The model of development embraced by today’s governments is skewed. The digitisation spree will finally make human beings redundant and obsolete, warned Gopal Guru, a professor of social and political theory in the Centre of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Prof. Guru was delivering a talk on “Inclusive Development’ organised on the sidelines of the ongoing Vijayawada book festival at the PWD grounds. “Deliberation on key issues is important. For communication, for deliberation social media platforms like Facebook or WhatsApp are not enough. What you get on TV or social media are short bytes of the long sufferings of people. Students should thus rely on the written word to develop a perspective,” he said.
The professor urged students to dissociate from Facebook and instead opt for a face-to-face contact with books. Digital development is wiping out human face, he rued.
“I am not against development. But why is it that development is resulting in more and more exclusions; exclusions of the people belonging to the lower strata of society. There has to be a balance between human interests and development,” he reiterated.
“Bring back human beings into the centre of development and that, in true sense, will be inclusive development,” he said.
‘Deafening silence
on poverty’
Bezwada Wilson, recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award and one of the founders and national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a human rights organisation that has been campaigning for the eradication of manual scavenging, said despite laws against the demeaning practice of manual scavenging, it continued unabated.
“The practice has been declared illegal but India still has over 2 lakh manual scavengers and not a single case registered in any police station across the country.”
Referring to “inclusive development,” he said: “I find new terminologies emerging every day but nobody talks about the age-old poverty. Development projects are being carried out at the cost of the interests of the poor and helpless,” he said.
“There are villages inhabited by the poor who do not have electricity supply and the government talks about digitisation,” he said.
He also found fault with the manner in which the demonetisation drive was being implemented.
“There are other ways to curb black money. People cannot be made to suffer for such long periods. Any act that goes against the interests of the people should be opposed,” he maintained.
“The government has failed to develop a simple technology to clean septic tanks and it talks about space technology,” he said.
Former Chief Secretary Kaki Madhava Rao, TDP leader Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, Prof. A. Raghurama Raju from the University of Hyderabad, Editorial Director of Sakshi Ramachandra Murthy and Swaroopa Rani from Acharya Nagarjuna University participated.
