Science, Observer Outlook and Failure of the Social Sector Policies in India

Abstract

The attempt to harness science for societal benefit was started in India since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru. But experience compels us to think that neither the policy makers nor the scientists have adequately connected research with what society wants. While making policies not only the observer outlook, but also the difference in outlook of different stakeholders have largely been ignored. In this paper an attempt is made to relate science with observer outlook in respect of social sector policies in India. In order to cover a long period of time two such sectors are selected drinking water and sanitation where a good many no. of policies have been going on since 1951. From the analysis,it is found that soft science  has failed to communicate social needs to scientific community  through social sector policies. Rather inability of social science widens the gap between the two types of sciences. Both the type of sciences are developing parallely  while both of them boast of their scientific character. In this race,the fundamental question of  science, i.e.WHY, has lost its importance. Social sector policies are mere imposition on the society. Even the development of applied sciences are not always for the betterment of the society and even the scientists are not ready to ask themselves why it is not. Policy makers, scientists and society are not ready to play with WHY.   This contributes negatively to the integration between the two types of sciences and thereby leading to the failure of most of the policies in India.