Sustainable Development: Taming Consumption, Yearning for Inclusivity

It was in the 1940’s that a Bengali poet asked us to vouch for that which shall make the earth habitable for the child born today. The present volume is to look at the question of sustainable development from the perspective of those unable to assert their rights, would cry and perish in silence; the child in the poem. Or is it the imperilled nature/environment around us, silently bearing with the onslaught of our greed for more for consumption and comfort? The ongoing waves of COVID-19 pandemic have bared the vulnerability of the present economic and social practices, its ethics and ethos. The question is no more about whether we should change, it is about how we change, and how quickly we can. We now know that sustainability is not about accelerating the trickle down of the fruits of so-called consumerism in the name of development. Instead, inclusive development would mean inclusion of the mutes; the marginal sections of the society, and the most marginalized mute -our nature/environment. The purpose of this volume is to deliberate on issues that would provide some understanding of the economic and social environment of the days to come and ways to move forward.