Neha Mishra1 & Anindya J Mishra2
1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. ORCID ID 0000-0001-8654-7581. Email- neha.mishra1293@gmail.com
2 Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. Email- anindya.mishra@gmail.com
Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s26n5
Abstract
The current coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a threat to the entire humanity. It has affected society at large and has created a lot of chaos and uncertainty in the world. This has created the need to restore and establish social sustainability in the society. Social sustainability is viewed as a process for creating successful places that promote people’s well-being by understanding people’s needs and wants. Here, Gandhi’s comprehensive vision for society can be related to the sustainable development approach and the social dynamics prevailing in the society amid the pandemic. As the three pillars of sustainable development- environmental, economic, and social- are interlinked, Gandhi’s ideas and principles of value-based approach and ethical living hold good in sustainable development discourse. However, though Gandhian principles and concepts have been often viewed in environmental sustainability, it is least analyzed and understood in terms of social sustainability. Therefore, the paper tries to fill this gap by focusing on building a social aspect of sustainability amid the pandemic through Gandhian perspective. This paper analyses social sustainability in terms of (a) social equity, (b) social well-being, and (c) participation by all. In this context, his idea of “Sarvodaya” is significant as it deals with social welfare, which holds importance in current pandemic days. Apart from “Sarvodaya,” Gandhi also developed an integrated view of the individual, society, and state by focusing on social harmony based upon the moral principles- love, truth, justice, and non-violence, which hold importance even today.
Keywords: Coronavirus pandemic, social sustainability, social equity, social well-being, Gandhian perspective