Ethics and planning education in India

Abstract

In the profession of planning, a highly political activity, decisions invariably entail ethical decisions. The sensitization of students toward ethical dilemmas has become more critical as increasing urbanization and large agglomerations require more complex decision making for development. With many actors intervening in planning decisions, planning practice today faces many pressures particularly in the context of privatization and real estate interests influencing decisions related with land use, development controls, etc. This paper, in the first section, provides an introduction to professional ethics. In planning education, articulation of professional ethics is through the syllabi. It reviews syllabi of undergraduate program of selected planning institutes. Many of the curricula invariably include a course on professional practice with a module on code of conduct. Discussion on ethics is not easy because it can easily degenerate into a cliché’ on one hand and is extremely challenging to incorporate into every day life on the other. This is particularly true when the social context in which the planning education and profession is situated places insignificant importance to the question of values. Third section with the help of examples from plan making of Delhi highlights the context of practice and the challenges this practice imposes on teaching of planning ethics. Fourth section suggests moving from mere familiarity to code of conduct to much more intensive teaching of ethics through experiential learning and case study method for the students to develop skills to undertake ethical decision making. This paper concludes that for planning to gain more legitimacy as a profession in the present context, planning education needs to give greater importance to the question of ethics in planning in India and suggests an approach to teaching of professional ethics.