Globalisation offers scope for development: Amartya Sen

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 29. The Nobel laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen, has said that globalisation offers ample scope for development despite some inherent anomalies and there is no need to oppose it blindly.

Inaugurating the 26th All India Sociological Conference organised by the Indian Sociological Society (ISS) here today, Prof. Sen said globalisation is an inevitable reality and blind opposition to it would only lead to cultural fundamentalism.

One should view globalisation from the point of view of people, ideas and products, he said. The States should frame policies to overcome the inequalities in the system, he added.

Globalisation could be described as an exchange of ideas between countries and this would help further development, Prof. Sen said. Most of the ideas of India and China are popular in Europe due to globalisation. India should emulate the methods adopted by countries like Taiwan and China to benefit from it.

Prof. Sen said the NGOs have a major role to play in the shaping of a civil society, especially the empowerment of women. However, the work done by NGOs generally goes unnoticed. A greater role for NGOs in all sectors of development would help curb the excess influence of politics, he added.

Prof. Sen said that the success of the literacy movement in Kerala was mainly due to the involvement of women in this activity.

Though we have a variety of identities, we have to select the best of these, the Nobel laureate said. The identity of man is not inherent in a particular political party or religion. It is wrong to think of India as a federation of religious communities.

Delivering his presidential address, the president of the Indian Soiological Society, Prof. B. S. Baviskar, said the growing size and variety of voluntary sectors in Indian society was a good sign. The fact that international donor agencies such as the World Bank prefer to work through NGOs instead of State agencies, proved their importance.

Dr. Baviskar, however, said NGOs are not always models in matters of accountability. Many of them do not submit accounts on time and also do not observe the financial norms applicable to the organisations which use public funds.

He pointed out that NGOs are used to accepting foreign funds and maintaining a dependency relationship with developed countries. This could prove detrimental to a poor country in the long run. He urged sociologists to undertake systematic studies of NGOs as organisations.

The Kerala University Vice-Chancellor, Dr. B. Ekbal, the ISS Secretary, Ms. Aneeta A. Minocha and the head of the University Department of Sociology, Prof. Jacob John Kattakkayam, also attended. As many as 400 delegates are participating in the conference being conducted in the State for the first time.

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