The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Alien models of growth may lead to unrest, says Kurien

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Alien models of growth may lead to unrest, says Kurien

Special Correspondent

"Nation is under false sense of progress"

CHENNAI: "True liberalisation of economy and empowerment of farmers will take place if only institutions are sensitive to the needs and aspirations of farmers and are responsive to their demands," said V. Kurien, Chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand, here on Friday.

Delivering the 11th memorial endowment lecture of Mary Clubwala Jadhav, Dr. Kruien, whose speech was read out by his daughter Nirmal Kurien in his absence, said the nation was facing a crisis today as it was under a misperception that availability of flavoured carbonated waters, hamburgers, designer clothes and electronic toys was progress without realising that there were lakhs of less privileged people in the country who had no access to power, drinking water or health facilities.

Expressing concern over problems faced by rural people, he said they were struggling to protect their interests in the new era characterised by privatisation and globalisation.

The intrinsic human strength as proved by AMUL was getting rapidly diluted in a world where rich countries influenced the less privileged.

Alien models of growth and development were superimposed on the poor without adequate thought and comprehension.

Risk of social unrest

He warned that such models of development would only create intellectual confusion, ultimately leading to social unrest.

Dr. Kurien's speech said poverty could be diminished not by commercially dominated models but socially dominated economic models like AMUL.

Claiming that the AMUL model was a standing testimony to what the farmers could do when they exercised control over resources they created, Dr. Kurien said the experience of AMUL had established that agricultural development was not a matter of technology, but a matter of building institutions.

Rapid growth or rural productivity demanded the replacement of traditional institutional structures, particularly those of the government, by new structures for procurement, processing and marketing of agricultural produce.

These structures must be owned and controlled by farmers, he added.

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