Development Policy Planning & practice

Q: Why Are you interested in pursuing the course

My long-term career goal is to become a policy-maker or policy-analyst and contribute to this field as this is, in my knowledge, the sole area with which we can foster development in our country. I perceive this area as a ladder of development and I wish to see our nation walk on the path of progress and it can only be possible when all members residing in this country live in harmony and peace. .

I am looking forward to pursue this course as it would serve as a means to develop disciplinary, multi-disciplinary perspective; empower me to bring a change foster the development of critical understanding of issues policies face in implementation at grassroots level.

India is a developing country accommodating over 120 crore people and I am, with all proofs, a member of this country and consider myself equally responsible as others for letting the weeds of development growing. When I state developing, I acknowledge the fact that its still developing and has a lot of uncovered issues to work upon in order to foster development and come across various challenges. Unlike developed countries, its task is not just to maintain, but also to work forth in order to meet the needs of people and hear the voice of marginalized section of country. I would like to state the issues India is facing which we are not unaware of and need dire attention. These are Population, Poverty, Education, Unemployment and Corruption and all of them affect each other in some or other way. In order to bring harmony and well-being, it is an alarming time to bring change.

My interest is not just limited to knowing the policies formulated in country but also the process it undergoes, how it is being implemented and the challenges policy makers face throughout the process. Since, well-being of all members of society is one of the major steps of our agenda, the kind of short-comings faced during the execution or implementation of policies so far, I believe, is an important factor to analyze in order to work on it and improve the process of implementation. When I mention well-being of all, I mean all the people sharing the country, irrespective of age, class, creed, race, religion, gender, socio-economic background. I do understand that planning a policy for people living in diverse regions and facing different kind of issues is no easy task as the process includes formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. I argue about the loop holes this process have, the reasons of its failure right after formulation at next level- implementation. I wish to upgrade my knowledge, skills in this area; sharpen my critical lens while working in this sector and bring changes.

I belong to a nuclear family with one elder sister and two brothers. Ihailed up in Delhi NCR region learning various phases of developmentand growth in the metro city of Delhi. I was inclined towardsinnovations since my childhood. I always prefer to do extra-curricularefforts along with regular school and college activities. My interestled me joined technical education to shape up my technical thoughts.In my family social service culture was promoted by my father and mysister also joined hands in the same sector. I always discarddiscrimination based on caste creed, rich & poor and gender.

A turning point in my life inclined me towards working for socialcause. While going through streets of the city we often find streetchildren. Once during Diwali festival season when we were out forexchanging gifts, I found a brother and sister by the side of roadwhere brother was convincing the sister who was crying by giving arupee 2 coin. The girl was so happy to get it and exclaimed that shewill buy a dress for Diwali from it. I was touched from inside to seehow they are keeping themselves happy in meager situations. Thisincidence led me to touch base with local slums and sociallychallenged communities. My exposure to slums and other similarsettlements where basic needs were lacking opened my vision tounderstand process of development is purely lacking for sociallychallenged communities. However, being a citizen of the country theyequally deserve the better living conditions and source of livelihoodbut they totally lack process of development. During my engagementwith the organization I contributed voluntarily to learn various needsof the community. There I found that process of development is slowand at times does not exist in such habitations. The organizationsworking in the area are delivering set activities due to paucity offunds.

I aim to enhance my technical skill attained during Bachelors withprofessional qualification of development policy, planning andpractice to understand various facets of development process andimplement the same for welfare of the marginalized sections.

Q. Mention any work done

My inclination towards social sector developed from within my family.My father is active social mobilizers and generalist who alwaysadvocate on social issues of communities. During my final year ofstudy, I got attached with an NGO, working closely with slums of NCRregion. The NGO was running various development programs fordevelopment of poor community. I volunteered for 8 months during mycollege and immediately after it to support girl children and womengroups in building their skills for alternative sources of incomegeneration. I have my childhood hobby of utilizing scrap material anddesign various useful material for home decoration and toys forchildren. Hence, I utilized the same to impart training to groups toestablish their small scale home business. During my exposure I alsocame to know about different basic issues of community such as water &sanitation, electric supply, process of resettlement and advocacy withGovernment to reset such communities. I want to prepare myself forbroader issues of community through learning from the desired coursein interactive environment

Q. 13 Biographical sketch

Ms Sakshi Chaudhary earned her Bachelors of Technology in electronicsand communications from Uttar Pradesh Technical University. Shecompleted her schooling from Delhi. Sakshi belongs to a nuclear familywith one sister and two brothers. She is a fun loving and creativeperson. Sakshi has led school and college groups during various forumsand has been house captain during school and vice-president during hercollege for college technical society and head for inter-collegetechnical society. She has been proactive in extra-curricularactivities during her studies and has won several awards for herperformance.

Sakshi has organized various cultural events such as college fest,fashion week and traditional art design during her college time andher hobbies includes painting, art work and reading books. Sakshibelongs to a close-knit family of six members. Her father and sisterare involved in social sector, brothers are in college and mother is ahomemaker.

Sakshi is an optimistic girl and love to accept challenges in herlife. She has undergone a medical condition which made her completelybed ridden but due to her will power and commitment, she is back inlife enthusiastically. She love innovations and creativeness and islinked with institutions/NGOs to deliver her services in the form ofimparting art skill, educating children and empowering girls.

Her short term goal is to sharpen her skills through professionalqualification in the development sector and work closely with sociallymarginalized sections and she forecast herself to establish aninstitution where skill transfer options may be available for poor andneedy people to earn their livelihood.