4. Change in democracy
Nilekani also argued that the notion of democracy had also undergone a major transformation from the time of India's independence. "In the 1950s and 1960s, it was really a top-down idea. It was an idea of the leaders who had a certain vision of the kind of country they wanted to create, and it was given or gifted to all the people who may not have necessarily understood the value and import of what was happening."
Today, he said, "it has gone to become a bottom-up democracy where everybody understands their democratic rights -- not just in the sense of parliamentary democracy or contesting elections. You see people taking charge and doing things in India without waiting for the state to do the job. For example, NGOs (non-governmental organizations). Today, India, is the most thriving place in the world for NGOs."
"Another example," he pointed out, "is the empowerment at the village level -- the village panchayats -- more then a million women who are there in these panchayats."
Image: Indian school children wear 'Stop Child Labour' masks. | Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images
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