few. The MDGs may address a few of these
issues but many more still need to be addressed. India may be touted as a superpower and the
nation and its polity have been flexing many a muscle to assure it an important place in the
international arena but for India to truly become a superpower the development must be from
within. Resources are a plenty in this great nation but equitable distribution of these resources
as well as wealth and opportunities for development is lacking. Not just non-conventional
energy and sustainable development but also non-conventional paradigms and sustainable
projects are essential in this quest to superpowerdom.