Human Societies historically has
shown tendency in long run to persistently improve upon its achievements. This
effort to constantly improve upon ones situation in material terms is often
referred to as Development. The direction of this change may be gradual or in
leaps depending on the concrete situation prevailing at a given time. People too
have traditionally struggled collectively to win rights for them from the state
under whose dispensation they fall. The concept of Rights based development
tries to organically link the forces of development in the society with the
rights won by people through their constant efforts. It tries to bring out the
point that there can’t be any development in democratic way if the model
adopted for it is not in position to ensure protection of rights of people. Civil
Society organizations have acted as pressure groups on the state in order to
make sure that rights of citizens don’t get trample in unleashing rapid
development, thus incorporating rights into the basic realm of development.
Basis of Rights
Rights are not bestowed from above. They have emerged from never-ending
human struggle to improve people’s lives drawing on visions of a better future
and a desire to prevent reoccurrences of past atrocities and abuse. As such
rights have been articulated, defined and given a shape of law by the
collective efforts and struggles of many people over decades, and are likely to
continue to evolve as the time goes on. Rights such as Right to education, Right
to food, Right to work with dignity, Right to health have all emerged from such
struggles. The wide recognition that the actual concept of rights applies to
all people in all places at all times is one of the key achievements of this human
struggle. But this struggle has to be perpetual in nature as there is constant
need to protect and strengthening them as they are challenged by ideologies
such as patriarchy, racism, neo-liberalism and fascism. Rights are in
themselves not a cold legalistic formula to be formulated by well meaning,
well-educated and sophisticated experts on behalf of the majority. But they are
manifestation of what the human spirit aspires to and can achieve through
collective and positive struggle. As such they can only be made real by the participation
and empowerment of the community at large, particularly of those people whose
rights are violated most. People’s involvement in large number can assist in
changing the exploitative power relationships in society that deny rights of majority.
Development in context of rights
Concept of development in context of rights need not be understood in
simple terms of growth in individual or collective incomes or fair access to material
resources. Rather it is about augmenting people’s possibilities and capacities
to make the most of their potential to live as full creative human beings and
to come together to build caring, supportive governance mechanism which is
accountable to needs of its citizens. The concept of development had to be
deepened up to include responsiveness for people’s basic needs for survival and
aspirations for human dignity. It’s true that rights-based approach to
development builds on people’s desire for dignity and the satisfaction of their
basic needs but over time people and organisations has broadened the
traditional needs-based vision of development by expanding and reframing needs
such as food, jobs, health and respect as human rights. The need is to work to
incorporate such rights into laws and policies and to build alternatives and
change ideas and attitudes that affect their fulfilment. Recent legislature
such as Right to Education, Food Security Bill in India
Impact of approach
Rights-based approaches to development can stimulate support for more
holistic thinking in planning and action by promoting more complex analyses of
both the causes and symptoms of poverty. It also attempts to incorporate a more holistic understanding of power,
politics, human relationships, social change and its impact on inclusive growth.
It demonstrates
the need for state to engage in more collaborative work with other civil
society organisations, social movements for whole round development to make
sure that various government agencies at different levels have both the
capacity and the political will to uphold their responsibilities to protect the
rights of the poor and marginalised. The approach also
ensures a shift from a
focus on discrete projects in particular areas to looking at an organisation work
in the context of broader social change processes which promotes links across
programs and strategies to foster short and long-term change in the desired
direction. An important aspect of rights-based development incorporates a
vision of ethics and inclusiveness. Value-based in its case is grounded on the
belief that poor and marginalised people everywhere have certain rights and
responsibilities purely by being members of the human race. Many of these
economic, social, cultural and political rights have been enshrined in UN
conventions which encapsulate universal aspirations for freedom and fairness
and provide a set of guiding principles. Other rights are not enshrined in law
but are moral entitlements based on values of human dignity and equity. These
rights are though are indivisible i.e. there is no hierarchy of rights.
Right based approach is inherently a political approach that takes into
consideration prevailing power structure in the society, struggle and a vision for
a better society
as key factors in development. It is against depoliticised
interpretation of development which portrays problems as purely technical
matters that can be resolved outside the political arena without conflict when
in fact; they are rooted in differences of power, income and assets. According
to approach rights cannot be truly realised without changes in the structure
and relationships of power in all their forms. The fundamental changes in who
makes decisions, whose voice is heard, people’s sense of relative self worth and
in the confidence of people to speak out is brought at forefront through the
practice of the approach.
Interconnectedness of rights and participation approach
Rights and participation shouldn’t be seen as separate concepts and
programme approaches. They should be visualized as inherently connected and empowerment
of people in this direction is vital to their success. But unfortunately, this
connection is often lost. For example despite advocacy and campaigning recently
becoming common interventions in rights-based approaches, decision making still
often excludes those already marginalised. The question that should be raised about
empowerment and participation of people is how power is used and promoted
inside these efforts that set the agenda, who frames the strategies on issues
and using what approaches. Many advocacy approaches do little to change prevailing
power structures or dynamics in society; instead they promote a singular focus
on policy reform which often results in advocates being consumed by lobbying
when they are active members of civil society organizations, development NGOs
or, in some cases, even grassroots leaders. This focus often results in
protagonist end up joining elite groups of decision makers and spending all
energy on manoeuvring the national and international corridors of power and in
the process losing touch with their constituency and grassroots base. This not only
makes change much less likely to be sustained, but does nothing to transform necessary
power structures, leaving the marginalised as politically excluded as before
and sometimes alienated from their own leadership. Participation and
empowerment of marginalised by involved civil society organizations can play a
key role in curtailing such tendencies in practice of rights based development.
Finding the right balance between promoting the leadership and voice of the
marginalised and speaking on their behalf can be crucial in such circumstances.
Summing up
Right based development is an effort in the right direction. The rights
earned through people struggle need to be continuously deepened up to make them
more effective in addressing grievances of people especially marginalised
section of them. It should also be seen through constant monitoring and
evaluation that the efforts of civil society organizations doesn’t end up being
mere rhetoric at high end of policy making but is able to make real impact to
the life of people. This can be ensured best when practice of right based
approach to development as an organic link with the empowerment and participation
of people.
By Saurabh Naruka
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