very very thanks to Dr. Kavita Y. Suchak. (Ph. D)
Many grandiose visions have been developed
to depict how humans have shaped destiny in the new century that is
fast approaching. These visions are based on scenario involving highly
sophisticated breakthrough with vast potentials – colonies in space,
robot operated plants, computers that match human intelligence and so
on. Major question is whether such scientific and technological
advancements are based on a position where man and machine co-operate
with each other or has machine overpowered man? The unprecedented growth
in world consumption and production is leading to environmental stress
through impacts that are both global and local. Some kinds of
environmental degradation are truly of global concern, such as global
warming and depletion of the ozone layer. Others are international –
acid raid, the state of ocean, in several countries. Others are more
localized,- air pollution, water pollution, soil degradation,
desertification and so on.
The emergence of environmental concerns
during the past two decades has led several people to question whether
growth of the cost imposed on the environment through depletion of
non-renewable natural resources. A question also arises whether poverty
and environmental degradation are inter related? What is the relation
between environment and economic growth. The inter relationship between
poverty, environment and development has also been recognised.
The inter relationship between poverty and
environment has been recognised by the World Commission on Environment
and Development Report as “poverty is a major cause and effect of global
environmental problem.”2
The interrelationship between the
exploitation and degradation of environment and natural resources, on
the one hand, and development and poverty, on the other, is particularly
relevant in the rural areas of developing countries.3 The linkage
between poverty and environment defines a particular characteristic of
environmental disruption. In rural areas, these linkage materialise
through the over exploitation of resources.
At the international and national levels,
1992 was a vibrant year as environmental concern, the conservation
strategy and policy statement on environment and development were
presented to parliament during his period.4 One of the more positive
approaches was the radical concept of economic development.
“...sustainable development as an approach to environment implies
meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generation to meet their needs.”5 Poor people are pushed towards
the exploitation of marginal areas of low productivity, tend to over
exploit the natural resources resulting in a consequent decline in
productivity. Cyclical relationship between poverty and environmental
degradation takes place. As poverty increases, natural environment
degrades, the prospects for further livelihood decline. Environmental
degradation generates more poverty. At least 500 million of the world's
poorest people live in ecologically marginal areas.
Another reason for environmental pollution
and degradation is over utilisation of renewable resources. The use of
firewood – the use of most renewable resource is driven by expanding
population. Within 40 years the amount of cropland available per person
is projected to fall by half from today’s already meagre 0.27 hectare.
Soil degradation has reduced the availability of agricultural land per
capita. By 2050 more than 2 billion people will live in regions facing
land scarcity, with extensive and increasing desertification and land
degradation, particularly in parts of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,
about a third of the earth’s original forest have disappeared.
Two-fifths of the worlds people depend on water absorbed by the mountain
ranges. But when the trees have been felled, rain water sheet off the
land, causing floods and droughts. Tens of millions of hectares in India
have become more vulnerable to flooding as a result of deforestation.
The overuse of fertiliser causes great
water pollution problems. Heavy use of phosphatic fertiliser have
appeared in ground water in six districts in West Bengal, killing some
of those drinking water. If this trend continues, world may see a five
fold increase in waste generation ozone layer has thinned by 10% over
temperate region. The ultraviolet light is also a major cause of
cataracts, which cause more than half the blindness in the world and
claim sight of 17 million people every year. It penetrates surface of
the sea, killing the plankton which is vital in the food chain.
Rapid industrialization in many countries
has greatly increased pollution. Vehicle exhaust, coal burning and smoke
from factories form small particles in the air that cause serious
health damage. Air pollution from industrial emission, car exhaust and
burning of fuels kills more than 2.7 million people every year from
respiratory damage, heart and lung damage and cancer. Besides harming
human health, air pollution causes direct economic losses. Germany loses
an estimated $4.7 billion in agricultural production every year as a
result of air pollution; Poland $2 billion, Italy $1.8 billion and
Sweden $41.5 billion. Polluted air drifts across national frontiers,
with emission of sulphur dioxide in one country raining acid on another.
Acid deposition are particularly high in industrial areas such as
south-east china, North-East India, and Thailand. The effects are felt
in agricultural. In India wheat yields have been cut in half in areas
close to large sources of sulphur dioxide emission.
Global warming is one of the most serious
of all the environmental challenges. It threatens to disrupt the
remarkably stable climate the world has enjoyed since last 10,000 years.
And in is likely to cause widespread economic, social and environmental
destruction over the next century. By the estimates, the world's
harvest will be slightly reduced in next century. A recent study
predicts that harvest will decline by more than 30% in India and
Pakistan. Rising seas may threaten the lives of millions in developing
countries. With a one meter rise in sea level, due in part to global
warming, Bangladesh could see its land area shrink by 17%, through it
produces only 0.3% of global emission. Egypt could see 12% of its
territory disappear under the waves.
A conservative estimate of environmental
damage in India puts the figure at more than $10 billion a year or 4.5%
of GDP in 1992. That is, urban air pollution costs India $1.3 billion a
year. Water degradation leads to health costs amounting to $5.7b every
year, nearly three fifths of the total environmental costs. Soil erosion
affects 83-163 million hectares of land every year. Deforestation,
which proceeded at the rate of 0.6% a year between 1981 and 1990, leads
to annual costs of $214 million.
It should be noted that renewable sources
of energy, evils of large scale industrialisation and dangers of
environmental pollution were recognised by Gandhiji eight decades ago,
as he put more emphasis on non-violent upliftment of village economy and
the utilisation of labour-intensive technique of production.
In modern terminology, Gandhiji’s strategy
is modified in terms of pattern of growth, which preliminary uses
renewable resources and a minimum utilisation of non-renewable
resources. Though concern for the environment was not the focus of such
prescriptions, yet such strategy helped to minimize the degradation of
environment. The environment-friendly nature of Gandhian economic is
further revealed when one notes the emphasis on the ‘last man’ In such
policy, poverty has been described as the most severe polluter. The
Gandhian prescription of ‘simple living’ also attempts to put a check on
unlimited consumption and unending exploitation of natural resources.
The eminent Gandhian thinker and
economist, J.C. Kumarappa drew attention towards these critical matters
of environmental pollution and preservation of natural resources about
half a century ago and exhorted that mankind should strive for
establishing ‘Economy of permanence,’ rather than reckless destruction
of natural resources. This could be achieved by a judicious minimum use
of the non-renewable resource, thereby saving them for future generation
and adopting a productive system in which whatever is drained out of
nature is restored back through the natural process. “Work in nature
consists in the effort to put forth by the various factors – insentient
and sentient – which co-operate to complete this cycle of life. If this
cycle is broken, at any stage, at any time, consciously or
unconsciously, violence results as a consequence of such a break. When
violence intervenes in this way, growth or progress is stopped, ending
finally in destruction and waste... Self-interest and self preservation
demand complete non-violence, co-operation and submission, to the ways
of nature if we are to maintain permanency by non-interference with and
by not short-circuiting the cycle of life.6 Whatever is drawn out of
nature is to be recycled through the natural process.
Local raw material should be processed
locally. What could not be producted in a decentralized system could be
producted by centralised or capital-intensive method of production.
While clarifying his views, he had previously asserted that “..... I do
visualise electricity, ship-building, machine-making and the like
existing side by side village craft ..... they should not be used as a
means of exploitation of others.”7 He also noted that “..... the heavy
machinery for the work of a public utility which can not be undertaken
by human labour has its inevitable place. But all that should be owned
by the state and used entirely for the benefit of the people.”8 Equal
distribution of income and wealth go hand-in-hand with proper balance
between centralised and decentralized methods of production in urban and
rural areas
respectively for the welfare of the masses.
Gandhiji’s emphasis on labour intensive of
production does not indicate that he was advocating obsolete machinery
with less productivity. He was in favour of simple tools, which save
individual labour and lighten the burden of millions of cottages.9 While
clarifying the role of machinery, he mentioned that “mechanisation is
good when the hands are few for the work intended to be accomplished. It
is an evil when there are more hands than required for the works, as is
the case in India. The problem is how to utilize their idle hours,
which are equal to the working days of six months in the year.”10 He was
against the craze for machinery in a labour-surplus economy like India
and accepted the utilisation of modern tools and implements provided
they help in reducing unnecessary human labour. He wanted production by
the masses and not mass production. Here, it should be noted that the
adoption of labour-intensive technique of production to create job
opportunities was suggested by World Development Report – 1990,
especially to developing countries. It was pointed out that “...Against
the background of achievement, is all the more staggering, shameful that
more than one billion people in the developing world are living in
poverty. Progress in raising average in comes, however welcome, must not
distract attention from this massive and continuing burden of
poverty.11 For removal of poverty and unemployment, it was suggested
that” .....rapid and politically sustainable progress on poverty has
been achieved by pursuing a strategy that has two equally important
elements. The first element is to promote the productive use of the
poor’s most abundant asset, labour. It calls for policies that harness
market incentives, social and political institutions, infrastructure and
technology to that end .....switching to an efficient, labour intensive
pattern of development and investing more in the human capital of the
poor are not only consistent with faster long term growth, they
contributed to it”.12 It was further noted “since labour is an abundant
resource, encouraging its use is generally consistent with rapid and
efficient growth.13 Indian Planners are not unfamiliar with these views
and suggestions. They were discussed by Gandhiji over eight decades ago,
initially in Hind Swaraj and then in Young India and Harijan with
special focus on Khadi and village industries. He stated “I have not
contemplated, much less advised the abandonment of a single, healthy,
life-giving industrial activity for the sake of hand-spinning. The
entire foundation of the spinning-wheel rests on the fact that there are
cores of semi-unemployment people in India..... the spinning wheel is
destructive of no enterprise whatever. It is life-giving activity”
The essence of the Gandhian approach to
technological progress lies in treating Nature as a friend and
benefactor. This approach is opposite to what we have practising so far
in the name of technology. All decentralized technological systems which
makes use of natures-in-built processes demand a settlement pattern
different from the heavily one that form our preference now. But if we
take a broader view, they can become the harbingers of a advancement,
leading development with the help of eco-friendly technology.
When the basic problems of Indian economy
are analyzed, the pattern of income distribution, inequality, poverty,
unemployment are still existing as they were when Gandhiji advocated the
spinning-wheel as a panacea for all ills. Thus, his emphasis on Khadi
and village industries was not a temporary measure, but a permanent
solution to overcome the root problems of poverty and unemployment from
India.
Foot Notes
-
Karshenas, M; Environment Development and Employment: Some conceptual issues p-22, in Bhalla, A. S. (Edi.) Environment, Employment and Development
- Bifani, P; Environmental Degradation in rural areas p-106 in Bhalla, A. S. (Edi.), Environment, Employment and Development
- Ibid; p-99
- Nayyar, K. R.; Politics of sustainable Development, Economic and political weekly, 28th May, 1994 p-1928
- Ibid: p-1327
- Kumarappa, J. C., Economy of Permanence, p-2
- Gandhi, M.K, Harijan , 27-8-1936
- Ibid, 22-6-1935
- Gandhi, M.K. Young India, 16-6-1926
- Gandhi, M.K, Harijan, 16-5-1936
- World Development Report, 1990, p-10
- Ibid; p-3
- Ibid, p-56
Bibliography
Bhalla A. S. (Edi) Technology Appropriate
for a B. N. Strategy in 'Towards Global Action for AT' Technology and
Employment Branch, I. L. O. Programme: Press, 1977
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