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| Development
& Health Issues |
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Micro-Credit  Poor
people in developing countries are more often than
not trapped in poverty because on the one hand commercial
banks will not lend them money as they are often neither
in a position to offer collaterals nor are they considered
"creditworthy" enough; while on the other, local money-lenders,
who are often their only source of credit, charge
exorbitantly high interest rates, thereby depleting
them of whatever little possible savings they can
manage.
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Water & Sanitation |
 Today,
more than a half century after independence,
India is still struggling with the question
of how to provide sanitation and clean drinking
water to its people. According to a Planning
Commission (2003) report, between 400,000 and
500,000 children under the age of five die due
to water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, hepatitis
and typhoid in India, and there are fears that
these numbers are grossly underrepresented. |
Case Study: |
 Soozhal:
Success through community capacity building
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Food Security |
 Over
the years following Independence, India has
successfully been able to transform itself
from a foodgrain-importing country to a food
self-sufficient country with adequate buffer
stocks to see itself through a year or two
of drought. The general incidence of poverty
has also fallen, but a lot still needs to
be done as according to a 2000 National Sample
Survey, about 25 per cent of the population
still lives below the poverty line. |
Case Study: |
| Ashray
Adhikar Abhiyan: Anam Raksham (Save food)
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Agriculture and Rural Development |
 Agriculture
and related sectors contribute between two-fifth
to one-third of India's gross domestic product
(GDP), and employs more than 60 per cent of
its population.However,Many rural areas in India
still lack basic amenities like electricity
and roads. |
Case Study: |
| Seva
Mandir |
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Education in India |
 Poverty
and a hand to mouth existence has forced India's
deprived communities to forego an education
for their offspring as they neither have the
time nor the means for it. Children are made
to work from an early age to contribute to the
family income |
Case Study: |
| Asha
for Education |
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Crafts and development in India |
 Today
in India, traditional crafts are mainly seen
as a “poor man’s industry”.
And in most cases, crafts-persons are indeed
very poor, even if their products are selling
nationally and abroad at inflated prices. As
craft items with “ethnic” motifs
have become a hobbyhorse for the elite, a whole
industry has grown around them in which the
crafts-persons themselves are the last and least
to be rewarded after all middlemen commissions
are taken care of. The Government of India has
created a number of organizations that attempt
to promote India’s heritage and its crafts,
both nationally and internationally, and in
the process, sustain craftspersons’ practices.
Some of these organizations are the All India
Handicrafts Board, the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations, Lalit Kala Academy, crafts councils
and handicrafts emporiums. |
Case Study: |
| Dastkar
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| Kutchch:
Rehabilitation through crafts |
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Five Year Plans and Development |
 The
benefits of five year planning, especially in
a country as big and unpredictable as India,
have been questioned by many, and it has often
been seen that targets are not met. This method
has still not been able to successfully get
rid of poverty and the cost overruns in failed
or incomplete public sector projects are often
too high. Be that as it may, five year plans
are still a good yardstick to determine investment
and policy priorities. |
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Gender Issues |
 The
focus of gender issues, as a necessity, cannot
lie on women alone. The marginal position of
women can often be a result of inherent underdevelopment
of the society as a whole. But therein lies
a great paradox. It is not only women in rural
poor communities who are routinely discriminated
against. Even in urban settings, among relatively
well-to-do families, it has often been found
that the position of women is significantly
lower than their male counterparts, leading
potentially to abuse and exploitation. Unjustified
dowry demands and dowry deaths are a problem
found more among the affluent than the poor. |
Case Study: |
| Vanangana
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Human Rights |
 As
defined by India's Human Rights Act, 1993, human
rights stand for "the rights relating to life,
liberty, equality and dignity of the individual
guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in
the International Covenants and enforceable
by courts in India." Although on paper India
is a democracy, the country does not have a
clean human rights record as each year there
are numerous reports of police and army brutality,
illegal detention and torture, and extra-judicial
executions. Even in everyday life, thousands
of people, especially women and members of lower
castes, are denied their basic rights of access
to various services, health and education. |
Case Study: |
| Saathi |
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Socio-economic development in India |
 Following
independence, and particularly since the economic
liberalization policies of the early 1990s were
implemented, India has made huge strides in
economic development. There is, however, a large
section of society that has not been able to
enjoy the fruits of this prosperity. According
to 2002 Human Development Index (HDI) indicators,
India ranks 103rd, behind even countries like
Mongolia and Gabon. Despite all its economic
progress, India today grapples with the second
highest population in the world, a 35 per cent
illiteracy rate, a 25 per cent below poverty
line population, a fuelling HIV/AIDS crisis
with 5.5 million affected according to government
figures, environmental degradation, inadequate
health services in rural areas and an irregular
or a complete lack of potable water and sanitation
in a number of areas. |
Case Study: |
| Nuakala
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Urban
India is among the most polluted places on earth.
With economic growth and middle-class prosperity,
the number of commercial and personal vehicles
has risen significantly, leading to excessive
emissions and air pollution.
In
September 2000, 147 heads of state and 189 nations
signed the Millennium Declaration at the United
Nations Millennium Summit, planning to achieve
eight targets to eradicate hunger and poverty
and raise the standards of living worldwide
by the year 2015 through global cooperation.
These targets have been termed the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG). The MDG are:
Despite
more than 50 years of Independence, India remains
deeply entrenched in poverty. Although there
has been significant economic development and
generation of wealth since the 90s after the
economic liberalization policies were implemented,
most of it has remained concentrated among the
middle classes and the much hoped for "trickle
down" effect has not really happened in as large
a scale as was hoped for.