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Ecological SwarajEscaping the Globalised ‘Development’ Trap
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh
Today’s vision of ‘development’
Violence against nature, communities, and
cultures
Destruction of India’s environment
– >5.5 million ha. forest diverted in last 60 years
– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out
– 40% mangroves destroyed
– Some of the world’s most polluted cities and coasts
– Nearly 10% wildlife threatened with extinction
– Extensive chemical poisoning
Smitu Kothari
Cost of environmental damage
= 5.7% points GDPWorld Bank (2013)
(only limited parameters taken)
Growthless
growth
Growing inequality, continuing
deprivation, new dispossession
• Myth of growing employment: ‘jobless growth’ in organised sector:– 26.7 million in 1991
– 30 million in 2012
• % below poverty line: 38 to 70%
• Wealth inequities: – top 10% own 53% wealth
– bottom 10% own 0.2%
• World’s largest number of malnourished and undernourished women/children
• 60 million people displaced by ‘development’ projects
• Rampant consumerism amongst rich
India, the new Coloniser
(joining China, Japan…)
Indian company landgrab (with govt help):
500,000 ha in Ethiopia for floriculture,
sugarcane, palm oil, cotton …
World’s biggest coal mine in Australia (on
tribal lands, affecting Great Barrier Reef)
Mines, industries, dams in many other
countries
All affecting communities and nature
India (& China, etc) on the path
of ‘globalised development’?
Gandhi:
‘if India is to take Britain’s path of
‘development’, it will strip the
world bare like locusts’
Towards alternatives
Food security:
sustainable agriculture
•Reviving traditional diversity, promoting cultivated and wild foods
•Creating community grain banks
•Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights
•Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant)
•Linking to Public Distribution System
Deccan Development Society (AP): integrating conservation, equity, &
livelihoods through sustainable agriculture
Can India feed itself?
•Organic farming can be highly productive
•Integrated food systems (crop-livestock-fish)
•Rescuing land from non-food cash crops
•Encouraging diversity of food habits
Water security: decentralised
harvesting & distribution
Kachchh
Water self-sufficiency in one of
India’s lowest rainfall regions
Arvari Sansad (Parliament),
Rajasthan: water and food
security through
landscape governance
Natural resource security &
nature conservation
www.kalpavriksh.org
Self-rule & decentralised governance:
Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)
Informed decisions
through monitoring, and
regular study circles
(abhyas gat)
All decisions in gram
sabha (village assembly);
no activity even by
government officials
without sabha consent
Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights
under Forest Rights Act
Vivek Gour-Broome
Earnings from sustainable NTPF use (over Rs. 1
crore in 2011-12), and use of govt schemes
towards:
•Full employment
•Biogas for 80% households
•Computer training centre
•Training as barefoot engineers
2013: all agricultural land donated to
village, collective ownership
Livelihood security
Jharcraft (Jharkhand)
Employment for 2.5 lakh families…
reviving crafts, reducing outmigration
Dharani, AP: farmer’s company(facilitated by Timbaktu Collective)
Khamir/Kasab, Kachchh: secure
livelihoods for craftspersons
Facilitated by Sahjeevan, Kachchh Mahila
Vikas Sangathan, and others
Gram swaraj (village self-rule):
outmigration is not inevitable
Ralegan Siddhi and Hivare Bazaar
(Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN)
Towards sustainable cities
Bhuj (Kachchh):
•reviving watersheds, decentralized water storage and management
•solid waste management and sanitation
•livelihoods for poor women
•dignified housing for poor
•Information-based empowerment under 74th Amendment
(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)
Towards sustainable cities…
Decentralised water harvesting, Chennai
Participatory budgeting, Bengaluru/Pune
But a lot more to be done…. public transport,
energy, urban agriculture, zero-waste
colonies, ecofriendly architecture
Dignified livelihoods & social status for
urban poorwomen
dalit
homeless
Kagaj Kach Patra Kashtakari
Panchayat
&
Swach
(Pune)
Learning & education Traditional and modern, oral and written, local and global
Continued links with cultural, civilisational and ecological roots
•Pachashala, AP
•Jeevanshala, Narmada
•Adivasi Academy, Guj
•Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand
•Bhoomi College, Karnataka
Energy, technology…
Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact,
reach the poor (malkha cotton weaving, AP;
Hunnarshala housing, Kachchh)
Energy: decentralised, renewable, efficient (Ladakh solar; Bihar integrated; SELCO Karnataka)
None perfect …. not yet
coalescing into transformative
political mass…
but show potential for fundamental
transformation
The government
responds…
• New laws:
– Right to Information Act
– National Employment Guarantee Act
– Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers
(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006
• New programmes:
– Organic farming policies / programmes in 16
states: Sikkim 100% by 2015, Kerala by 2020?
– Communitisation in Nagaland
– Compulsory urban water harvesting, incentives
for renewable energy
Radical Ecological Democracy
or
Ecological Swaraj
radical = to the roots
• achieving human well-being, through :
– empowering all citizens to participate in decision-
making
– ensuring equitable distribution of wealth
– respecting limits of the earth and rights of nature
Recipe for transformational alternatives:
Ingredient 1. A NEW POLITICS
Swaraj
“Our government in Mumbai
and Delhi, we are the
government in our village”
A NEW POLITICS
Direct democracy (local): decentralised and nested decision-
making
Direct democracy (state/national): referendums &
deliberative processes
Delegated/representative democracy, with mechanisms of
accountability (right to recall, public audit, reporting back…)
Ecoregional planning across states and countries … political
boundaries aligned with ecological and cultural ones?
Ingredient 2.
A NEW ECONOMICS OF PERMANENCE*
Earthshastra: Economics as if
the earth mattered
* JC Kumarappa
A NEW ECONOMICS
Mindful of ecological / planetary limits, away from
growth addiction
Localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic
needs
Production, consumption (prosumption) locally
controlled; & sustainable consumption line?
Demonetisation: Relations of caring/sharing, local
exchange systems, restructuring the market (haat)
A new economics (contd)…
Alternatives to GDP / growth-led model
•National Accounts of Well-being
•Gross National Happiness
•Genuine Progress Indicators
•Buen vivir
•Degrowth
•Solidarity Economies
•Others….
Ingredient 3. A JUST SOCIETY
When people go hungry, it is
not food but justice that is in
short supply
A JUST SOCIETY
Towards equity amongst
classes
castes
women and men
ethnic groups
species
Towards universal rights-based approaches, infused with
responsibilities
Ingredient 4. WAYS OF
KNOWING
Diverse
knowledges,
diverse
cultures
CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE
Relinking with rest of nature
Mix of tradition and modernity … both critically
examined
Democratic R&D / S&T / knowledge / innovation: in
public domain, participatory, transparent
Alternative media and arts
Opportunities for spiritual / ethical growth (without
falling into trap of communal religious institutions)
Don’t forget the spices!
Values & principles….
• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basics
• Cooperation, solidarity, the ‘commons’
• Rights with responsibilities
• Dignity of labour & respect of subsistence
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness (samriddhi)
• Equity & social justice
• Simplicity, ‘enoughness’ (aparigraha)
• Respect for all life forms
(add your own spices…)
Pathways to ecological swaraj….
• People’s resistance (Vedanta/POSCO, Orissa; anti-SEZ;
hundreds of others)
• Stretching limits of system (RTI, FRA)
• Citizens’ networking, joint actions, collective
visioning
• Empowering political carriers of new visions ….
movements, students, unions, etc
• Alternatives confluences (vikalp sangam)
1st Vikalp Sangam: Timbaktu, Andhra
Pradesh, Oct 2014
Mutual learning with others ….
• Latin American experiments: direct and delegated
democracy, worker-led production, community health, land re-
appropriation movements
• Europe’s degrowth movement
• Cuba’s urban agriculture, public R&D
• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions
of well-being (buen vivir, sumak kawsay, ubuntu …)
• Many others….
Issues for dialogue….
Will private corporate sector have a role?
Will the state have a role; if so, what will be its nature?
What is the role of the ‘middle classes’?
What ‘political’ forces will lead the way? Role of parties? Trade
unions?
What will be the nature of globalisation?
India is in a unique position to
evolve alternative models of well-
being with sustainability & equity …
collaborating with other countries
and peoples
• www.vikalpsangam.org
(or www.alternativesindia.org)
• www.kalpavriksh.org
• chikikothari@gmail.com
For more information….
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