How India can make a difference in promoting social justice
With the advent of industrial revolution, the process of globalisation as we know it today was set off and there was immense growth in economic, political and communication linkages across the world. Over the next four centuries, the world was under the grip of western imperialism with many wars taking place among the imperial powers as they sought to bring more colonies under their control. This scramble for colonies is the bedrock of the conflict that culminated in the two World Wars.
The magnitude of destruction in the Second World War was such that there was a deep desire for an intergovernmental organisation that would maintain international order. On October 24, 1945, the United Nations came into being as a replacement for its predecessor, the League of Nations. It was primarily established to ensure that such conflicts do not occur and to be an organisation that will aide in deliberations to resolve conflicts amicably.
Since then, the UN has expanded its role to promoting human rights, facilitating socio-economic development, protecting the environment, providing aid during natural calamities or armed conflict. Even though there has thankfully not been another war on the scale of the Second World War, conflict hasn't been entirely wiped out and the UN has often been criticised for its inability to rein in quarrelling states. Nevertheless, it has been relentless in its efforts to promote sustainable development, environment protection and socio-economic upliftment of vulnerable populations as these are the underlying factors of conflict.
Conflicts across the world have created a refugee crisis and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that in 2017 there were close to 65.6 million refugees who were displaced due to persecution, violence or human rights violations. Ironically, 90 per cent refugees are hosted by the developing countries which further drains their meagre resources.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), there has been a spurt in the defence expenditure across the world. Rising tensions could result in an arms race which would not only jeopardise peace, but also stall development. For the first time since 2011, global spending on defence has increased and in 2016 it is estimated to be $1.69 trillion according to SIPRI. To put this opportunity cost into perspective, it is about 2.3 per cent of the world's GDP.
The tragedy is that if we could spend that amount on development, there may not be any conflict in the first place. With food crises occurring regularly, due to many factors such as rising population, changing weather patterns, and other global factors, malnutrition and hunger are the number one health risk worldwide. Further, lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation remain the biggest causes for child mortality. Environment and social issues too remain a major challenge for inclusive and sustainable development. While the world is yet to come to a consensus on how to tackle pollution, gender parity remains a distant dream with women still earning a quarter less than what men earn.
With problems galore, it is tragic that governments across the world are unable to cope with the changing times and find solutions. One of the reasons for this is that a country is only as great as its citizens collectively are. With much of the population deriding politics as the fount of all vice in society, there is poor participation and the quality of discourse is often driven by primordial worldviews.
Very often the middle classes talk in private about what the solutions to global and local problems are, but seldom venture out to take part in politics. This is perhaps due to the lack of space given to them in the political arena. Except for the recently launched All India Professionals' Congress (AIPC), no other political organisation solicits political activism from professionals. In other progressive nations there are parties, (like the Alliance 90 in Germany), which espouse environmentalism as their ideology. This is an evolving ideology and such parties are often termed Green Parties, as they practice green politics - based on social justice, environmentalism and peace.
India being one of the founding members of the UN, in addition to being a major emerging powers of the world, should take more active participation in promoting sustainability and social justice if we are to increase our clout in the global arena. For this to happen we need to infuse the ideas of peace and development into our education system. Sadly, the state of affairs in our society is such that those in power often speak disparagingly about human rights, development and environmental issues as though they are the hindrances to progress. We must remember that global problems cannot be solved without the solutions being implemented locally.