Special Event
Questions and Answers
Is development necessary for indigenous people in the first place?
This is a question that has always been there from the beginning of developmental activities but I feel, why not? The issue is what kind of development are we talking about. Who decides on which development is to come. If we can be clear that the development to be implemented has to be based on the local needs, decided by, planned by and implemented by local people, so that it is not something that is top down. For example, as a part of developmental schemes in India, you will find concrete buildings which are supposed to be community halls. So the central government spends thousands of rupees to send materials to this place to have a great big concrete building, to be called a community hall.
But most of these community halls are lying in shambles and they stick our like sore thumbs. You have all of the beautiful thatch houses and trees and then you see this concrete building there and nobody uses it. Now for the government of India, that was development. They brought roads. But that is development for them. But development has to be looked at from all possible ways. The issue of development has to be understood as to, are we talking in terms of, even development is not necessarily only infrastructural, often we focus on the infrastructure just like the government. They don't realized that the development of the human mind in terms of training capacity changes is very important and that is the type of intervention we are trying to bring in. Through which communities will ask for infrastructures that they think are required.
So yes I think development is required but it has to be planned in a careful way, so that it is sustainable so that communities can take care of it. For example, there is no point fixing solar energy panels in a village keeping it there. It works for one month and if something goes wrong, nobody is there to repair it. Now it looks like a nice development, but there has to be a much larger planning framework. If I want solar panels in that village, I should think of having one or two people trained to maintain those solar panels before I even take them there. And many other planning. But often, development doesn't happen like that. Although on paper it is supposed to be. It should be there. I think people need development. They need medical care, schools, and health systems. So indigenous communities as well have the rights just like anyone else, they also have the aspirations to be like us, they have aspirations to come to the cities, to have good clothes. But at the same time who are we to say no you don't need that. It is not for us to say yes or no, but for us to help them realize what they prefer.
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