India: Looking beyond the contrasts
Tuesday 11 May 2010
It’s fashionable, when writing about India, to frame the piece around India being a “land of contrasts” – the SUV driving past the buffalo cart, the child labourer polishing the windows of the software company, the glamour of Bollywood and the squalour of the slums.
It’s easy too, because it’s all around you. And all true. But it won’t do. It won’t do aesthetically because it’s just too damn old these days. And it won’t do ethically because it takes us nowhere: “Many are poor and many are rich; this is depressing but makes great photographs.” Not good enough.
It is also incomplete. Yes the poverty – and the wealth – are still dehumanising, but more and more people in India are taking action to challenge this and promote a more inclusive society.
India’s poor are not, as sometimes portrayed in the media, suffering in silence. They are campaigning, and sometimes winning – as when they successfully pushed the government to start the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which guarantees 100 days minimum wage labour on demand for all rural families.
The scheme is imperfect, and not always fully implemented, but it is real progress, and campaigning continues to strengthen it further.
And India’s growing middle classes are not just shopping. Increasing numbers of the better-off are getting involved in trying to build a more inclusive society too.
Not only are they giving money – Save the Children India gets 7,000 new donors every month; they are joining campaigns too – like our Every One campaign for government action to end unnecessary child deaths, which won the support of over 100,000 people (many of them middle class) in the first month alone.
A campaign letter calling on the finance minister to dramatically increase government health spending had, amongst the signatories, representatives from the Confederation of Indian Industry and the director of a phone company, alongside longstanding activists such as the dynamic and fearless Harsh Mander.
Young people from some of India’s top business schools are getting involved in the campaign, and Facebook and text messaging are helping to bring in more.
It is important not to overstate these shifts, and not to understate the problems. There is still profound and brutal inequality - two million Indian children die every year from easily preventable causes.
And many better-off people in India – like many better-off people people in every country – still shut their eyes to what is all around them.
Others try to heap the blame for the country’s ills on marginalised ethnic and religious minorities, who are thus victimised twice over.
Progress is not inevitable. But growing numbers of young Indians are saying that true development requires not just growth but equity too, that patriotism means looking out for the whole nation, and that the current gulf between rich and poor is harmful, unsustainable, and unjustifiable, and changeable.
This growing group of “extraordinary, ordinary people”, some very vocally, others somewhat quietly, are showing that India can be so much more than a “land of contrasts”.
And the strategy of Indian campaigners in mobilising both the “haves” and the “have nots” to advance progressive change is, despite setbacks and challenges, bringing real achievements and gaining more and more momentum.
Perhaps, perhaps, now is the time. And for those of us tired of the same old story, that would certainly be a contrast.
Every One campaign India Facebook
Tags: child survival, child survival campaign, civil society, Media, nutrition
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May 11th, 2010 at 7:41 PM
I agree. And I think that this new breed of Indians needs to find a cause that allows them to become more vocal, to take a positive stand, and to become a part of the change that they now believe is possible. I think that our campaign is going to offer them the opportunity to do just that.
Keep up the good work!
May 11th, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Dearest Ben – How wonderful to hear from you. And how equally wonderful to hear something optimistic without being romantic about the Indian development context. The main point for me however is suggested in your opening paragraph – it’s about visibility, access to ‘other’ arguments and the South-South relations that need to be addressed if we are truly going to brathe an air of complexity into the Indian debate…
Perhaps a starting point could be visibility – what information is out there undoubtedly relates to our imagination. What world do we imagine we live in and what world can we imagine may exist in the future?
I’m involved in a new visual ethnography project and would love to discuss it with you if you’re interested. Hope you are well.
May 13th, 2010 at 7:24 AM
Gear piece Ben, as always! I think what you have raised about the changing face of middle India, which is normally derided as too self-indulgent, is extremely relevant for our cause. I would say, they were always ‘politicised’ but it is now more than ever that they are beginning to see the idea of an inclusive India and we need many more of them.
In solidarity,
May 13th, 2010 at 4:52 PM
Everyone India Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everyone-India/311773570552
Pragya Vats Muhammad Khuram Gondal Gargi Saha Ashoka and David Bloomer like this
Tuesday at 19:21 · Tul Pinkaew · Wow! Must check this out
Tuesday at 19:28 · Everyone, India · Yes Tul..Please do
Ben great to see your India piece
Tuesday at 20:23 · David Bloomer · Most dramatically, Child Rights for Change (anti-child labour project) has mobilised thousands across approximately 2,000 communities and helped gain access to social security schemes (NREGA most prominently) for thousands of families and, in doing so, helping many children out of exploitative child labour. See some of our wonderful stories of success: http://crcfieldnotes.wordpress.com
May 15th, 2010 at 7:17 AM
Well put. The signature campaigns and the donations have enabled many to find an effective way to voice – dissent . Corrective measure – whether in form of speedy justice in courts or in form of NREGA and hopefully – right to food and education – have been a natural outcome.
The Indian Camera is on its way to get a nice affective UV lens – Thanks to efforts like yours – now I am hoping to see the un- distorted, pictures of an equal society in my lifetime.
May 16th, 2010 at 9:56 AM
It’s good to recognise, as this does, all those “extraordinary, ordinary people” working to make sure that their voice is heard and their needs are met. There are a lot of NGO and CBOs working to help ordinary people become extraordinary and contribute to the society, and they need support in this. Unicef India’s “Girl Stars” ( http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_39596.html ) and NCDHR’s international campaign to empower Dalits ( http://www.ncdhr.org.in/ ) are some examples. The rising number of middle class people and increasing awareness about the importance of education among the rural and urban poor are important too. The role of the government and the development organizations is to ensure that development is sustainable, and that equity and equality are given a greater importance. Well done for the good work done by Save the Children and its Every One campaign.
May 16th, 2010 at 5:22 PM
Well written piece. A shift from seeing only extreme sides of India. A good balance around recognising the potential energy to bring change and the challenges. We need to find a way to campaign on “attitudes and beliefs” of our bureaucrats who hold “power” and the “keys” for change. Your figure around 7000 new supporters for Save the Children is just another reminder that there is good will and money. We just need to find creative ways to reach out.
May 24th, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Is there a tipping point in an “emerging economy”, where the middle class can relax and stop panicking about their own survival and status? In many countries with very high levels of poverty, the middle class has to keep showing everyone that they are not poor, and struggle to maintain their status. Is there perhaps a stage of development where suddenly becoming poor seems less of a threat and starting to try to improve everyone’s status becomes possible? Just a thought – I would be interested in any opinions on this.
May 25th, 2010 at 8:14 AM
We are billion and it is an herculean task for the development to touch all the billion in the country. This emerging middle class is a reaction in the process of development reaching to these billion people. The NREGS is indeed an effort to bridge this gap of the “haves” and “havenot” and would have to say that the scheme is reaching out to people. The spending capacity in the rural poor has risen considerably. Rural poor who could not imagine have a meal a day, now could afford for a two course meal.
The civil society should strive to empower the marginalized and the youth as they constitute more than 50%(may be more) of the population.
The emerging middle class has to voice for themselves and also for the poor and address the much more serious issue of unequal distribution of wealth.
May 31st, 2010 at 1:32 PM
Brilliant blog, very interesting. Good luck.
May 31st, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Until everyone starts to value human life ,and develop concern towards those who do not have the voice in the socety,the situation wont improve.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:55 PM
I admire ur job!
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:28 PM
This is on the money. I’m glad that civil society is growing from strength to strength in India, I hope together they can hold all levels of the Indian government to account to deliver on their promises.
Look forward to reading the next piece.
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 PM
Fascinating commentary, with your balance of optimism on some trends going the right way and on the need for committed people to campaign for necessary changes
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 PM
solid post.
June 4th, 2010 at 5:44 AM
I’m a fan of your blog, Ben. And this is another piece of good work! Keep writing and sharing….
June 8th, 2010 at 9:26 AM
A land of diversity with contrasts..but changes R happening nd will take place… we just need2 speed up de process as a catalyst- ‘agents of change’….a very similar views bout India is in de book ‘SHANTARAM’ by Gregory David Roberts(2004) … we changed a lot from some of the facts mentioned in tht book.. but we need 2do lot more…!!
August 4th, 2010 at 4:24 AM
this is heartening Ben. once people, of all stratas, see others pitching in we can only gain momentum.
August 26th, 2010 at 9:25 AM
Go Ben! Go campaigners! Let’s save india the responsible way… I think that it is a heavy race against time because as we know, civil unrest is the other way this situation will eventually come to a head. The scale of bloodshed india would see if the only way to solve the equality divide turned out, in the end, to be confrontation between rich and poor. Behind you 23000% Ben!
October 12th, 2010 at 11:26 PM
Sensational. Cheers It serves as a reliable checklist. Do have more insight about this problem? Do you get a hold of an RSS Feed I will be able to sign up to? Thanks a lot. Always maintain up the positive job!