Development as freedom
Topic: Human Development: Concept, Approaches and Measurement · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Human Development"
Meaning
Development as freedom is Amartya Sen's idea that expanding people's freedoms is both the main aim of development and its best tool. Poverty, lack of education, social discrimination and weak institutions are "unfreedoms", because they limit what people can choose to be and do. It is also the title of Sen's 1999 book. The book lists five instrumental freedoms, which are freedoms that help people gain other freedoms: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees (openness and trust in dealings) and protective security (a safety net in hard times).
Example
An uneducated girl in a poor village cannot choose to become a doctor, because lack of schooling has taken away that choice. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, launched at Panipat in Haryana on 22 January 2015, tries to remove such unfreedoms for girls.
Don't confuse with
- Welfare approach: the welfare approach treats people as passive receivers of government spending. Development as freedom treats people as agents who make their own choices.