4

Globalization
* Chinmoy Biswal
Introduction
Globalization is a buzzword of our times. There is every
chance that you have read about it from newspapers or
heard about phrases like global village. You also see
frequent visits of heads of governments and top officials
across countries and the signing of bilateral agreements
on an unprecedented scale. International brand soft
drinks, clothes, vehicles, mobile phones are available
in every nook and corner of the world. It is far easier
to wear branded clothes or perfumes, drive imported
cars and travel to any country than ever before. One
can be located in a small town call center in India and
work for a foreign multinational company. We are
witnessing a time when spaces between people and
between nations are reducing. Interactions between
countries are rising, business is becoming limitless
and the peoples of the world are coming closer in
making the world global. Simply put, this is what
globalization is.
One may say that trade and commerce, travel and
tourism, movement and migration of people from one
part of the globe to another are age old phenomena,
nothing new. European traders came to India, Asia
and Africa; travelers like Heun Tsang, Fa Hien, Ibn
Batutah visited places far off from their homelands,
and conquerors went to distant lands to extend their
territories. So the world was always global.
Globalization 89
However, there is a difference. As the Human
Development Report of 1999 notes, the present day
globalization is characterized by (1) new markets, (2)
new technology tools like internet, cellular phones
etc. (3) new actors like the World Trade Organization
(WTO) with authority over national governments, the
multinational corporations with more economic power
than many states, the global networks of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) and other groups
that transcend national boundaries, and (4) new rules
- multilateral agreements on trade, services and
intellectual property, reducing the scope for national
policy (HDR, 1999). What we refer to as globalization
here is a post-1980s phenomenon. Although it
manifests primarily as increasing trade and commerce
between countries, it is not limited to that. Globalization
is more than the flow of money and commodities it is
the growing interdependence of the worlds people.
Globalization is a process integrating not just the
economy but culture, technology and governance (HDR
1999). It is an economic, political, social and cultural
phenomenon, aided by rapid developments in
communication and information technology. As a social
work professional, you will encounter the various
dimensions of globalization and its impact on different
societies.
Dimensions of Globalization
Globalization, according to Giddens (2001), can be seen
as a process of social change that has brought distant
and different parts of the world into inter-relation with
one another. It started off as an economic phenomenon
but now cuts across different spheres. We discuss
these in this section.
90 Social Work and Social Development
Economic phenomenon
As an economic phenomenon, globalization stands for
greater integration of national economies into a world
economy (global economy) in which the market
predominates. It is an expansion of economic activities
across the political boundaries of nation states. It is a
process of deepening economic integration, increasing
economic openness and growing economic
interdependence between countries in the world
economy. Three related aspects of economic openness
constitute the most important dimensions of
globalization. These are openness to international trade,
international investment and international finance in
a world integrated more tightly through improvements
in communication technology (Bhaduri and Nayyar,
1996).
The economic dimension is evident most clearly in the
global market place which comprises the production
as well as distribution of goods on a global scale. Much
of the consumer goods that we purchase have originated
in the global production system, as it is sometimes
referred to. Production becomes globalized in that
different components of a product are manufactured in
different countries or places, and later assembled
together. Multinational companies have branches all
over the world to produce different parts with the
cheapest material and labour costs. They have supply
chains and marketing networks to sell them all over
the world. Consumers everywhere are now surrounded
by such global products (McMichael, 1996).
The second is the globalization of finance. As a market
phenomenon, globalization invokes smooth flow of
finance capital from any part to the other, with no
restrictions or regulations on its movement by any
country. You must be reading in newspapers about the
Globalization 91
stock markets in India booming with investments and
the sensex reaching new heights every day. Much of
these investments are by foreign companies and
individuals. Investors are now able to buy shares of
companies which invest in numerous ventures in
various countries. So, a factory in Jharkhand may
have investors from Germany and Ethiopia.
Globalization as an economic process rides on the
backs of liberalization and privatisation. We will discuss
more on this in the section on liberalization.
Social Phenomenon
As a social phenomenon, globalization refers to the
process of integration which is intensifying world wide
social relations and interdependence among nations
and people for creation of a global society. This is as a
result of adoption of economic liberalization and marketoriented
models of economy, and also due to the
developments in communications and transport. It has
deep implications on our lives at various levels. It has
brought the distant global world to our local world by
making available goods and services and also taken
our local products to the global market. It has brought
societies and communities into a sphere of interactivity
through trade and commerce, movement of people and
delocalization of production. There is also a growth of
global institutions like World Bank, Multi National
Corporations or Trans National corporations. There is
exchange of cultures, ideas and systems of knowledge
between various parts of the world like never before.
Political phenomenon
As a political phenomenon, it transcends political
boundaries and calls for moving beyond nation states
to transnational governance in which international
92 Social Work and Social Development
governmental organisations dominate. Thus there is
undermining of the authority of nation state.
Globalization can be thought of as the relaxation of the
authority of the State in favour of the Market. As you
know, the State is the dominant institution in all
societies, whether industrial or agrarian. Globalization
erodes the dominance of the institution of State. The
State can no longer decide its economic priorities all
by itself because it operates in the context of an
integrated global market where other nations are also
participating. The boundaries of nation-states are
becoming redundant due to deregulation of export and
import and due to transnational corporations playing a
major role in the economies of many countries.
Globalization also entails the coming together of the
states for efficient management of resources and their
development. This means a loss of power of the State
and rise in power of other institutions like market,
financial organisations and non-governmental
organisations.
Cultural Phenomenon
Globalization is leading to homogenization of cultures
and rise in consumption of global goods across cultures.
So you can have Thai food in US, Kentucky Fried
Chicken in Mongolia and idli sambhar in Italy. You
may be dancing to pop music while a French man is
listening to Indian classical music. No doubt, this has
resulted in exchange of ideas and thoughts the world
over.
Contested Phenomenon
You may have seen pictures of protest marches in
various countries against economic globalization.
Whenever the G-8 summit or the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) meets are held, thousands of people
Globalization 93
from all over the world gather to voice their protest
against globalization and liberalization. According to
them, globalization is a process of new economic
domination by the West and advanced industrialized
countries over the Third World and poor nations. The
coming together of nations, relaxation of trade barriers
and deregulation of economies are meant to facilitate
the rich and developed nations to access the vast
markets in the Third World to sell their products. This
is highly disadvantageous to the latter that end up
losing their economic sovereignty. Therefore,
globalization, according to them, is a new name for
economic subjugation of poor nations to the few rich
and powerful nations, and a few trading blocks. Going
by the Human Development Reports, there seems to be
some valid grounds to this discontent.
Globalization has become a thorny issue which has
polarised opinions into staunch support as
comprehensive denunciations (Dreze and Sen, 2006).
There are also those who view globalization as offering
a variety of opportunities to all but with the risk of
marginalizing those who cannot benefit from it. David
Held (1999) has summarised these views in three
district categories: hyperglobalisers (pro-globalization),
sceptics (traditionalists) and transformationalists
(middle path).
The hyperglobalisers see globalization as a very real
phenomenon that is of benefit to all. They say increasing
trade and commerce between countries will bring
prosperity to all. The sceptics doubt the potential of
globalization in removing poverty and making all nations
and peoples prosperous. According to them, the
globalized economy is controlled by the USA and Europe,
not equally by all nations. Globalization is a buzzword
used by corporate capitalists of the first world to
94 Social Work and Social Development
monopolise global business and subordinate poor nations
in a neo- colonial structure. Pursuing a middle path,
transformationalists perceive globalization as having
the power to transform the realms of economy, polity,
society and culture and individual lives by setting up a
new world order, but also a risk of marginalising some
sections in the process.
What Drives Globalization
What processes have been behind the increased rate
of globalizationin todays world? Giddens (2001)
identifies information technology, end of the Cold War,
rise of international institutions and growth of
transnational corporations to be the factors behind
increased globalisation.
Proliferation of Information and Communication
A global world would not be possible without
improvements in communication. For greater integration
and interconnectedness, people across places must
have rapid information flows and fast communication
networks. While people in medieval world travelled in
ships, the last century has seen rapid advancements
in aviation, linking every part of the world. More
significant are message and information flows, bringing
in an era called information age. It is now possible,
at the click of the mouse, for someone sitting in
Washington to chat with and send instant messages,
data files to another person located in a far off place.
Besides, this possibility in increasing contact has led
to the growth of a number of global communities
whose members interact through internet. Often the
issues are not limited to national borders. People get
involved in each others lives and come forward to voice
their concern for humanity in parts of the world they
Globalization 95
may never have seen. People across the globe sign
petition against war or terrorism or violation of human
rights, or for humanitarian assistance for disaster
victims, or to take part in public action against
displacement of people due to development projects
and so on. This is also contributing to some extent in
defining peoples identity. Many call themselves not
citizens of any nation but citizens of the world.
International/Global Institutions
The integration of countries under globalization has
been facilitated by various international and national
modes of governance. You must have read about the
League of Nations which was formed after World War II
to settle disputes between nations on a common platform
so that they do not go to war. This League later developed
into what we today know as the United Nations
Organisation or simply the United Nations (UN).
Similarly, the European Union (EU) of the 1990s, or
the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations),
the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation) of which our country India is a member,
or the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) are common
grounds for nations in different regions. Giddens
considers the EU as the pioneering form of transnational
governance because the member states have to
relinquish a certain degree of their national sovereignty
to be a part of the union. They follow a common currency,
common laws, and have a common European
Parliament, as also common foreign policy.
Globalization is also being driven by inter-governmental
organisations (IGOs) and international non-government
organisations (INGOs). Intergovernmental organizations
are bodies whose members come together to take part
in an activity or address an issue that is of common
concern and therefore transnational in scope. They
96 Social Work and Social Development
range from the Universal Postal Union to space
exploration to global warming. International Non-
Government Organisations are non-government bodies
that address issues concerning the humanity at large.
Their activities are wide ranging -environmental
protection, human rights, arms control, drugs control,
poverty alleviation and education, issues that are truly
global. Greenpeace, Amnesty International, World
Wildlife Fund, International Coalition for Food
Sovereignty, the Earth Institute etc. are working for
creating global consciousness and addressing global
issues.
Business Without Borders: Trans National
Corporations
Globalization is driven by transnational corporations
(TNCs) who operate on a global scale. Many of the TNCs
prefer to call themselves multinational corporation
(MNCs) as this characterises their true operation. As
already discussed, they operate in what is known as
global market. In fact, much of the international trade
is done through these MNCs who undertake trade on
behalf of governments.
What facilitates such operations by TNCs? As we saw,
the information and communication technologies (ICTs)
have brought a revolution in the financial sector as
well. Banks, financial institutions, stock markets
operate through the click of the mouse and it is easy
to shift money from one corner of the globe to the other
in seconds. This is not without danger, however. The
flight of capital and investments from an economy in a
matter of a few seconds can cause the economy to
collapse, as happened in case of the South East Asian
currency crisis in late 1990s. It is said that the Asian
Tigers were reduced to Asian Lambs within a few
seconds.
Globalization 97
Changes in World Political Scenario
The world witnessed big changes in global polity in the
decade of the 1980s. After the fall of the USSR in late
1980s, and end of cold war, there came an end to two
blocks of power the US and western countries
representing the capitalist block, and the USSR and
East European countries like the former Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Hong Kong, Estonia, Latvia etc representing
the socialist block. Many new countries emerged out of
this block, willing to come closer to the west European
countries and the US for trade, commerce and
investments. This brought an end to the isolation of
the previous era, and now all countries are gradually
coming together in an integrated world.
Liberalization
The overriding component of globalisation, as we have
seen, is economic. An understanding of Liberalization
is therefore essential to understand the globalization
process.
Liberalization essentially means opening up of an
economy to free trade and competition of private sectors
by removing controls and regulations, and restricting
the role of the State or government in economic affairs
to the minimum. It believes that the market forces
should have greater role in deciding the aspects of the
economy through the laws of demand and supply, and
that there should not be any hindrance in the way of
doing business. Where as capitalist countries have
always followed liberalization to a great degree, in the
context of socialist economies or mixed economies
which give primacy to economic planning by the central
State, liberalization is seen as a reform measure to
open their economies and give more leverage to the
market.
98 Social Work and Social Development
Privatisation lies at the heart of such a measure. It
means reduction of the role of government and of
public sector to give more scope to the private sector.
Privatisation measures would include sale off of public
assets (public sector industries, corporations etc.) to
private hands, and disinvestment (reducing the stake
of government in public sector undertakings) to
encourage more private ownership. The underlying
thinking behind liberalization and privatisation is that
competition between private players brings efficiency
in resource allocation, production and distribution of
goods and services in the economy, while the states
intervention distorts it. Privatisation is a part of
internal liberalization measure. External liberalization
means removal of non-tariff barriers to imports,
lowering of import duties and allowing foreign
investment in the countrys economy.
Historical Context
Liberalization and globalization have come into being
in specific historic circumstances. We have already
stated that a global production system was in existence
during colonial period. But no one talks of that period
as that of globalization. The political economic
developments after the end of World War II facilitated
the coming of the globalization era. We shall discuss it
here.
End of Colonial Mode of Production
A production system quite similar to that of global
production system existed during the colonial era. It
has been called the colonial mode of production. The
colonial mode of production was a precursor to
globalization in that it was its first instance of
integration of colonial economies with the world
economy as suppliers of raw materials and consumers
Globalization 99
of their products. This mode brought countries of Europe,
and those in Africa, Asia and Latin America (todays
Third World) closer in a global system.
Colonial mode of production also saw the emergence of
finance capital and the export of capital from rich
nations (colonial powers) to the colonised nations of
third world. This was called export of finance capital
from the Centre to the Periphery. The rise of joint
stock companies, public limited companies, quest for
free trade and deregulation were its chief features.
You may recall that the British East India Company
had pleaded with the then Nawab of Bengal for a cut in
taxation and import duties, besides urging for free
trade with native businessmen.
Debt Crisis
With the colonies gaining independence by 1950s and
1960s, the structure of world economy got transformed.
Many of the newly formed post-colonial governments
tried to reverse the trends of colonial governments by
introducing social sector investments, infrastructure
building and manufacturing industries. But these newly
independent countries did not have the necessary
capital to meet their ambitious development projects.
These were made available to them through loans from
the advanced industrialized countries (Najmi Kanji,
1991). The loans would be repaid through currencies
available from export of primary commodities, or through
capital flows from the developed to the developing
counties that included private direct investment (now
called foreign direct investment or FDI) and loans
made by government programmes or guaranteed by
government agencies.
With the oil shock of 1974-75 and resultant rise in
interest rates in early 1980s, the capacity of debtors to
100 Social Work and Social Development
service the debts (i.e. making interest payments)
drastically declined. Access to further loans too became
more difficult. Gradually more and more share of their
export earnings went in debt servicing.
As the towering amounts of debt servicing grew into a
debt crisis in the early 1980s, when countries like
Brazil and Mexico threatened to default on their debt
repayments, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank) stepped in to bail them out.
But they put certain conditions in the form of structural
adjustment policies to be implemented to these
economies to make them conducive to free market
operations for higher growth.
Structural Adjustment Policies
These structural adjustment policies (SAP), as the
name implies, were concerned with changing the
structure of the economy over the medium term
through measures to improve exports. The reforms,
as they are called, included institutional reforms to
reduce the role of the State and make the economy
more market-oriented, abandoning centralized
planning. A typical adjustment package would include
(a) cumulative devaluation of currency to discourage
imports and encourage exports, (b) reduction in
government expenditure in the social sectors through
privatisation and withdrawal of subsidies, (c) trade
liberalization through the abolition of price and import
controls, and free entry for multinational corporations,
and (d) privatisation of government enterprises and/or
retrenchment of workers, wage freezes and increase
in prices (Najmi Kanji, 1991).
These structural adjustment policies are called the
measures of liberalization and privatisation, which
Globalization 101
would lead to globalization. Advocates of these
three measures - Liberalization, Privatisation and
Globalization - say that they help to create a world
where each nation plays according to its advantages
and achieves high growth through trade. This growth
trickles down to poor nations and poorer populations
in the course of time.
Impact of Globalization
The impact of globalization has been felt everywhere
and in all spheres. No country institution or individual
can keep aloof from this megalith that touches upon
every sphere of life. Its effect can be seen on
agriculture, industry, service sector, markets and
finances (economy), on states and government
institution (politics), on social mobility, social institution,
family, social networks (society), cultural aspects, on
ecology and environment and on technology - practically
all systems and subsystem of the society. Moreover, its
impact has been felt by all social groups, albeit
differentially. While the educated, upper and middle
class has seen to be benefit from it, the poor,
marginalised sections, indigenous people, workers,
peasants and women have been alienated from its
fruits. It has also increased the inequality between
nations. In this section, we shall examine is impact of
the process on various spheres of life as well as on
various social groups.
On Economy
If anywhere the impact of globalization has been mostly
felt then it is in the sphere of economy. Therefore,
many choose to call this process economic globalization
instead of simply globalization (Vanaik, 2001).
102 Social Work and Social Development
Globalization has set in motion the demise of planned
economy by integrating all national economies to the
global market dominated by TNCs and MNCs. Now the
production and allocation of goods and services are
done in global scale. Thus the role of States in
controlling their economies has been considerably
reduced (Hirst & Thmopson, 2001). The
denationalization of production has led to increasing
industrialisation of the Third World agrarian countries.
Labour markets have become flexible, there are more
of mergers and acquisitions. The global movement of
capital and investments has lessened the dependence
of third world nations on multilateral institutions such
as IMF and World Bank as they can now directly
acquire capital and finances, through FDIs and global
capital markets. Due to globalization, consumers have
access to a wide range of products and services.
On Polity
Globalization has affected the political structure of
States by changing their institutional characters and
modes of governance. The secrecy and power of nation
States, more of the ruling elite are on its way out, and
transparency and accountability is coming up. There is
growth of new institutions of governance, reorganization
of power at various levels. Political power is not
circumscribed inside the territorial limits of the State.
Since globalization started off in the West, there is a
spread of democratic institutions and governance
worldwide.
But, at the same time, the power of the working class
is on the decline as globalization responds to the
alliance of international financial institutions and global
market, rather than any organised political group. It
has also created pockets of the First World everywhere
- elites in cities have become similar in life styles and
Globalization 103
attitudes. Globalization has created a hierarchical world
in which the US and global capital are the dominant
power. It has, on the other hand, brought the traditional
left and national right into an interesting coalition,
defending national sovereignty. There are growing New
Social Movements (NSM) like those of women, peasants,
displaced people, ethnic communities and indigenous
people for their rights in the globalised world.
On Culture
As stated, globalization creates a homogenised global
culture that is opposed to national or ethnic culture.
The proliferation of print and electronic media has
brought in a swift flow of cultural information to all
parts of the world. National governments have little
hold over them.
The consumption of goods produced by MNCs has risen
considerably. It is said that McDonalds and Blue Jeans
are best symbols of globalization because the entire
world is adopting them. Some have even termed
globalization as MacDonaldisation (Ritzer, 2003). The
massive flow of people and migrations has created a
hybrid culture of the metropolis all around the globe.
There is, however, cultural pluralism and erosion of
conservatism. Globalization is pushing modernity to
new heights by emphasising individualism over
collectivism, modernity over traditionalism. Traditional
pattern of identities are getting dissolved due to
emergence of new occupations and employment
avenues.
Globalization And Inequality
Of the most debated issues on globalization, the most
significant one has been on its impact on inequality
among nations, and among different sections of
104 Social Work and Social Development
population within nations. Globalization is said to be
perpetuating a new system of inequality between rich
and poor nations because the MNCs and richer nations
are taking the benefits of trade and commerce whereas
poor and developing economies are often complaining
of having lost out in this race. Developing countries
complain of unfair trade practices by rich nations while
expecting fair treatments from them. In international
trade and commerce, the developed world has wide
presence and the provisions of liberalization and
globalization are suiting them to enhance their wealth
at a faster rate.
This fact is reflected in the United Nations Human
development Report in1999 titled Globalization with a
Human Face. The Report states that global markets,
global technology, global ideas and global solidarity
can enrich the lives of people everywhere, but the
challenge is to ensure that the benefits are shared
equitably and that this increasing interdependence
works for peoplenot just for profits. It argues that the
present era of globalization, driven by competitive global
markets, is outpacing the governance of markets and
the repercussions on people.
The report acknowledges that markets can go too far
and squeeze the non-market activities so vital for human
development. Fiscal squeezes are constraining the
provision of social services. A time squeeze is reducing
the supply and quality of caring labour. And an incentive
squeeze is harming the environment. Globalization is
also increasing human insecurity as the spread of
global crime, disease and financial volatility outpaces
actions to tackle them (HDR 1999). The report shows
that nearly 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar
a day, and close to 1 billion cannot meet their basic
consumption requirements.
Globalization 105
The global labour market is increasingly integrated for
the highly skilledcorporate executives, scientists,
entertainers and the many others who form the global
professional elitewith high mobility and wages. But
the market for unskilled labour is highly restricted by
national barriers.
Inequality has been rising within many countries. In
China, for example, the report says, disparities are
widening between the export-oriented regions of the
coast and the interior. For example, Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries have registered big increases in inequality
after the 1980sespecially Sweden, the United
Kingdom and the United States.
Inequality between countries has also increased. The
income gap between the fifth of the worlds people
living in the richest countries and the fifth in the
poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990
and 30 to 1 in 1960. In the nineteenth century, too,
inequality grew rapidly during the last three decades,
in an era of rapid global integration: the income gap
between the top and bottom countries increased from
3 to 1 in 1820 to 7 to 1 in 1870 and 11 to 1 in 1913. By
the late 1990s the fifth of the worlds people living in
the highest-income countries had:
86% of world GDPthe bottom fifth just 1%.
82% of world export marketsthe bottom fifth just
1%.
68% of foreign direct investmentthe bottom fifth
just 1%.
74% of world telephone lines, todays basic means
of communicationthe bottom fifth just 1.5%.
106 Social Work and Social Development
The decade of 1990s also showed increasing
concentration of income, resources and wealth among
people, corporations and countries:
OECD countries, with 19% of the global population,
have 71% of global trade in goods and services,
58% of foreign direct investment and 91% of all
Internet users.
The worlds 200 richest people more than doubled
their net worth in the four years to 1998, to more
than $1 trillion. The assets of the top three
billionaires are more than the combined GNP of all
least developed countries and their 600 million
people.
The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions is
concentrating industrial power in mega
corporations at the risk of eroding competition.
By 1998 the top 10 companies in pesticides
controlled 85% of a $31 billion global marketand
the top 10 in telecommunications, 86% of a $262
billion market.
In 1993 just 10 countries accounted for 84% of
global research and development expenditures and
controlled 95% of the US patents of the past two
decades. Moreover, more than 80% of patents
granted in developing countries belong to residents
of industrial countries. All these trends are not
the inevitable consequences of global economic
integrationbut they have run ahead of global
governance to share the benefits.
These concerns are articulated also within nations. A
few sections of the population who have access to
education, skills, social capital etc. are able to acquire
lucrative employments, earn big incomes and enhance
their standard of living while the majority poorer
Globalization 107
sections have had to suffer. The liberalization policies
of their governments in withdrawing the state from
social sector have deteriorated their conditions. These
inequalities have been more pronounced in the
developing societies where large scale income and
wealth inequalities exist, along with massive poverty
and deprivation.
India in the Context of Globalization
You have read in Chapter 3 that India adopted a mixed
economy in which public and private sectors were to
coexist. This Nehruvian model of planned economy
with private sector participation went on till the 1980s.
India took a decisive step towards globalization in 1991
with the adoption of the New Economic Policy.
The decade of 1980s saw a decline in Indias balance of
payments. The Second Oil Shock has pushed import
bills (India imports about 70 percent of its Oil) while
exports were falling. As a result there was a balance
of payment crisis. Trade deficits had soared up and
foreign exchange reserves had come down to $1.1
billion in June 1991 which could not have supported
the imports beyond two weeks. India was also on the
point of defaulting on its debt servicing for earlier
loans it had taken from international financial
institutions. To meet this crisis, India approached the
IMF and the World Bank for assistance who put the
conditionality of stabilisation and structural adjustment
programme to be taken up. India took up the measures
by adopting the new economic policy in 1991 which is
briefly described below.
New Economic Policy
India adopted the new economic policy (known as the
reforms) with the aim of liberalization, privatization
108 Social Work and Social Development
and globalization, to be brought through the structural
adjustment programmes. The essential components of
the reforms were (a) Stabilisation, meaning cutting
down of fiscal deficits and money supply (b) Domestic
liberalization like relaxing restrictions on production,
investment, price controls, and increasing the role of
government in resource allocation, and (c) External
sector liberalization to ease the inflow of goods, services,
technology and capital (Ray, 1993).
India took up measures in different sectors to implement
these liberalization policies. In the industrial sector, it
abolished industrial licensing for all projects except a
few specific groups, dereserved many items until now
reserved for public sectors, and started a disinvestment
of public sector undertakings.
As trade policy reforms, the earlier regulations and
controls on imports were removed, non-tariff barriers
for foreign goods on all items except consumer goods
were removed. This was a policy of import liberalization.
In the financial sector, private banks were permitted
to operate; foreign investments in capital market were
allowed. Exchange rate policy was revised. Rupee was
progressively devalued to facilitate exports and
encourage inflow of foreign direct investments into the
economy.
These measures were the first steps towards India
entering the globalized world. In the years to come,
the governments have devised policies to expand these
measures and put the country more firmly on the path
of liberalization and globalisation.
Impact of Liberalization
Indias road to globalization has been like a joy ride for
some but also torturous for many. The impact of
Globalization 109
economic liberalization on Indian society is a mixed
one, which has generated much debate among scholars.
While many view this with optimism and call for further
liberalization, there are others who point at the social
costs. In general, the post-liberalization period has
been a period of high growth for the economy, of
increased opportunities for some sections of people,
particularly of the middle class who have found
increased incomes from employment in information
technology and other such lucrative sectors. But is
has also affected the poor, peasants, workers in the
country with their loss of income, employment and
well being. (See chapter 5 also).
The compound rate of growth in the second half of the
1980s was 5.8 per cent per annum but in the reforms
period starting from 1992-93, the growth rate came to
6.5 per cent per annum rising to 6.8 percent till 1998-
99. It has risen further to cross the mark of 8 percent
in 2006. Following liberalization, there was an industrial
revival with industries coming out of recession. Fiscal
deficit has come down to 4.4 percent in 2004-05 from
5.7 per cent in 1992-99 and 8.5 percent during 1985-
91. The government has therefore managed its fiscal
situation very well after the reforms (Kapila, 2007).
The inflation rates have been in the decline since
1992. Indias foreign exchange reserves have soared
from $1.1 billion in 1991 to $217 billion in 2006. Sensex
has touched new heights to cross the unprecedented
17,000 mark signalling the health of the capital market.
However, it is said that globalization has had differential
impacts on sections of population, often diametrically
opposite in nature. Indias globalization venture does
not seem to have achieved much in terms of its impact
on overall social development. On poor and weaker
sections, its impact has been dismal.
110 Social Work and Social Development
There has been a rise in food grain prices and other
goods of mass consumption at a faster rate than prices
of other goods. This indicates that the share of burden
of adjustment by different sections of society has been
uneven and weaker sections may have been affected
more (Kapila, 2007). The impact of food security is
found to be negative, with the average consumption of
food grains going down from 177 kg to 155 kg per head
per annum from 1991 to 2001, almost to the level of
1947 figures (Patnaik, 2007). This has been compounded
by stagnation in agricultural sector while there has
been a growth in the service sector.
On poverty, the effect of reforms has been controversial.
According to Planning Commission, poverty has
declined from 36 percent of population (head count
ratio) to 26.1 percent in 1999-2000. But many scholars
have disputed these figures because of a change of
criteria in poverty estimation (Dreze and Sen, 2006;
Patnaik, 2007). There may have been a change in the
poverty scenario but the exact quantification is a matter
of debate.
Dreze and Sen (2006) note that Indias liberalization
has not achieved much on poverty reduction and social
progress despite an acceleration of growth because of
its lack of emphasis on inclusion of all sections for a
participatory growth. So where as particular sectors,
especially oriented to more specialised and more middle
class skills, have shown growth, there has been no
change in poverty reduction and social progress. The
recent growth performance has been driven by the
accelerated growth of service sector in which the
country has made remarkable progressin information
technology and related services. The potential benefits
of the growth has been diluted by imbalances in growth
patterns, growing inequalities and state inaction in
crucial social fields of human development The potential
Globalization 111
of globalization to bring progress to all must be brought
through an emphasis on equity, justice and participation
by focussing on non-market institutions of human
welfare.
Impact on Different Sections
Globalization has created islands of prosperity amid
poverty in India. While the service sector has shown
tremendous growth driven by the IT sector,
industrialisation has not shown much result, as
manufacturing has only marginally grown. As we will
see in Unit 5, the unemployment rates have been
higher than the pre-liberalization period and a sizeable
workforce is out of work. Also, the contraction of public
sector employment has hit the organised sector workers
hard. Policy of hire and fire and contractual
employment has meant job insecurity for workers. The
condition of unorganised sector workers has further
worsened. The stagnation in agriculture due to lack of
government investments has resulted in food insecurity,
unemployment, casual employment and loss of income
to the rural masses. There are new farming systems
coming into agriculture like contract farming, capital
intensive farming and corporate-controlled farming,
threatening the livelihoods of small and marginal
peasants. The big farmers and corporate have benefited
from export-oriented agriculture while the poor peasants
have suffered the distress. Markets have not delivered
the promises of higher return to small cotton farmers
in Vidarbha, driving thousands of them to commit
suicide.
Under the liberalization regime and penetration of
markets into tribal areas, tribal people are being
alienated from their land, water, forests and livelihoods.
The resources are being taken over by corporate houses
to set up industries, or for mining. With increasing
112 Social Work and Social Development
industrialisation under the liberalized regime, tribal
areas will witness massive environmental degradation
and further marginalisation of tribal communities.
The urban areas have shown growth and a rise in
incomes. But most of it has been cornered by the
middle classes whose size is swelling. It is estimated
that by 2020, half of the Indian population would
comprise of the middle class. This class has befitted
from globalization and has emerged as its ardent
supporters.
Dreze and Sen (2006) point out that globalization has
shaped the progress of the world through thousands of
years and there is much to be gained from increasing
contacts with the world. But the main issue is to make
good use of the potential of economic interaction and
technological progress in a way that it pays attention
to the interests of the deprived. This is because
ultimately the value of wealth (meaning economic
growth) lies in expanding human development. You
will read more on this in the next Block.
Box
Challenges before Globalization
Todays globalization is being driven by market
expansionopening national borders to trade,
capital, informationoutpacing governance of
these markets and their repercussions for
people. More progress has been made in norms,
standards, policies and institutions for open global
markets than for people and their rights. And a
new commitment is needed to the ethics of
universalism set out in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. Competitive markets may be
the best guarantee of efficiency, but not
necessarily of equity. Liberalization and
Globalization 113
privatization can be a step to competitive
marketsbut not a guarantee of them. And
markets are neither the first nor the last word
in human development. Many activities and goods
that are critical to human development are
provided outside the marketbut these are being
squeezed by the pressures of global competition.
There is a fiscal squeeze on public goods, a time
squeeze on care activities and an incentive
squeeze on the environment. When the market
goes too far in dominating social and political
outcomes, the opportunities and rewards of
globalization spread unequally and inequitably
concentrating power and wealth in a select group
of people, nations and corporations, marginalizing
the others. When the profit motives of market
players get out of hand, they challenge peoples
ethicsand sacrifice respect for justice and
human rights. The challenge of globalization in
the new century is not to stop the expansion of
global markets. The challenge is to find the rules
and institutions for stronger governancelocal,
national, regional and globalto preserve the
advantages of global markets and competition,
but also to provide enough space for human,
community and environmental resources to
ensure that globalization works for peoplenot
just for profits.
Globalization with:
Ethicsless violation of human rights, not
more.
Equityless disparity within and between
nations, not more.
Inclusionless marginalization of people
and countries, not more.
114 Social Work and Social Development
Human securityless instability of societies
and less vulnerability of people, not more.
Sustainabilityless environmental
destruction, not more.
Developmentless poverty and deprivation,
not more
Source: Human Development Report 1999
Conclusion
In this Chapter, we discussed about the dimensions of
globalization. You saw that globalization is an economic,
but also social, cultural and political phenomenon.
Transnational corporations, information technology and
international non-governmental organisations are the
driving force of this process. You also read about
liberalization and its essential tenets. India adopted
this measure in its drive towards globalization, resulting
in a high growth rate which is continuing. Its impact
on Indian society has not been even though. We also
discussed the impact of globalization on society and on
inequality and on sections of the Indian society. We
read about the need to make globalization a just, fair
and equal process.
References
Bhaduri, A. and D. Nayyar (1996): An Intelligent Persons
Guide to Liberalization, Penguin Books, New Delhi.
Dreze, J. and A. Sen (2006): India: Development and
Participation, OUP, New Delhi, Ch. 9.
Giddens, Anthony (2001): The Consequences of Modernity,
Polity Press, London

Social and Human Development

* Chinmoy Biswal
Introduction
We frequently come across the words growth and
development while talking about society. Growth is a
quantitative concept whereas development incorporates
qualitative aspects. Some perceive development in terms
of better roads, electricity, markets, buildings, vehicles
etc. while some others understand it in terms of removal
of poverty, unemployment, insecurity, illiteracy, ill
health and so on. What constitutes development can
be a matter of debate, and opinions may vary. Lately,
there has been a realization that development does
not just comprise of economic growth or physical
infrastructure development, but it should also show in
terms of improvements in peoples lives. So development
has now come to be evaluated in terms of human
wellbeing or human development. We all know the
age-old proverb health is wealth. A person who is not
healthy cannot have happiness and meaning in life
even if he/she is rich. Similarly, nations cannot be
said to be healthy and happy only because they are
wealthy. It has to be visible in spheres other than
economic prosperity.
In this chapter, we will begin by looking at the concepts
of growth and development and then discuss the
dimensions of human development which is at the
center stage of contemporary development theory and
practice. We will then examine a very important issue
Social andHuman Development 141
in development discourse- population and developmentby
scrutinizing their relationship. You will often review
these concepts and work on them in your professional
life.
Growth and Development
What is the relationship?
Growth is a concept used in Economics to mean an
increase in national income of a country and an
increase in per capita income (PCI) which is nothing
but the national income divided by the total population
in the country. The measure of annual national income
of a country is in terms of Gross National Product
(GNP) which is the money value of the total goods and
services produced by a country in a year. This GNP
divided by total population gives the figure which is
called the GNP per capita, or simply per capita income.
It is the average income of the population. Like all
statistical averages, it suffers from certain drawbacks.
It does not show the distribution of income in the
country. Besides, it only measures money income and
nothing else. So all the goods and services that do not
come for market transactions, like the labour women
do inside homes, are not counted in the GNP. Also,
most importantly, it does not show up achievements
that people value significantly, for example, better
nutrition, health care, secure livelihoods, better working
conditions, freedom from crime and violence, and
participation in social, cultural and political activities.
As we shall soon see, income may be important, but it
is not the sum total of human life.
It is easy to assume that more the income of a country,
more will be the development and peoples well being.
But it may not be so, just as being wealthy does not
necessarily guarantee being healthy. According to
142 Social Work and Social Development
Amartya Sen (1988), the relationship between GNP
and conditions of living is complex. Table 1 gives the
GNP per capita and average life expectancy at birth in
1985 for five different countries.
Table 1 : Economic Prosperity and Life
Expectancy, 1985
Country GNP per capita Life Expectancy
at Birth
China 310 69
Sri Lanka 380 70
Brazil 1640 65
South Africa 2010 67
Mexico 2080 55
Oman 6730 54
Source: World Development Report 1987 (cf Sen, 2004)
Although Oman has more than twenty times the GNP
per capita of China and Sri Lanka, yet it has significantly
low life expectancy than other countries. Likewise,
Brazil, South Africa and Mexico have much higher
incomes than China and Sri Lanka, but much lower
life expectancy than them. That means the countries
highly developed in terms of income may not be as
developed in other social indicators. Hence, Amartya
Sen (2004) states that development cannot be measured
only with economic growth. It is true that keeping
other things constant, with an increase of GNP of a
country, the condition of living of people improves, so
does life expectancy. This may happen in the long run,
but not necessarily in the short run. So, there exist
other factors that affect the living conditions, and the
concept of development cannot forgo these.
Social andHuman Development 143
New view of development
After winning independence from colonial powers in
the 1950s and 1960s, many of the countries (called
Third World) chose the growth oriented approach of
development through industrial and agricultural
expansion, aided by technology transfer and financial
assistance from the industrialised countries as well
as international financial institutions. The growth-led
developmental experience of industrialised countries
served as the models of their future. The decade of
1960s was characterized by the predominance of growth
models of development. We have discussed about
one such model given by Rostow in Chapter 3 on
Industrialisation. Such models proposed that increasing
the growth of these economies through investments
would lead to higher growth, the benefits would trickle
down to the masses and there would be economic
development.
Many of these economies achieved growth. The per
capita income of a number of countries had grown over
this period and health and education levels had
improved; yet in a number of countries which had
experienced a rise in their GNP, the standard of living
did not improve for a vast majority of the population. In
fact, many millions joined the already hundreds of
millions of people in absolute poverty (Webster, 1997).
In many countries, sharp inequalities appeared with
the rich minority growing richer and the poor majority
becoming poorer. In other words, the trickle down
had not occurred. This necessitated a reexamination
of the concept of development. In this context, Seers
(1969) asked three important questions regarding
development: What has been happening to poverty?
What has been happening to unemployment? What has
been happening to inequality? If all three of these have
144 Social Work and Social Development
declined from high levels, then beyond doubt this has
been a period of development for the country concerned.
If one or two of these central problems have been
growing worse, especially if all three have, it would be
strange to call the result development even if per
capita income doubled.
Critics of growth-oriented approach argued that such a
situation arose because sufficient attention was not
paid to real human welfare. It was argued that a
complete change of approach for third world development
was needed. Economists like Streeten and Seers
advocated for a programme that had its essential
ingredient a redistribution of income and resources
downwards. This led to the strategy of redistribution
with growth, and later the basic needs strategy of
development. The basic needs strategy was concerned
with two things: (1) providing all human beings,
particularly the poor and deprived in the third world
countries, with material needs like food, clothing,
shelter and fuel; and (2) alleviating absolute poverty as
quickly as possible. It had elements of social justice.
Gradually, it was realized that development must focus
beyond meeting the basic needs of people in poor
countries. It should encompass all the opportunities
needed to live a fuller human life. Also, human beings
should not be seen as recipients of development
benefits, but as the goals of development. And while
discussing human well being, it is the poorest and the
weakest sections that must be especially taken into
consideration. With this, the preoccupation with growth
is replaced by a holistic idea of human welfare or wellbeing
as the central concern of development. Growth
is meaningful if it enhances human well being. This
approach is known as the human development approach.
Social andHuman Development 145
Human Development
The concept of human development was formally
launched in 1990 with the publication of Human
Development Report by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). It was the result of years of debates
and discussions between economists, social scientists,
activists, development agencies etc. in which late
economist Mahbub ul Haq played the lead role. The
conception of human development has been influenced
also by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sens ideas
of capabilities and freedom. According to Sen,
development is the expansion of freedom, well being
and dignity on individuals in society.
However, the human development approach is not a
new idea. In Haqs own words, the rediscovery of human
development is a tribute to early leaders of political
and economic thought who propounded that social
arrangements must be evaluated to the extent to which
they promote human good, not wealth or income. The
idea dates back to Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) who argued
that wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking,
for it is merely useful and for the sake of something
else, and to Emanuel Kant who called upon to treat
humanity as an end, never as means only (Haq, 2000).
Definition and meaning
Human development is concerned primarily with the
reduction of human deprivation, the creation of human
capability, and unleashing processes that enlarge
peoples choices The Human Development Report 1990
defines human development as a process of enlarging
peoples choices. Although these choices are limitless
and change over time, three essential choices for people
at all stages of development are to lead a long and
healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access
146 Social Work and Social Development
to resources needed for decent standard of living. But
human development does not end there. Additional
choices highly valued by many people range from
political, economic and social freedom to opportunities
for being creative and productive and enjoying personal
self-respect and guaranteed human rights (Haq, 2000).
The Report explains that human development has two
sides: the formation of capabilities - such as improved
health, knowledge and skill and the use people
make of their acquired capabilities for leisure, for
productive purposes or for being active in cultural,
social and political affairs. If the scales of human
development do not finely balance between the two
sides, considerable human frustration may result.
According to this concept of human development,
income is clearly only one of the options that people
would like to have, albeit an important one. But it is
not the sum total of their lives. Development must,
therefore, be more than just the expansion of income
and wealth. Its focus must be people.
Main features
Haq (2000) has given the following main features of
human development.
1) Development must put people at the center of its
concerns.
2) The purpose of development is to enlarge all human
choices, not just income.
3) The human development paradigm is concerned
both with building up human capabilities (through
investment in people) and with using those human
capabilities fully (through an enabling framework
for growth and employment).
Social andHuman Development 147
4) Human development has four essential
components: Equity, Sustainability, Productivity and
Empowerment. It regards economic growth as
essential but emphasizes on quality and
distribution. It also analyses its links with human
lives and questions its long-term sustainability.
5) The human development paradigm defines the ends
of development and analyses sensible options for
achieving them.
Strengths of human development
We have already discussed how human development
scores over GNP approaches. But it also differs from
other conventional approaches like human capital
formation, human resource development, human
welfare or basic needs (HDR, 1990). Human capital
formation views human beings as a means rather than
as ends, as instruments in furtherance of commodity
production which is only one side of development
because it overlooks human beings as recipients and
goals of development. Human welfare approaches look
at human beings more as beneficiaries of the
development process than as active participants in it.
The basic needs approach, which was the precursor
to human development, concentrates on providing basic
need to all human beings for opportunities for a full
life. But it does not focus on the issue of human
choices. Human development goes beyond basic needs
in many ways. It is concerned with all human beings,
not just the poor and not just in poor countries, and
not only basic needs (Streeten, 2000). It applies to all
countries irrespective of their income levels. It sees
human development as a participatory and dynamic
concept as it focuses on building up human capabilities
and the use people make of these capabilities.
148 Social Work and Social Development
The approach highlights two things: that well being is
the purpose of development and that economic growth
is to be treated only a means of it.
Development Indicators
The scope of human development being very broad, it
was a challenge to devise a suitable indicator. This is
because it would be desirable to include all the variables
that expand human choices and freedoms, and so the
variables would be so many. Again, human development
being a dynamic concept, evolving through time and
varying over space (choices of people would be culture
specific too) there will be entry of a number of criteria.
This would pose a problem of standardization as well
as preciseness. Too many variables would make the
picture complex and unmanageable.
So the new index needed to include only a limited
number of variables, yet capture the essence of human
development. It needed to be a composite index for all
variables and cover both social and economic choices.
This measure is called the Human Development Index
(HDI). Later in 1995 and 1997, two other measures
gender development index (GDI) and Human Poverty
Index (HPI) were constructed to focus on specific
aspects.
Human Development Index (HDI)
The Human Development Index was evolved by focusing
on three basic elements of human life: longevity,
knowledge and decent living standards. For longevity,
life expectancy at birth is the indicator; for knowledge,
literacy figures are taken into account; and as a
measure of decent living, purchasing power-adjusted
real GNP per capita was chosen (HDR 1990).
Social andHuman Development 149
So the first step is to construct a countrys measure of
deprivation for each of these basic variables. Minimum
and maximum values are defined for the actual observed
values of each of the three variables in all countries.
The deprivation measure then places the country in
the 0-1 range, where 0 is the minimum observed value
and 1 the maximum. So, if the minimum observed life
expectancy is 40 years and the maximum 80 years,
and a countrys life expectancy is 50 years, then its
index for life expectancy is 0.25. The second step is to
compile an average indicator by taking a simple average
of the three indicators. The third step is to measure
the HDI as 1 minus the average deprivation index
obtained. The HDI value shows how a country is placed
vis--vis other countries.
Because the relative nature of the maximum and
minimum values for each year created difficulty in
comparison of a countrys performance from year to
year (a country might improve its indicators and yet
see a fall in its HDI ranking due to relative better
performance by others), now a fixed-value system has
been adopted. The maximum and minimum values are
the ones observed over the previous three decades or
expected over the next three decades, which allow
comparison of countrys performance over a period of
60 years.
Box 1
HDI versus GNP
 Besides income, the HDI measures education
and health and is thus multidimensional,
rather than one-dimensional.
It draws attention of policy makers towards
the ultimate objectives of development not
just the means.
150 Social Work and Social Development
It is more meaningful as a national average
than GNP because there are much greater
extremes in income distribution than in the
distribution of life expectancy and literacy.
It shows that the human development gaps
between nations are more manageable than
the ever widening income disparities The
average income of the South may be only 6
per cent of the Norths but its life expectancy
is 80 per cent, its nutrition level 85 per cent
and its adult literacy rate 66 per cent on the
Norths.
The HDI can be disaggregated by gender,
ethnic group or geographical region and in
many other ways to present relevant policy
inputs as well as to forecast impending trouble.
Indeed, one of the HDIs strength is that it
can be disaggregated in ways that hold a
mirror up to society.
Table 2 : Similar Incomes, Different HDIs, 1991-92
Country GNP HDI HDI Life Adult Infant
per capita value rank expectany literacy mortality
(US$) (years) rate(%)
(per 1,000
live births)
GNP per capita around $500
Sri Lanka 500 0.665 90 71.2 89 24
Guinea 500 0.191 173 43.9 27 135
GNP per capita around $1,000 to $1,1100
El Salvador 1,090 0.543 112 65.2 75 46
Social andHuman Development 151
Congo 1,040 0.461 123 51.7 59 83
GNP per capita around $2,5000 to $2,6000
Malaysia 2,520 0.794 57 70.4 80 14
Iraq 2,550 0.614 100 65.7 63 59
Source: HDR, 1994, p. 15
How is the HDI useful? Mahbub ul Haq enlists some
points how the HDI captures many conditions of human
life.
National Priorities: The comparison of HDI of various
countries shows which countries are able to combine
economic growth with social development and which
are falling behind. This helps policy makers set national
priorities and achieve them. Thus the HDI rankings
serve as a reality check.
Potential Growth: Economic growth also depends on
human capital formation, which in turn depends on
investments on health and education. So the HDI an
reveal the future potential of economic growth. If a
country has invested in human infrastructure, which
shows in its HDI, it can accelerate GNP too by choosing
proper economic policies.
Disparities: The disaggregation of HDI by gender, ethnic
groups, class and geographical regions helps bring out
disparities between various sections of society. It has
enormous policy impact in serving as an early warning
system to check it and prepare national development
plans to create parity among different sections through
special measures necessary.
152 Social Work and Social Development
Change over time: The annual HDI exercises keep
track of the changes in a countrys human development
and also the overall change in human development in
the world. For example, the majority of world population
(73%) was in the low human development category in
1960, but only 35% were in that category in 1992. An
interesting observation is that the developing countries
more than doubled their average HDI between 1960
and 1992 while the developed countries, which already
were on high levels, increased theirs by only 15%.
Human Poverty Index (HPI)
With the realization that poverty is a multi-dimensional
problem, the usual practice of defining it in terms of
income and consumption is gradually losing hold. In
fact, in the 1970s the idea of social exclusion came
into prominence. Thus, those who were not incomepoor
yet were marginalized in society also drew
attention (HDR, 1997). The Human Development Report
of 1997 brings in a concept of Human Poverty Index
(HPI) in order to collectively present varied aspects of
deprivation in the quality of life so that we are able to
gauge the spread of poverty in a community.
The HPI has three essential elements which are already
a part of the HDI-longevity, knowledge and a decent
standard of living. The first deprivation relates to
survival the vulnerability to death at a relatively
early age and is represented in the HPI by the per
centage of people expected to die before age 40. The
second aspect relates to knowledge being excluded
from the world of reading and communication and is
measured by the per centage of adults who are
illiterate. The third dimension relates to a decent
standard of living, in particular, overall economic
provisioning. This is shown by a composite of three
Social andHuman Development 153
variables the per centage of people with access to
health services and to safe water, and the per centage
of malnourished children under five.
However, human poverty has many other aspects which
are difficult to measure. Some of these vital areas are
lack of political freedom, lack of personal security,
inability to participate in decision-making (Fukuda-
Parr and Shiva Kumar, 2004).
Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)
Gender deprivation and inequality has long been the
subject of discussion in development. One of the
critiques of HDI was that it did not take into account
the differential impact of development on men and
women. To address this issue, a new measure was
invented in 1995. The Human Development Report of
1995 states that human development, if not
engendered, is endangered.
For measuring GDI, inequalities between men and
women are taken note of and then the overall
achievement of men and women in three aspects of
HDI life expectancy, educational attainment, and
adjusted real income are considered. On the basis of
analysis of GDI values, many meaningful observations
have been made such as gender equality is not
dependent on the income level of a society. Since
1995, these measures form an integral component of
the human development reports.
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) focuses on
participation economic, political and professional. It
finds out the extent to which women have been
empowered or enfranchised to participate in various
aspects of public life as compared to men (see box 1.2).
154 Social Work and Social Development
Box 2
The GDI and the GEM
The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)
measures achievement in the same basic
capabilities as the HDI does, but takes note of
inequality in achievement between men and
women. The methodology used imposes a penalty
for inequality, such that the GDI falls when the
achievement levels of both women and men in a
country go down or when the disparity between
their achievement increases. The greater the
gender disparity in basic capabilities, the lower a
countrys GDI compared with its HDI. The GDI is
simply the HDI discounted, or adjusted downwards,
for gender inequality.
The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
examines whether women and men are able to
actively participate in economic and political life
and take part in decision-making. While the GDI
focuses on expansion of capabilities, the GEM is
concerned with the use of those capabilities to
take advantage of the opportunities of life.
Source: HDR, 1995
Human Development Reports: Important
Issues
Human development is not a static concept but a
dynamic one. Because its goal is to expand the
capabilities and freedoms of people which cannot be
limited, the human development concept is also ever
expanding to account for those. Besides, newer ways
to assess human development achievements are coming
up with time, for instance, the human poverty index
and gender development index. These ideas emerge
Social andHuman Development 155
from deliberations among experts, people, and
practitioners of development across the world and are
incorporated in the Human Development Report (HDR)
published by the UNDP every year. The theme deals
with an issue which is in focus of development. The
HDRs are immensely useful in giving insights into the
state of human development globally and nationally
and serve as a reality check for governments and as
a guideline for action for development institutions and
non-government organisations. Given below is a
collection of the main themes of the reports from year
1990 till 2006. You will see many dimensions and
issues of human development reflected in these
Reports.
Concept and Measurement of Human Development
(1990)
The main issue the Report addresses is the question of
how economic growth translates or fails to translate
into human development. The focus is on people
and on how development enlarges their choices. The
Report discusses the meaning and measurement of
human development, proposing a new composite index.
Its overall orientation is pragmatic.
Financing Human Development (1991)
The main conclusion of this Report is that lack of
political commitment rather than financial resources
is often the real cause of human development.
Global Dimensions of Human Development (1992)
The richest 20 per cent of the population now receives
150 times the income of the poorest 20 per cent. The
Report suggests a two-pronged strategy to break away
from this situation. First, making massive investments
in their people and strengthening national technological
156 Social Work and Social Development
capacity can enable some developing countries to
acquire a strong competitive edge in international
markets (witness the East Asian industrializing tigers).
Second, there should be basic international reforms,
including restructuring the Bretton Woods institutions
and setting up a Development Security Council within
the United Nations.
Peoples Participation (1993)
The Report examines how and to what extent people
participate in the events and processes that shape
their lives. It looks at three major means of peoples
participation: people-friendly markets, decentralised
governance and community organisations, especially
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and suggests
concrete policy measures to address the growing
problems of increasing unemployment.
New Dimensions of Human Security (1994)
The report introduces a new concept of human security
which equates security with people rather than
territories, with development rather than arms. It
examines both the national and the global concerns of
human security.
Gender and Human Development (1995)
The report analyses the progress made in reducing
gender disparities in the past few decades and highlights
the wide and persistent gap between womens expanding
capabilities and limited opportunities. Two new
measures are introduced for ranking countries on a
global scale by their performance in gender equality
and there follows an analysis of the under-valuation
and non-recognition of the work of women. In conclusion,
the report offers a five-point strategy for equalizing
gender opportunities in the decade ahead.
Social andHuman Development 157
Economic Growth and Human Development (1996)
The Report argues that economic growth, if not properly
managed, can be jobless, voiceless, ruthless, rootless
and futureless, and thus detrimental to human
development. The quality of growth is therefore as
important as its quantity for poverty reduction, human
development and sustainability.
Human Development to Eradicate Poverty (1997)
Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral
imperative it is a practical possibility. That is the
most important message of the Human Development
Report 1997. The world has the resources and the
know-how to create a poverty-free world in less than a
generation.
Consumption for Human Development (1998)
The high levels of consumption and production in the
world today, the power and potential of technology and
information present great opportunities. The report
asks the question that after a century of vast material
expansion, will leaders and people have the vision to
seek and achieve more equitable and more human
advance in the 21st century?
Globalization with a Human Face (1999)
Global markets, global technology, global ideas and
global solidarity can enrich the lives of people
everywhere. The challenge is to ensure that the benefits
are shared equitably and that this increasing
interdependence works for people not just for profits.
This years Report argues that globalization is not new,
but that the present era of globalization, driven by
competitive global markets, is outpacing the governance
of markets and the repercussions on people.
158 Social Work and Social Development
Human Rights and Human Development (2000)
HDR 2000 looks at human rights as an intrinsic part of
development and at development as a means to realizing
human rights. It shows how human rights bring
principles of accountability and social justice to the
process of human development.
Making New Technologies Work for Human
Development (2001)
Technology networks are transforming the traditional
map of development, expanding peoples horizons and
creating the potential to realize within a decade
progress that required generations in the past.
Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World (2002)
This Report is first and foremost about the idea that
politics is as important to successful development as
economics. Sustained poverty reduction requires
equitable growth-but it also requires that poor people
have political power. And the best way to achieve that
in a manner consistent with human development
objectives is by building strong and deep forms of
democratic governance at all levels of society.
Millennium Development Goals: A Compact among
Nations to End Human Poverty (2003)
The range of human development in the world is vast
and uneven, with astounding progress in some areas
amidst stagnation and dismal decline in others. Balance
and stability in the world will require the commitment
of all nations, rich and poor, and a global development
compact to extend the wealth of possibilities to all
people.
Social andHuman Development 159
Cultural Liberty in Todays Diverse World (2004)
Accommodating peoples growing demands for their
inclusion in society, for respect of their ethnicity,
religion, and language, takes more than democracy
and equitable growth. Also needed are multicultural
policies that recognize differences, champion diversity
and promote cultural freedoms, so that all people can
choose to speak their language, practice their religion,
and participate in shaping their culture so that all
people can choose to be who they are.
International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid, Trade
and Security in an Unequal World (2005)
This Report takes stock of human development including
progress towards the MDGs. Looking beyond statistics
it highlights the human costs of missed targets and
broken promises. Extreme inequality between countries
and within countries is identified as one of the main
barriers to human development and as a powerful
brake on accelerated progress towards the MDGs.
Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty And The Global
Water Crisis (2006)
Water crisis is deepening around the world. More than
1 billion people lack clean water for drinking, and 2.6
billion people lack sanitation. Every day, nearly 5,000
children die and countless other people fall ill, unable
to attend school or work, because of water-related
disease. The 2006 Human Development Report
documents these tragedies as well as the extreme
disparities in access to what ought to be a basic human
right. While utilities deliver cheap, governmentsubsidized
water to wealthy suburbs and industries,
poor neighbourhoods are left out. Impoverished families
pay up to 10 times more for water than do rich
160 Social Work and Social Development
households in the same city. The international
community must act now, as clean water is the
foundation for good health, education and better
economic opportunities.
Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a
divided world (2007-08)
The report states that climate change is the defining
human development challenge of the 21st Century.
The poorest countries and the most vulnerable citizens
will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks,
even though they have contributed least to the problem.
No country, however wealthy or powerful, will be
immune to the impact of global warming. Climate
change challenges all people to reflect upon how we
manage the environment and to reflect on social justice
and human rights across countries and generations. It
challenges people across the globe to accept their
responsibility to initiate deep cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions.
Impact of Human Development Reports
Ever since its first publication in 1990, the Human
Development Report has set the tone of development
policy dialogue across the world and within nations. It
has generated a lot of enthusiasm on the part of
development agencies, NGOs, activists and also
governments who have sincerely tried to orient their
policies. The Report has influenced the global search
for new development paradigms with focus on equitable
distribution of growth and responding to peoples
aspirations. It has helped launch many new policy
proposals, for example, investing more in people than
in arms in the poor nations. Most importantly, many
developing countries have begun to formulate human
Social andHuman Development 161
development strategies and implement long term
developmental plans.
Critiques of Human Development
Although human development concept has been hailed
as a paradigm shift in development thought, it is not
without criticisms. Most criticisms pertain to the
ambitious goals it sets in terms of broadening peoples
choices, yet confines itself to measuring three variables
only, indicating that the concept has oversimplified its
priorities. Proponents of human development have
responded that these three variables capture the
essential elements of human choices and capabilities
in a substantial manner. Longevity reflects freedom
from violence, diseases, ill health, and nutritional and
health related deprivation; literacy shows access to
resources of knowledge and participation while the
income part reflects the command over resources for
a decent living and realizing ones capabilities. Critics
say the measure does not pay attention to elements
such as empowerment, equity, sustainability and
security, which are vital for making choices. Moreover,
there is a view that economic and social indicators
should not be combined into a single figure as HDI, but
analyzed in tandem.
Critics also argue that it is difficult to determine what
choices constitute human development. For instance,
should increase in divorce rates be taken as a positive
or a negative sign of human development? In the former
case, it reflects the choices to rectify wrong decisions
regarding marriage and come out of it. In the latter
case it reflects greater amount of instability in the
family and general social relationships among people.
A further criticism is that the human development
concept has been designed primarily by economists
162 Social Work and Social Development
and hence, the variables concentrate on the human
aspect of development. It takes the attention away
from the social aspects like socio-political institutions,
social structures and social groups, which are not
reflected in the variables chosen.
However, there is a broad agreement that the human
development approach is a significant improvement in
the way development is perceived and measured,
although more needs to be done in future.
Conclusion
In this Chapter, we discussed two different but related
areas in development. We discussed the limitations of
growth centric approach to development and the need
to conceptualise development in broader terms of social
well being of people. That is captured in the human
development approach which puts human beings at the
center of all development. Human development, we
saw, believes in expanding peoples choices. The Human
Development Index (HDI), based on the knowledge level,
longevity and real-value adju

7
Sustainable Development
* Chinmoy Biswal
Introduction
After the Industrial Revolution, industrialism has come
to dominate all thoughts of development. The present
mode of development is therefore heavily industrial
based and growth-oriented. The concept of human
development attempts to give the development paradigm
a direction from economic growth towards human
beings, yet industrialism remains dominant. We have
already discussed the critiques of industrialisation by
environmentalists and alternative development
theorists. In the past few decades, a new conceptsustainable
development- has emerged. Just as human
development poses the question of human beings vis-vis
economic growth, the concept of sustainable
development attempts to pose the question of nature,
environment and ecology vis--vis the growth-driven
model of development by raising the issue of
sustainability. This is done on two grounds: resource
depletion and environmental pollution. Since economic
development means speedy use of earths resources for
ever rising production, how long can earths resources
sustain such depletion of finite resources is the main
question. Besides, the large-scale pollution of air, water
and soil, increase in green house gases, ozone layer
depletion, global warming etc. which are byproducts of
resource use for industrial production and consumptionoriented
lifestyles, threaten the environment and life
Sustainable Development 165
bearing systems with an ultimate collapse. This has
brought the danger to survival of humankind closer than
anyone had ever imagined. In his critique of modern
civilization, Mahatma Gandhi, a pioneering philosopher
of a socially just and ecologically sustainable form of
development, had warned of this situation when he said
the earth has enough for everyones need, but not for
everyones greed.
Concept and Meaning
The concept of sustainability is defined differently in
different contexts. In context of development and
environment, the first official definition of sustainable
development has been given by the United Nations World
Commission on Environment and Development (WECD)
in its report titled Our Common Future (1987). This is
popularly referred to as the Brundtland Commission
Report, named after its Chairperson Gro Harlem
Brundtland, a former Prime Minister of Norway, and
now a Special Envoy on Climate Change for UN
Secretary General. This Report was adopted as a
resolution in the UN General Assembly in the same
year. The Commission defines:
Sustainable development is the development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of the future generations to meet their own
needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
the concept of needs, in particular the essential
needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding
priority should be given; and
the idea of limitations imposed by the state of
technology and social organization on the
environments ability to meet present and future
needs.
166 Social Work and Social Development
This definition focuses on two things - meeting the needs
of the poor through development, and the destructive
impact of todays technology and development on earths
resources which endanger the survival of future
generations. It tries to reconcile two seemingly
irreconcilable entities environment and development.
It recognizes that the humankind has to depend on
nature to meet its needs, and development must go on
to address the needs of the poor people who are
untouched by development till now. But at the same
time, earths resources like land, forests, water, air,
minerals, fuel etc are limited. If the rate of resource
extraction is maintained at the current rate, there
would be nothing left for the future generations. Hence,
development must be a balance between these two ends
so as to become sustainable.
You can see that the concept is a shift in the growthoriented
development thinking which emphasizes ever
higher growth and ever rising consumption of material
goods as highly desirable. Sustainable development
warns that such model is destructive to itself and that
only is sustainable which does not bring irreparable
damage to earths capacity. It thus brings in a notion of
limits to development.
One may question that however much the rate of growth
is slowed down, resources are ultimately finite and
would get exhausted one day anyway. So what kind of
model of development or what strategy does the concept
of sustainable development advocate? We will explore
these issues in the next sections. Now let us take a
look at the development-environment debate which has
given birth to this concept.
Sustainable Development 167
Development- Environment Debate
Beginning with Industrial Revolution, nature had to
undergo an unprecedented transformation. Prior to this,
the major form of exploitation of nature was clearing of
forests for woods and agriculture. Industrialization
needed raw materials which expanded from cotton, wood
and coal to deposits of minerals hitherto unexplored.
There was a heightened use of resources for more and
more production. Also the more factories opened, the
more polluted the atmosphere became.
The eighteenth century Europe saw a new philosophical
development known as Enlightenment, which believed
that forces of science and technology can be used to
end human misery and suffering, and serve as a means
of progress. The factory system of production equated
progress with satisfaction of material wants and
eventually created a consumer oriented society. The
Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution laid the
foundation of an expansionist economic world view
(Taylor cf Maser, 1997) from which arises the concept
of continuous growth.
In this expansionist economic worldview, Nature is seen
as a vast store house of resources which must be
converted to commodities for the satisfaction of material
wants of the growing population. This material growth
is equated with economic growth, which is equated with
social development, seen as a pre-requisite for
happiness and prosperity. Any drop in rate of growth
would therefore result in economic stagnation, mass
unemployment and social distress.
The dominant development paradigms are located in
this expansionist economic worldview. The problem is
that wants are unlimited and resources of nature are
limited. So this expansion of material goods cannot go
on forever.
168 Social Work and Social Development
There was resentment against this development model
from environmental movements. The impact of industrial
mode of development on nature was devastating which
threatened the survival of humankind. The deterioration
of nature was two fold: strain on finite resources like
coal, minerals, oil etc. and degradation of quality of
environment air, water, river, land pollution. This was
not limited to advanced industrial countries only,
because the industrialization model of development had
been transferred to third world countries too. The
exploitation of nature was on a global scale, so were
the threats to nature.
In this scenario, there emerged two schools of thought.
One supported the cause of development, and the other
championed the cause of environment. The former were
pro-growth, who did not want to compromise on the pace
of development while the later were for zero growth,
and total preservation of nature. The pro-environment
school called for rethinking development policies,
strategies and programmes. In this process, development
and environment came to be regarded as two
dichotomous entities. This is essentially the
development environment debate. It gained pace after
the Second World War.
Meanwhile, the growth-oriented development model was
coming under increasing criticism for not sharing the
economic growth with the poorer masses. Inequalities
between rich and poor nations were rising despite
economic growth, as were disparities within their richer
and poorer sections of population. This growth approach
therefore began to be questioned on the grounds of
equity and human welfare. We have discussed earlier
unit 2. These developments were crucial to the origin
of the idea of sustainable development. As we will see,
sustainable development contains all these elements.
Sustainable Development 169
It sees development and environment dichotomy as false
and believes that both can be addressed together.
Origin and Evolution
The idea of sustainable development can be traced to
earliest ecological thinking from ancient times. That
Nature is the provider of all sustenance and it must be
preserved is not a new thinking in itself. Much before
the large scale resource depletion started under
industrialisation, societies laid stress on permanence
of bonds with nature which should not be unduly
disturbed. Technological development being low, large
scale tampering with nature was also not possible.
However, there are evidences in history of many
civilizations collapsing due to resource constraints (Rao,
2000). The biggest era of exploitation of nature began
with Industrial Revolution which established the
superiority of science over nature through advanced
technology. The human-nature balance began to get
disturbed due to expansion of industries and mining.
This period also saw the growth of several economic
and environmental philosophers who noted the
significance of natural resource limitations and their
depletion, although with different perspectives. J.S. Mill
(1806-73) advocated the concept of Homo economicus
which assumes that human beings are rational selfinterested
beings who try to maximize their wealth. He
also noted that unlimited increase of wealth and
population could deprive the earth of its pleasantness.
Marx considered the problem of resource depletion and
unsustainable development as a result of class structure
and profitdriven capitalist enterprise. Pinchot (1910)
argued that the first great fact about conservation is
that it stands for development and conservationism is
the use of natural resources for the greatest good to
the greatest number for the longest time (cf. Rao, 2000).
170 Social Work and Social Development
The first to warn about the limited nature of resources
was Malthus, about whom we have discussed in earlier.
Although his pessimistic predictions have been
empirically proven wrong, his basic idea about the earths
limited capacity is still upheld. Then the neo-
Malthusians expanded Malthuss idea by postulating a
much broader notion of limits. Unlike Malthus who
considered only the food production capacity of earth to
be limited, according to neo-Malthusians, all resources
land, water, forests, air, minerals, oil etc. are limited.
The pressure of population on these limited resources
would lead to a collapse of the carrying capacity of
earth. The Club of Rome report in 1972 entitled The
Limits To Growth was the first systematic challenge to
the idea that progress through economic growth can
go on into the future endlessly. It was the first reality
check on the finite nature of resources and the
pessimistic future that lay ahead if the growth-oriented
development was pursued at the same rate.
However, the essence of Malthusian and neo-Malthusian
thinking lay on the notion of over population. So the
cause and remedy of resource depletion would be
through limiting population growth. Sustainable
development, on the other hand, recognizes
development as a cause of pressure on earth. It
questions the sustainability of resource-intensive styles
of life and the growth-oriented development.
In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote a book Silent Spring on
the public health hazards of pesticides, especially the
DDT. It is considered as laying the foundation of modern
era of environmental awareness and concern in the
developed world. Examining every form of life on earth,
she called for accommodation between humans and
nature.
Sustainable Development 171
Stockholm Conference
Another important development in 1972, the same year
the Club of Rome report appeared, was the United
Nations Conference on Human Environment held at
Stockholm, regarded as the key event in the emergence
of global environmental concerns (Adams, 2005). Its
initial focus was on the environmental problems of
industrialization such as acid rain and pollution.
Developing countries were dissatisfied with this agenda
because their problems like poverty were not included.
Moreover, they considered the developed countries as
the biggest users of resources and also the biggest
contributors to pollution. It was at Stockholm Conference
that Indias then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi,
made a landmark statement: Poverty is the biggest
polluter. For developing countries, the priority was
addressing poverty, not pollution.
The Stockholm Conference, however, succeeded in
raising global concern over environmental degradation
and admitted the need to address the problems of the
third world. The most conspicuous result of the
Conference was the creation of United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). Its report, Only One
Earth, stated that solutions to global environmental
problems need global level cooperation although the
environmental concerns of developed countries (the
North) and developing countries (the South) were far
from uniform.
World Conservation Strategy
The UNEP played a catalytic role in the preparation of
World Conservation Strategy, which was an effort by
International Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN), now called the World
Conservation Union, in cooperation with the World
172 Social Work and Social Development
Wildlife Fund (WWF), the UNEP, Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and the United Nation Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Together, they formed a unit called the Ecosystem
Conservation Group. Their report World Conservation
Strategy: Living Resources Conservation for Sustainable
Development used the concept of sustainable
development for the first time.
Unlike the Limits to Growth theorists who had no
policy prescription for what should be done to save the
earth this document provided sustainable development
as the answer. The recognition of meeting the needs of
the present generation as well as preserving resources
for future first appeared in this report. It defined
conservation as the management of human uses of
the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest
sustainable benefit to the present generations while
maintaining its potential to meet the needs and
aspirations of future generations. It defined
development as the modification of the biosphere and
the application of human, financial, living and non-living
resource to satisfy human needs and improve the quality
of human life. It said: For development to be sustainable,
it must take account of the social and ecological factors
as well as economic ones: of the living and non-living
resource base, and of the long-term as well as the short
term advantages and disadvantages of alternative
actions.
Our Common Future
The UN set up a World Commission on Environment
and Development in 1983 with Brundtland as the
chairperson to reexamine the issues of development
and environment and to evolve global policy formulations
to meet the challenges. The Commissions report Our
Common Future adopted the definition of World
Sustainable Development 173
Conservation Strategy and incorporated ideas that had
emerged out of wider deliberations throughout the
world. It gave the first official definition of the concept
of sustainable development. It also identified a number of
common challenges population and human resources,
food security, ecosystems, energy, industrial
development and urbanization. It envisaged the future
of the earth as common to all nations and therefore,
sought to address the above mentioned challenges
through shared efforts. We shall discuss the report in
detail in the next section.
Rio Earth Summit, 1992
The concept of sustainable development attained center
stage in global policy debate in the UN Conference for
Environment and Development (Paul, 2007), held at Rio
De Jenorio, Brazil, in June 1992. It is popularly known
as the Earth Summit. The event was organized on a
massive scale with more than 150 countries and over
1,400 NGOs taking part. A Sustainable Development
Commission was formed with the purpose of furthering
the work of creating sustainable development policies
and procedures across the world. An Earth Charter
containing a plan of action for the 21st century emerged
from the Summit. It is known as Agenda 21. A Climate
Convention to control climate change due to pollution,
and a Bio-diversity Convention to promote bio-diversity
conservation were also adopted. The Rio Declaration
includes 27 principles to provide a framework for
improving the environmental and economic conditions
of the world.
The Kyoto Protocol
To operationalise the Rio Declaration, the UN Climate
Convention met every year. In 1997 at Kyoto in Japan,
it incorporated a protocol known as the Kyoto Protocol.
174 Social Work and Social Development
It is the first enforceable international environmental
treaty with 34 signatory countries, who have agreed to
limit their green house gas (GHG) emissions within a
specific period to control global warming.
Rio +10 Summit
After 10 years of Rio Earth Summit, the World Summit
on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in
Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. The
significance of Johannesburg Summit lies in its
expanding the ambit of sustainable development to
include forest, health, water, poverty and globalization,
among others. The Summit highlighted the need to
remove poverty, check the plunder of earths resources
and address the demands of developing countries in
the era of free trade and globalization.
At present, there is much global concern over climate
change and global warming due to increased carbon
dioxide and other GHG emissions from automobiles and
industries. An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has been established by World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP), to examine the issue.
The IPCC is the co-winner of Nobel Peace Prize for 2007
in recognition of its work.
Dimensions of Sustainable Development
The Brundtland Commission Report Our Common Future
is the most important landmark in the concept of
sustainable development. It has defined the term, spelt
out the concerns and prescribed broad policies for
actions for sustainable development. We discuss the
report in some detail here. Refer also to box 1.
Sustainable Development 175
Sustainable development and Growth
Environmental degradation had led to questioning the
growth approach of development. But the question of
growth as it has been spelt out in Our Common Future
has become a matter of debate between pro-growth and
anti-growth economists. The concept of sustainable
development has not abandoned the approach to growth
because it does not put any absolute limits to growth,
but it clearly says that it puts limits imposed by the
state of technology and social organization on
environmental resources. Technology and social
organization can be managed and improved for a new
era of economic growth. In other words, the concept
advocates the idea of sustainable growth (Paul, 2007).
Environmental Protection
Sustainable Development recognizes the criticality of
environment as an endangered entity due to
development and also the causality of environment for
development. It brings a reconciliation of the two, saying
we should strive for conserving the resource base and
for reviving the regenerative capacity of ecosystems.
Focus on Equity
Sustainable development focuses on equity in
distribution of the gains of development, particularly
directed at the developing nations and the poorer
masses. It recognizes the needs of the poor people to
develop, and that is why it does not set any absolute
limits on the rate of growth, but only relative limits.
Future Orientation
The crucial dimension of sustainable development is
not only intra-generational equity, but also
intergenerational equity. The present generation must
176 Social Work and Social Development
take the responsibility to see that the coming
generations are at least equally well off as they are.
Sustainable development seeks to distribute the rights
and assets across generations because future
generations have a right to inherit earths resources.
A New View Of Progress
Sustainable development offers a new way to look at
the notion of progress, which presumed a unilinear
worldview of technical mastery over nature. Now, the
belief in technology is increasingly in doubt because
people recognize that every new technology, even those
designed to correct the problems of earlier technologies,
brings unforeseen consequences (Norgaard, 2005).
There are side effects of technological intervention, but
beside that, there is a realization that new technologies
do not necessarily increase happiness and welfare.
Objectives of sustainable development
Sustainable development for the first time addresses
the need for setting up policy objectives and devising
strategies to achieve them. It assumes that these would
be followed by all nations so that the effort is truly
global and meaningful. Our Common Future has listed
some critical objectives for environment and
development policies that follow from the concept of
sustainable development. These include:
1) Reviving growth
2) Changing the quality of growth
3) Meeting essential needs for jobs, foods, energy,
water and sanitation
4) Ensuring a sustainable level of population
5) Conserving and enhancing the resource base
Sustainable Development 177
6) Reorienting technology and managing risk
7) Merging environment and economics in decision
making, and
8) Reorienting international economic relations
9) Making development participatory
The ninth objective has not been spelt out in Our Common
Future. But most organizations and agencies promoting
the concept of sustainable development subscribe to this
additional operational goal (Lele, 2005).
Strategy of Sustainable Development
According to Our Common Future, the common theme
throughout the strategy for sustainable development is
the need to integrate economic and ecological
considerations in decision making. In its broadest sense,
the strategy for sustainable development aims to
promote harmony among human brings and between
humanity and nature. The pursuit of sustainable
development requires:
1) a political system that secures effective citizen
participation in decision making
2) an economic system that is able to generate
surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant
and sustained basis
3) a social system that provides for solutions for the
tensions arising from disharmonious development
4) a production system that respects the obligation to
preserve the ecological base for development
5) a technological system that can search continuously
for new solutions
178 Social Work and Social Development
6) an international system that fosters sustainable
patterns of trade and finance, and
7) an administrative system that is flexible and has
the capacity for self-correction
Box 1
Sustainable Development
Humanity has the ability to make development
sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. The
concept of sustainable development does imply
limits - not absolute limits but limitations imposed
by the present state of technology and social
organization on environmental resources and by
the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of
human activities. But technology and social
organization can be both managed and improved
to make way for a new era of economic growth.
The Commission believes that widespread poverty
is no longer inevitable. Poverty is not only an evil
in itself, but sustainable development requires
meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all
the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a better
life. A world in which poverty is endemic will always
be prone to ecological and other catastrophes.
Meeting essential needs requires not only a new
era of economic growth for nations in which the
majority are poor, but an assurance that those
poor get their fair share of the resources required
to sustain that growth. Such equity would be aided
by political systems that secure effective citizen
participation in decision making and by greater
democracy in international decision making.
Sustainable Development 179
Sustainable global development requires that those
who are more affluent adopt life-styles within the
planets ecological means - in their use of energy,
for example. Further, rapidly growing populations
can increase the pressure on resources and slow
any rise in living standards; thus sustainable
development can only be pursued if population size
and growth are in harmony with the changing
productive potential of the ecosystem.
Yet in the end, sustainable development is not a
fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of
change in which the exploitation of resources, the
direction of investments, the orientation of
technological development, and institutional
change are made consistent with future as well
as present needs. We do not pretend that the
process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices
have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis,
sustainable development must rest on political will.
Source: Our Common Future, p. 8
Critiques of Sustainable Development
Although the concept of sustainable development has
wide appeal because it succeeds in incorporating the
environmental concerns of the developed North and
the developmental concerns of the developing South,
the concept has also been criticized by many scholars.
Some say it is vague and imprecise while others think
it is not useful. Still others see it as a political
instrument used by the developed countries. We will
discuss them in this section.
Contradiction and Ambivalence
The term sustainable development is said to be an
oxymoron, that is, a combination of two contradictory
180 Social Work and Social Development
terms. Sustainability of environment implies doing away
with tampering with nature, while sustainability of
development means continuing with exploitation of
nature. These are, therefore, two mutually exclusive
concepts put together in a contradiction.
Environmentalists say that the term has created a
terrain of semantic ambivalence (Sachs, 1997) which
has shifted the locus of sustainability from nature to
development. Sustainable development talks about the
sustainability of development, not of ecology or
environment. The focus has shifted towards
development, away from nature. So in a way it has taken
the shape of conservation of development, not of
environment.
The idea of sustainability was initially used by foresters
in 18th and 19th century Europe in connection with forest
use. Enough trees would be planted in the forests to
replace the annual harvest of timber for household and
industrial use so that the forest resources are
sustainable. A similar use of the term by
environmentalists was in connection with fishery
resources. But in the modern context, the word has no
meaning when used in context of finite resources
because they cannot ever be replenished and that is
why their use can never be sustainable.
Imprecise Meaning
Critics say the idea of sustainability fails to convey a
clear meaning to all. Sustainability has different
connotations in different fields. For an economist,
sustainability means achieving a critical take off into
long-term continuous growth, investment and profits
in a market economy. This means industrial societies
are already sustainable, while backward agrarian
societies are not (Tisdell, 1988 cf Worster). For doctors
Sustainable Development 181
and public health professionals, it means a society
which has good health indicators. This means the rise
in life expectancy and fall in death rates demonstrate
that the industrial society is far more sustainable than
the earlier ones. Similarly, political scientists would
understand sustainability in terms of the ability of
institutions or ruling groups to generate public support
to hold on the power.
This state of confusion is summed up by Anil Aggarwal
(1992) as follows: for a logging company, it can mean
sustained projects; for an environmental economist, it
can mean sustained stocks of natural forests; for a
social ecologist it means sustained use of forest; and
for an environmentalist it can mean a clean heritage
for our children. But surely, confusion cannot be more
productive than clarity.
This lack of precise meaning is brought out in the
application of sustainable development with regard to
developed and developing nations. Eduardo and
Woodgate (1997) say that the difference in meaning is
evident from allowing the developing nations to realize
their potential for economic growth and generalized
increase in their consumption. For the developed
nations, it means continued realization of the growth
potential as long as it is not at the cost of others. Figure
2.1 shows the diverse interpretations of the concept.
182 Social Work and Social Development
Fig. 1 : The semantics of sustainable development
(Source: Lele, 2005)
According to Sachs (1997), the concept recognizes needs
but it does not specify what needs are to be taken care
of. The Brundtland Report does not specify if the needs
are those of the global consumer class or of the
enormous number of have nots. Also, survival needs
like water, land and economic security have not been
distinguished from the luxury needs of the rich.
Sustainable Development
Sustainability Development
Literal Ecological Social Process Objectives
Sustaining
Anything
Sustaining
ecological
basis of
human life
Sustaining
social basis
of human
life
Growth
and/or
change
Basic needs
Ecological
Conditions
Social
Conditions
SD= sustainable growth
(contradictory or trivial)
SD= achieving traditional
objectives + ecological (&
social) sustainability
(mainstream and mean
objective)
Phrase
Concepts
Meaning
Conditions
Interpretati
ons
Sustainable Development 183
Time Frame of Sustainability
According to Worster (1993), the most difficult problem
to address is the time-frame defined for a sustainable
society. Sustainability cannot exist forever. Historically,
societies have evolved through responding to resource
depletion and proliferation of needs. Anthropologist
Marvin Harris has shown that few human societies have
sustained their technology organization, economic
patterns, and institution even for a few centuries.
Societies have run out of their resource base due to
population pressure or environmental ignorance or
excessive demands, and responded to them to devise a
new culture based on a new type of resource use. If
human beings had achieved sustainability at the outset
of history, then society would not have progressed beyond
the hunting and gathering stage.
Flawed Ideals in the concept
Worsters critique of sustainable development is due to
three basic flaws in the concept: (1) it is based on the
utilitarian worldview of nature that natural world exists
to serve the material demands of human society.
According to him, the term Our in the Brundtland
Report makes this point clear by referring to all people
exclusively and only raising the issue of equity in
resource distribution the only moral issue. (2) The
concept assumes that we can know the carrying
capabilities of local ecosystems and explore resources
safely up to that level, whereas it is impossible in
practice. (3) The sustainability ideal does not question
the traditional worldview of progressive materialism and
its associated institutions like economic systems and
industrialism.
184 Social Work and Social Development
Incomplete characterization of poverty
Our Common Future has raised the issue of poverty many
times in the report. Lele says that sustainable
development gives an incomplete characterization of
poverty and environmental degradation by making it a
two-way link (see fig.2). However, the link is a very
complex one. Both poverty and environmental
degradation have deep and complex causes which the
Report has avoided in its discussion.
Fig. 2 : An incomplete characterization of povertyenvironment
relationship
Source: Lele, 2005
According to Nayar (1994), the cyclical relationship
between poverty and environmental degradation is
perceived in simplistic terms. Sustainable development
has kept the basic factors which generate poverty
outside this framework, and also does not consider the
role of lopsided development which degrades human
natural capital.
POVERTY ENVIRONMENTAL
DEGRADATION
Sustainable Development 185
Fig : A more realistic presentation of poverty-environment
relationship
Source: Lele (2005)
No clear operationalisation
The concept of sustainable development has been
criticized for not articulating a well-defined strategy by
fixing targets, responsibility, monitoring and evaluation.
Anil Agarwal (1992) critiques the concept because it
does not clearly say who is going to ensure the rights of
future generations and what kinds of needs it may have.
He asks are we talking only of the future generation of
the rich or also of the poor given that a large proportion
of even the present generation cannot meet all its needs.
In the absence of specific goals or even a consensus on
the means to achieve them, sustainable development
remains an attractive but unhelpful concept.
Affluence
Over consumption Culture and values
Access to resources Environmental
Degradation
Technology
Poverty
Pollution
resource
loss
Short-term
decisions
Wrong
technology
186 Social Work and Social Development
Politics of sustainable development
Sustainable development is also criticized on grounds
of being a political tool of developed nations who are
trying to make up for environmental problems of their
own creation by making it look like everybodys problem.
According to Nayar (1994), the concept of sustainable
development emerged from those very nations who
practice unsustainable resource use, and therefore the
starting point for turning the present unsustainable
practices to sustainable ones, even with respect to the
third world, is problematic.
Nayar writes that there is a close connection between
sustaining world capitalism and the sustainable
development approach. Sustainable development is
visualized as a solution for the nonviable capitalist
enterprise by making available raw materials on a
continuous basis so that the production system, the
expanding market and the political system are not
threatened. He argues that sustainable development
is an outgrowth of political compulsion of the developed
countries due to growth of ecological movements. The
Not-In-My-Backyard or Nimby syndrome is mainly
responsible for ecologically unsustainable development
projects including hazardous industries shifting out of
these countries to developing countries. According to
Nayar,
The earlier concept of ethno-development that grew
out of Stockholm Conference was better than the present
sustainable development because it focused on self
reliance. But it was discarded because it was anti-rich.
The idea of sustainable development will become proper
only if it starts with the affluence and the resulting
unsustainability of the rich. A reorientation of growth
models in the North would enable the poor countries to
achieve at least a minimum level of development while
Sustainable Development 187
influencing the path of development in the South itself.
Rather than blaming victims of depleting common
resource, the votaries of sustainable development
should address themselves to the production and
consumption patterns in the industrialized countries
which is leading to destruction of natural resources in
the world.
Globalization and Sustainable Development
You are familiar with the dimensions of globalization
from Chapter 4. Sustainable development is also one of
the ingredients of globalization thinking because
resources and their depletion are thought to be global
phenomena. The risk of unsustainable development is
ultimately global because atmosphere, oceans, carbon
cycles, hydrological cycles, global warming and climate
change are not limited to national boundaries. How is
the process of globalization going to affect the future of
sustainable development? The flowing discussion is
based on Wolfgang Sachs authoritative work (2005).
Proponents of economic globalization argue that it
reduces the use of resources in five ways.
1) It brings to an end state monopoly of resources in
closed economies where there is higher rate of use
of natural resources because natural treasures are
seen as cost-free. So growth is achieved only by
extensive ways of increased production, causing
faster resource depletion. Globalization cuts this
mismanagement by enforcing at least an economic
nationality.
2) Trade and investment increase access to technology
which is more efficient with regard to resource
utilization, particularly in sectors such as mining,
energy, transport and industry.
188 Social Work and Social Development
3) Transnational corporations tend to standardize
technologies between countries at an advanced
level.
4) The open markets make the fast developing nations
efficient vis--vis resources, because their exports
to advanced countries have to adapt to the stricter
environmental standards prevailing there.
5) Finally, the globalized economy allows production
to be efficient in terms of use of energy and raw
materials in a global scale by deploying the factors
of production in optimal manner everywhere.
What, however, is downplayed in this argument is the
fact that market rationalization may lower the use of
particular resources, that is, the input per unit of output.
But the total use of resources will grow if the volume of
economic activity expands. The size of growth in
production and consumption will be too big for the small
gains made in efficiency. As the history of industrial
society shows, efficiency gains have quite consistently
been converted into new opportunities for expansion.
From an ecological point of view, this is the Achilles
heel of globalization.
According to Sachs, this is precisely what is happening.
The goals of globalization are to spur the world economic
growth through the strategies of intensive development
expansion. There has been a doubling of world economy
between 1975 and 2000, much of which has put even
greater pressure on the biosphere. Sachs presents them
in the following manner:
Direct foreign investment and the expansion effect
The USA-EU- Japan triad has transferred massive
private capital to the emerging markets of East Asia
and South America, along with it the fossil model of
Sustainable Development 189
development (intensive use of fossil fuels), which is
highly resource intensive. The targets of investment
are raw material extraction or energy and transport
infrastructure which all push the use of energy up.
The removal of national barriers to foreign investment
has thus reflected in the steep rise in the carbon dioxide
emissions of the developing world while there has been
only marginal increase in the industrialized countries.
For instance, the swelling up of cars in the roads of
India (due to several new car manufacturing
corporations setting up plants here) has pushed out
public transport, bicycles etc. and increased vehicular
pollution to a great degree, even if these cars are more
efficient than the earlier ones.
Another symbol of globalization, the Big Mac has
caused big lifestyle changes in many countries of Latin
America and Asia between 1990 and 1996. The number
of McDonalds restaurant has multiplied manifold, and
there has been a high rise in meat consumption. These
trends imply that more water, cereals and grazing land
for cattle, thereby receding forest cover by 10 to 30
percent in these countries.
Deregulation and the competitive effect
Globalization is intended to release market regulations
from the web of national norms and standards in order
to bring them under international competition. Like all
other regulated sectors, protection of environment is
coming under pressure in many countries which are
attaching higher value to attaining competitive strength
than to protecting their environment or natural
resources. In most countries, the process of economic
globalization has blocked any real progress in national
environmental policy.
190 Social Work and Social Development
The other dimension of deregulation is to introduce
efficiency and lower prices. If it happens in
environmentally significant sectors like Oil, coal etc,
then their prices fall and demands shoot up. Also it will
be less worth introducing conservation technologies
which may have higher prices. Under price systems
that do not reflect environmental costs, global
competition will deepen the crisis of nature (Daly 1996,
cf Sachs, 2005).
Currency crisis and the sell out effect
In case of a currency crisis, the affected countries are
often pushed to export their natural resources more
extensively and speedily to raise exports and earn
foreign exchange, so that they are able to repay loans
and import their minimum needed food, goods and
capital. That Nature has become the currency earner
is evident from the large-scale export of oil, gas, metals,
wood, animal feed and agricultural produce from
countries of the south hit by financial crisis. Fishing
rights are being sold by Senegal to fleets of vessels
from Asia, Canada and Europe; tree felling rights by
Chile to timer corporations from USA and exploration
rights by Nigeria to the Oil multinationals (French 1998
cf. Sachs, ibid). Mexico, after the collapse of Peso (the
Mexican currency) rescinded its laws protecting national
forests to promote exports; Indonesia was compelled
under talks with IMF to change its land ownership
legislation to allow foreign paper corporations to move
in on its forests (Menotti 1998, cf. Sachs, ibid).
Measures to rectify a balance of payment crisis under
IMF necessitate a country to increase its exports and
attract investors back into the country. Although the
removal of environmentally damaging subsides and
liberalization of markets generally promotes a more
Sustainable Development 191
efficient use of resources, the rate of exploitation soon
increases with the mobilization of raw materials and
agricultural produce for exports.
Vanishing distance and the transport effect
Globalization rests upon the rapid overcoming of space,
rendered by electronic networking. It is ecologically a
less wasteful way of communication, but the amount of
waste generated by computers, mobile sets, floppies,
discs etc. puts heavy toxic burden on environment.
Moreover, outside of international financial market that
works through electronic communication, all forms of
economic globalization rely heavily upon physical
transport. T-shirts go from China to Germany and
tomatoes from Ecuador to USA. Transport requires
vehicles, highways, airports, harbors and fuel all of
which require a considerable amount of materials and
land. The overcoming of geographical distance and time
barriers has been paid through the spoiling of nature.
Colonization of Nature
Sachs argues that economic globalization fosters a new
colonization of nature. The patent regime allows
monopoly control to corporations over biotic species like
seeds and plants excluding their use by others. Genetic
engineering can play havoc on the biodiversity in the
agriculture of the developing countries. Just like
agrarian capitalism led to monoculture of plant varieties
(commercial agriculture for export purposes), the life
industries would force the specialization in a few
genetically optimized and economically useful plants
(Lappe and Bailey, 1998). Apart fromfood security threats
to the poorer sections, it would mean the simplification
biosphere.
192 Social Work and Social Development
Changing geography of stress
Globalization changes the geography of environmental
stress. The supply chain lengthening shoots the
ecological division of labour between the countries of
the south and those of the north. Special export zones
of fishery and other resources come up in countries
like Bangladesh, Egypt or Mexico for their cheap
resources, cheap labour, tax breaks and lax
environmental norms which reduce production costs.
The environment stressing production chain are put in
less developed regions while the cleaner and less
material stages tend to be in G-7 countries. Nayar
(1994) points this out in politics of sustainable
development that polluting industries are being
relocated in the third world countries. The dynamics
of sustainable development in the context of globalization
was summed up by Fidel Castro at Rio Earth Summit in
the following words: a consistent interpretation of
sustainable development should begin with the
recognition that underdevelopment is the result of
plundering of the third world, which has been prolonged
in our time by an international economic order that
uses the mechanism of debt, unfair division of worlds
labour, trade protectionism and control over the flow of
finances to heighten the exploitation of the
underdeveloped nations, and as a consequence, the
ensuring ecological degradation (Castro 1992, cf. Nayar,
1994).