Q. With reference to the popular movements started by voluntary organisations in India post independence, consider the following statements:
Which of the above given statements is/are incorrect?
Explanation: Popular voluntary organisations like Bharatiya Kisan Union, anti-arrack movement and Narmada Bachao Andolan chose to remain outside party politics. They did not contest elections at the local or regional level nor did they support any one political party. Hence, these organisations were called ‘non-party political formations’.
Statement 1 is correct: The model of planned development that we adopted after Independence was based on twin goals of growth and distribution. In spite of the impressive growth in many sectors of economy in the first twenty years of independence, poverty and inequalities persisted on a large scale. Benefits of economic growth did not reach evenly to all sections of society. Existing social inequalities like caste and gender sharpened and complicated the issues of poverty in many ways. A sense of injustice and deprivation grew among different groups.
Statement 2 is incorrect: Students and young political activists from various sections of the society were in the forefront in organising the marginalised sections such as Dalits and Adivasis. The middle class young activists launched service organisations and constructive programmes among rural poor. For example, anti-arrack movement focussed on the interior villages of Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh demanding a ban on the sale of alcohol. Chipko movement began in two or three villages of Uttarakhand when the forest department refused permission to the villagers to fell ash trees for making agricultural tools.