Paper short abstract:

Working with children in NGOs in the slums of Delhi I was often asked whether these children were better off because of their participation in these projects. In response to this question it is worth asking 'when does development happen?’ and 'under what moral conditions do we define development?'

Paper long abstract:

Temporality and morality are central to any discussions of 'development.' In this paper I draw on my experiences with children in NGO spaces in Delhi to challenge the necessity of an evaluation of development on its own temporal and moral terms. I do not suggest that the ideal of 'better off' is irrelevant or entirely compromised by its place within a developmental temporality but rather point to the ways that for the children I worked with development wasn't about being better off in the future, but making the most of the present.

In the 'Media' NGO in which I worked, children were trained in story telling, acting and performance. Here development was not a future but a staging of the present. Extrapolating from my experiences in this organisation, I look more broadly to the phenomenon of what I call 'extra-curricular NGOs': organisations, which engaged poor children in activities, like sport, dancing, acting and music. These organisations promoted alternative pathways and subjectivities built around the possibility of dreams coming true. To criticise these organisations as deceitful: proffering dreams instead of concrete efforts to ameliorate poor living conditions, would suggest that these children have been deceived. This I argue is not the case. The children I worked with were above all pragmatists; their participation was context dependent and defined by a range of considerations of which affirming NGO agendas was only one. To answer the question 'when does development happen?' this paper points to 'moments' rather than trajectories, presents rather than futures.