NCERT Solutions for Class 11 Political Science Chapter 10 Development

Development is a process which ensures a good quality of life to all the people in terms of contentment, harmony and satisfaction of necessary needs. It is associated to enhancement, growth and aspirations of people. This definition of development would benefit all the sections of society as it shows the basic need approach. It allows more people to make meaningful choices and the pre-condition for this is the fulfillment of basic needs like food, education, health and shelter.
The earlier concepts of development were based on only economic growth and were not beneficial for poor people and environment and have resulted in a wide gap between rich and poor and imbalanced ecology. Therefore, a definition that aims towards improving the quality of people’s life would justify the essence of development.

The term ‘Development’ can be understood better in both the broader and narrower sense:

• In a broader sense, development conveys the ideas of improvement, progress, well-being and aspiration for better life to represent the vision for society as a whole and how to achieve it.
• In a narrower sense, it refers to more limited goals as increasing the rate of economic growth, etc.

Benefits to different sections of society are as follows:

1. Development has been identified with implementation of projects like factories, dams, hospitals, and national high ways rather than to sustain the broader vision of development into the society.
2. Some sections like industrialists have been benefitted while others like up-rooted families and landless people, etc. have lost their homes or lands without any compensatory gain.
3. Though, issues regarding the benefits and burdens of development either have been justly distributed or not, have been a main concern for developmental priorities in a democratic setup.

Social costs of development:

1. Displacement has resulted in the loss of livelihood and increased poverty.
2. Many people have been displaced from their homes and localities due to urbanization and industrialization, etc.
3. Rural agricultural communities are put out of place to end up at the margins of society.
4. There is a loss of culture due to loss of community life because traditional skills acquired over a long period, are also lost.
5. Displacement has led to struggles in many countries like India is Narmada Bachao Andolan against Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada.
6. The supporters of this dam claimed to generate electricity, irrigate large areas of land and to provide drinking water to the desert areas of Kutch and Saurashtra whereas the opponents of the dam claim to lose the land through construction by almost one million people.

Ecological costs of development:

• The present model of development is reliant on increased use of energy and is a major cause for environmental degradation.
• Consumption of fossil fuels to meet energy requirements is also a major cause of pollution as well as depletion of natural resources.
• Global warming has increased due to emission of pollutant gases from industries.
• Icebergs of Polar Regions are melting due to global warming. This would cause flooding and submergence of low lying areas like Bangladesh and Maldives.
• Developmental projects have resulted in deforestation, which has created the problem of greenhouse effect, scarcity of firewood, medicinal herbs and food, affecting poor people.
• Rivers and ponds are dry up and level of ground water has decreased.

In actuality, the benefits of development have been enjoyed by powerful and costs of development have been borne by the poorest and vulnerable section due to ecological degradation, displacement and loss of livelihood.

• Another claim is to have a right to be consulted in decision directly which affect the lives of the people.
• The people can claim if an activity or law sanctioned by the government threatens the lives of the people.
• The claim can be used to have a right to use natural resources by various communities and tribes, etc.
• The claim to belong to natural resources, i.e. local community or common resource of whole humanity.
• Democracies focus to achieve a balance between the claims of present and future
• The protection of people affected by development from the state and the society as a whole.
• The right of people to be consulted about decisions that affect their lives.

Democracy is the best form of government because the conflicts are resolved through debates with the participation of people in the formulating the goals of development and in working out the way of implementing it.

1. Democracy makes a clear difference between a plan made by others and sharing in the formulation of the plans because the others may plan with the best intentions but may be less aware of specific needs and the sharing shows the empowerment in decision making process.
2. Democracy and development are interrelated to each other as they ensure participation in local decision making bodies to take decisions about development projects in the local area.
3. The people may be consulted on the issues to affect the people most and to reject them if it affects adversely to the community.
4. Direct involvement of people in planning and formulating policies allow people to direct resources towards their needs.
5. A decentralized approach to development makes it possible to use different types of technologies traditional and modern in a creative manner.