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Background
Inequality is deeply entrenched in the social and economic fabric our country today and the gaps are widening at an alarming rate. In 2017 1% of the population held 58% of the country’s total wealth, which was higher than the global figure of about 50% and today the top 1% of the population now holds 73% of the wealth. So last year alone, one billionaire was created every two days in a country like India. We understand this phenomenon as ‘growth’ and in the words of the State, political parties, and now the common people of this country as ‘development’. We see this modern development as a panacea to the poverty and marginalisation in our society. We see it as a natural progression which necessarily would be followed by or accompanied with a more aware and ‘educated’ society, free of divisions and inequality. But the condition of society across the world today, wrought with conflict, discrimination and exploitation, indicates that assumption needs to be urgently questioned.
About the Winter School: Sambhaavnaa Institute, has for the last six years been organising a participatory, reflective and experiential programs on ‘Rethinking Development’ called Nayi Dishayein. In this program we work with young participants to:
1. Deconstruct, i.e. critically examine the notion of development
2. Examine the root causes of growing inequity in distribution of wealth and resources and it’s impacts on nature and humans in a society fractured along the lines of gender, caste, race, ethnicity, religion?
3. Re-examine our belief systems, worldviews, privileges resulting from the power structures of caste, gender, religion, class and how they are linked with the notion of development
4. Examine how the state and its institutions of policy making and governance influence these power structures and vice versa
5. Assess possibilities of transformation through people’s action. An exposure to and dialogue on a range of initiatives/movements towards a just society
The theme of the program is explored using interactive lectures, group work and group discussions, film screenings, collective reflection, and importantly, live experience sharing by activists.
Who is the program for? If you are in the age group of 21-26 years and seeking answers to the above questions; or you are just figuring out how to frame the questions; or trying to understand the interconnections between different problems that you see around you…then join us for an intense collective churn on these issues – to open up nayi dishayein in both your thinking and living…To know more and apply, please click here
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Azim Premji University 
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