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….