Learn about real-life global development challenges and innovative solutions that put people first, all in one of the most diverse and fascinating countries in the world, India.
Over the course of 7 weeks, you can earn 9 Credit Hours, take unforgettable field trips, and immerse yourself in a new culture. We’ll meet practitioners and activists; learn from NGOs and researchers; speak to politicians and bureaucrats; and get to know the country, its history, and its people.
Why Study India?
India is a country full of diversity, contradictions, and extremes: At more than 1.3 billion people, India is the world’s second-largest country, the fifth-largest economy, and the largest democracy. Comprising an entire subcontinent, India reaches from the Himalayas to the tropics, boasting mountains, deserts, flatlands, coasts, and jungles. Its constitution recognizes 22 languages, while its citizens actually speak more than 100 distinct mother tongues. It is the birthplace of four religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism — and has sizable Muslim and Christian minorities. India is home to the world’s most expensive private residence and one of the world’s largest slums, located within 10 miles of each other in Mumbai. The country’s top schools — the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — are world-class institutions that count Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems, among their alumni; but about 25 percent of the adult population remains illiterate. The Indian middle class is thought to include up to half a billion people and counting, yet the World Bank also estimates that more than 100 million people live below the poverty line of $2.15 a day. And while India is home to 6 mega-cities of 10 million or more inhabitants, more than 60 percent of its population lives in rural areas.
How do you reconcile these contrasts and understand India’s complexity? By immersing yourself in the country, its history, politics, and economy, and interacting with and learning from its people. We will spend 3 weeks in Delhi, the capital of the world’s largest democracy; 2.5 weeks in Mumbai, the dynamic financial center of world’s fifth-largest economy; and take a trip to Agra to learn about sustainable tourism in the backyard of the Taj Mahal, one of the world’s most famous monuments. Join us on a study abroad experience that teaches, challenges, inspires, and transforms.
What is People-Centered Sustainable Development?
People-centered development puts individuals and communities at the center of human development, both as beneficiaries and as drivers. It is a core value of the UN Development Program as it works toward the Sustainable Development Goals: “Human development – or the human development approach – is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities and choices.” In effect, that means that development cannot be imposed top-down, designed by policy-makers sitting continents away that do not know the place or the people. Instead, people-centered development focuses on the individuals and communities experiencing development challenges and empowers them to make choices and take actions to enrich their own lives, all while respecting culture and context.
But how do you empower communities? How do you ensure that development solutions are inclusive of marginalized groups? How do you identify the relevant stakeholders for the development process, and how do you collect the information you need from them? How do you effectively take culture into account? And how do you evaluate whether development solutions are effective? Join us on a field-based learning experience to find out what, exactly, it takes to identify development challenges and to design effective solutions that put people first.
The Program
This is a 7-week program, of which we will spend 6 weeks in India, running from early May through the end of June. You can earn 9 Credit Hours from GT faculty through a mix of lectures and field trips. This program is open to students of all backgrounds and majors. There are no prerequisites or language requirements. The following courses are offered, all of which count toward the Global Development Minor.
- INTA 3303: Political Economy of Development
- INTA 4241: Democracy in the Global South
- INTA 4744: Global Development Capstone
Want to Learn More?
If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, simply enter your email address below. We will send you details on info sessions and updates regarding the India Study Abroad program when available.