• The 2012 Nirbhya case exposed a dual crisis in Indian society, where the brutal rape and death of a young woman symbolised the unsafe conditions for women, while the involvement of a juvenile perpetrator highlighted societal neglect towards children and youth welfare.

• Despite sustained efforts by successive governments and the non-governmental sector, the agenda of social transformation in India remains incomplete, indicating a gap between policy intent and ground-level outcomes.

• Even with focused resources and policy attention, complex and rapidly evolving social dynamics have constrained the achievement of radical and transformative social change.

• Violence against women has become increasingly complex, aggravated by the misuse of technology, greater involvement of juveniles, and a lack of adequate social awareness and sensitisation.

• The substantialisation of caste identities has generated new caste fault-lines, complicating traditional caste equations and intensifying social divisions.

• The emergence of new forms of terrorism has further complicated communal relations in India, adding layers of insecurity and mistrust.

• Inadequate investment in the education sector has resulted in limited avenues of social mobility, particularly for the lower strata of society, reinforcing inequality and exclusion.

• Collectively, these challenges pose a serious threat to democratic institutions, social cohesion and national unity, and therefore demand urgent, comprehensive and sustained intervention.

Crisis of Development – Displacement, Environmental Problems and Sustainability

• Development refers to change in a desired direction, and according to Yogendra Singh, it is a strategy of planned social change considered desirable by members of a society, though its meaning varies across societies, often implying increase in scale, efficiency, mutuality and freedom.

• Gunnar Myrdal argued that rationality is a precondition for economic and social development in the modern world.

• Crisis of Development refers to a paradoxical condition where development produces negative fallouts, resulting in un-development through development, thereby questioning dominant development models in light of displacement, livelihood loss, emotional trauma, migration, environmental degradation and rising inequality.

• The post-Independence Indian development model was largely based on industrialisation and economic growth, following a trickle-down approach, but in practice depressed sections suffered disproportionately, especially through displacement, migration and discrimination.

• Tribal communities and agricultural populations were the worst affected, and according to Walter Fernandes, about three crore people were displaced in the last 50 years, of which over 42 per cent were tribals.

• Displacement can be direct, such as eviction due to projects, or indirect, through migration caused by uneven development, lack of livelihoods, discrimination, fragile ecosystems and socio-religious tensions.

• Key issues in displacement include accurate estimation of affected populations, nature and timing of compensation, and rehabilitation policies, but rehabilitation and impact analysis are often neglected, with ill-designed compensation and social consequences rarely considered.

• Forests and mines remained state monopolies even after Independence, and tribals’ traditional rights over land and forests were ignored, facilitating their large-scale displacement without resistance.

• In the 1990s, development-induced displacement emerged as a major concern due to a surge in developmental projects and urban expansion, while in the 2000s, states like Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal displaced large populations for SEZs and IT parks, following the SEZ Act.

• In the 2010s, competition among states through global business summits under the Make in India mission intensified land acquisition and displacement pressures.

• Development-induced displacement produces multiple consequences including secondary and tertiary displacement, breakdown of kinship networks, gendered impacts, loss of livelihood, and conversion of self-cultivators into wage labourers.

• Displaced populations face cultural conflicts, difficulty adapting to new ecological settings, and increased poverty, while Mridula Singh (1992) found that rehabilitation policies ignore women’s rights, treating unmarried daughters and abandoned women as dependents.

• Tribals and ethnic groups remain the most affected, and Fernandes’ study in Maharashtra showed that although tribals formed the majority of displaced families, only 15.8 per cent received land, leading to cultural threats, isolation and forced assimilation.

• Since the 1970s, development projects have faced greater scrutiny, with civil society activism gaining strength, exemplified by the Odisha movement against POSCO, where sustained protests led to cancellation of the project in 2015.

• The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act marked a shift by explicitly addressing displacement, though further reforms are needed to ensure prior rehabilitation, stakeholder participation of displaced people, and inclusion of rehabilitation costs within project budgets.

• Environmental degradation and sustainability have become central development concerns, highlighted by the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, caused largely by unchecked development in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.

• Environmental challenges have also emerged from dams, coal and nuclear power plants, and unplanned urbanisation, leading to loss of biodiversity and extinction of indigenous species.

• Urban development faces a severe waste-management crisis, with a wide gap between waste generation and treatment, and most sewage treatment plants remaining dysfunctional due to poor design, maintenance and technical capacity.

• According to the Central Pollution Control Board report Status of Sewage Treatment in India (2005), only 20 per cent of sewage water is treated, while untreated effluents contaminate rivers and aquifers, creating drinking water crises.

• In 2009, reports of uranium poisoning in Punjab were linked to fly ash ponds of thermal power plants, causing severe birth defects in districts like Faridkot and Bathinda.

• Air pollution from industry, urban activity and agriculture, especially crop residue burning in Northwest India, has caused widespread smog in North India, and a 2016 World Health Organization study ranked Delhi as the second most polluted major city globally.

• In response, environmental governance has strengthened, with mandatory environmental clearances, establishment of the National Green Tribunal and Green Benches in the Supreme Court of India, and stricter enforcement of environmental laws.

• In 2000, the Supreme Court of India directed cities to implement comprehensive waste-management systems, including segregation, recycling and composting, and from 2011, several cities adopted waste-to-energy projects using technologies from Germany, Switzerland and Japan.

• In 2014, India launched a national Air Quality Index, and at the global level supported initiatives like the Kyoto Protocol and the Earth Summit, integrating ecological conservation into the development agenda.