The name of J.C.Kumarappa
and his take on the different kinds of economy, especially predatory
economy figures in this recent op-ed article. Modern business practices (karma)
are setting on boil, the entire world. It is reported that India has succumbed
to US interests, in the WTO round at Bali. Very bad !!!!
Towards an economy of mutualism (Dec 04, 2013, The Hindu)
by MADHAV GADGIL
J.C.
Kumarappa, the Gandhian economist who worked with the Planning
Commission in the early years of Indian Independence, favoured
industrialisation but insisted that its pursuit should not lead to the creation
of an economy of violence. Recent disturbances linked to control over, and fate
of, the rich water, mineral, forest and biodiversity resources of the Western
Ghats of Kerala suggest that Kumarappa’s worst fears of a lopsided development
have come true. As Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz emphasises in his recent
book, The Price of Inequality , any nation must aim at a
harmonious development of its four capital stocks: not just man-made capital
that GDP highlights, but natural capital, human capital and social capital as
well. A GDP-centric viewpoint focusses exclusively on economic activity in the
organised industries-services sector.
Chembanmudy quarries
As for employment, there is little for local community
members. Most of the small number of labour employed is from tribal tracts of
Orissa or Jharkhand, people whose livelihood has been destroyed by rampant
mining in their own native districts. There are horror stories making rounds of
how this disorganised labour force is ill-treated, with no compensation for
accidental injuries or even death. Indeed, the claim that India’s rapid
economic growth is helping create much-needed employment is dubious; the annual
rate of growth in employment in the organised sector that was 2 per cent when
the GDP was growing at 3 per cent, actually declined to one per cent as the GDP
growth rate soared to 7 per cent. So what we are witnessing is jobless growth,
with accompanying erosion of human and social capital.
Social capital resides in social harmony, cooperation and
trust. These too are suffering under the prevalent economy of violence. This
economy is promoting grabbing and spoiling of land, water, mineral and forest
resources to benefit a few, at the cost of the larger society. This is being facilitated
by lawlessness and social injustice: witness the very large number of illegal
quarries currently operational in Kerala, estimated at 1,700 out of a total
2,700 functional quarries. The disinformation campaign focussing first on our
Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report, and now on the Kasturirangan
report, and the violence that has been triggered suggest that social disharmony
has become the order of the day.
WGEEP points out that we are currently practising
“Development by Exclusion, accompanied by Conservation by Exclusion.” This is
because the many powerful interests that control decision-making today are not
motivated to pursue development that would create mutually beneficial
relationships among the beneficiaries of the organised industries-services
sector and the bulk of our people dependent for their livelihoods and
well-being on a healthy base of the natural resources. Nor are the
powers-that-be properly informed of the realities at the ground level. This
prevails all over the country, despite our well-entrenched democracy and the
many constitutional and legal provisions to protect the environment and engage
people in decision-making processes that are a result of a sensitivity towards
what the people want.
Of all the States, it is Kerala that has led the country in
democratic devolution and has made considerable progress in ensuring that
people can influence the course of development and protect their environment
and livelihoods. A notable example of this is the Plachimada panchayat in Palakkad district, where a Coca
Cola plant had polluted as well as depleted groundwater, with consequent
drying up of wells, loss of agricultural productivity and concomitant negative
impacts on livelihoods. The people of Plachimada ensured that there was a
proper scientific inquiry into the losses suffered by them. This provided sound
scientific evidence that these losses amount to a whopping Rs. 260 crore. On
the basis of this evidence, the panchayat rescinded the company’s licence.
Notably enough, initially none of the political parties backed the people’s
demands, but came round when confronted with a groundswell of sentiment. While
cancelling the licence, the panchayat evoked its constitutional rights, arguing
that as a local elected government it had the duty to protect the well-being of
its subjects. So it had the right to cancel — or refuse permission to —
anything that affected its subjects adversely. The company’s counter-argument
was that the panchayat was a subordinate of the State government and thus could
not operate out of its domain, since the State government had granted the
licence for Coca Cola to operate. The High Court rejected this argument,
affirming that people at the grassroots indeed have the authority to decide on
the course of development in their localities.
The powers-that-be today would like to set aside these
significant constitutional provisions empowering the people and helping them
protect their environment. Instead, they are promoting a GDP-centric approach
with little concern for natural, human, social capital. This is reflected in
the rhetorical — and unconstitutional — question posed by the Kasturirangan
panel: “How can local communities have any role in economic decision-making?” Evidently, the Kasturirangan
panel wishes to facilitate the continuance of the present system of a predatory economy, but was obliged to prescribe
some minimal level of protection for natural resources. Quite typically,
this protection is proposed to be imposed from above and is not decided upon
through a democratic process. But even this minimal protection is unacceptable
to the beneficiaries of the current system who triggered the recent violence.
Duty to inform
Such lopsided development is clearly against broader
national interests and since it is people at the grassroots that are best aware
of what is happening to the natural, human and social capital, their inputs are
critical to arriving at a development strategy that will promote a harmonious,
balanced development. The sole duty of those wielding power should, therefore,
be to inform the populace of all relevant facts and of the various
development-conservation alternatives. Hence, WGEEP has explicitly stated that
“we should attempt to develop a model of conservation and development compatible
with each other … to replace the prevailing ‘Develop recklessly – conserve
thoughtlessly’ pattern with one of ‘Develop sustainably – conserve
thoughtfully’. The fine-tuning of development-conservation practices to [the]
local context that this calls for would require the full involvement of local
communities. It is therefore quite inappropriate to depend exclusively on
government agencies for the constitution and management of Ecologically
Sensitive Zones. Instead the final demarcation of the Zones and fine tuning of
the regulatory as well as promotional regimes must be based on extensive inputs
from local communities and local bodies.”
An important focus of the development of the Western Ghats
tracts of Kerala should therefore be on properly informing and organising
people down to the grassroots level to exercise their democratic rights. A
well-informed and empowered citizenry will ensure that the environment is
properly cared for even as we continue to industrialise, as has happened in
Germany and the Scandinavian countries. What we need to concentrate on is
implementing that which by all rights must be implemented, namely, the
constitutional provisions for protecting the environment and empowering the
people.
Of course, India must continue to develop a vibrant
technology-based economy as well. Inevitably, this will end up employing only a
small proportion of our people. But this modern economy must come to assume a
mutualistic, and not predatory, role towards the natural resource-based, labour
intensive sector of the economy. That is the only route to balanced and
harmonious economic and social development.
(Madhav Gadgil is Chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology
Expert Panel. madhav.gadgil@gmail.com)
Modern economy must come to assume
a mutualistic, and not a predatory, role toward the
natural resource-based,
labour-intensive sector of the economy
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/towards-an-economy-of-mutualism/article5419751.ece
No comments:
Post a Comment