Deveiopment planning in India, as in other developing
countries, has generally been aimed at fostering an
industrially-oriented policy as the engine of economic growth. This
one-sided economic development, which results in capital formation,
creation of urban elites, and underprivileged social classes of a modern
society, has led to distortions in the social structure as a whole. On
the contrary, as a result of this uneven economic development, which is
narrowly measured in terms of economic growth and capital formation, the
fruits of development have gone to the people according to their
economic power and position in the social structure: those occupying
higher positions benefiting much more than those occupying the lower
ones. Thus, development planning has tended to increase inequalities and
has sharpened divisive tendencies. Victor S. D'Souza, an eminent Indian
sociologist, utilizing the Indian census data of 1961, 1971, and 1981,
examines the problem of structural inequality with particular reference
to the Indian Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - the two most
underprivileged sections of the present Indian society which, according
to the census of 1981, comprised 15.75 percent and 7.76 percent of
India's population respectively. Theoretically, he takes the concept of
development in a broad sense as related to the self-fulfIlment of the
individual. The transformation of the unjust social structure, the
levelling down of glaring economic and social inequalities, and the
concern for the development of the underprivileged are for the author
the basic elements of a planned development. This is the theoretical
perspective of the first chapter, "Development Planning and Social
Transformation".
