Saturday, December 17, 2011
Seminar on Future of Development in Kerala( 19-20 December)
Bodhigram Seminar Series
Future of Development in Kerala
December 19-20,
Venue: Bodhigram Centre, Thuvayoor, Adoor
The key objective of the Seminar is to initiate a wider discussion, debates and searches about the opportunities, challenges and options of building an economically, socially and politically empowered and sustainable Kerala in the next thirty years. The world and India are in the midst of rather precarious and profound transition, with an implication for society, economy and political process in the next fifty years.
While Kerala has made very significant achievement in the areas of socio-economic development in the first fifty years after the independence, the society of Kerala are facing new challenges in terms of human development, governance, agricultural, sustainability of economy, ecology and infrastructure. So the seminar is an effort to review our present context so that we can renew our initiatives, ideas, and collective efforts across the spectrum to evolve more political and policy coherence and consensus on key areas of the future development of Kerala.
The specific Objectives of Seminars are the following:
1) Provide a shared learning space to discuss perspective, ideas and policy options for Kerala with a long term perspective of the next thirty years ( 2040)
2) To understand the dynamics of population, society, ecology, energy needs and economy in the next ten years.
3) To identify possible policy and political options to build an economically vibrant, socially empowered and environmentally sustainable Kerala.
4) To identify areas for further research to develop information base for Developing a Perspective Plan for the next twenty five years of the state.
Programme Schedule
December 19
5 pm- 7.30 Pm: Inaugural Assembly
Future of Developments: Opportunities and Options
Chair: Anto Antony MP
Welcome address: John Samuel, (Global Democratic Governance Advisor, Chief of Global Programmes on Governance Assessments UNDP, New York/Oslo)
Opening Remarks: Mr. Thiruvanchoor Radha Krishnan (Hon. Minister for Revenue)
Inauguration of Bodhigram Centre and Inaugural Address: Mr. Ommen Chandy (Hon. Chief Minister of Kerala)
Special Address: Mr. KC Joseph (Hon: Minister of Rural Development,)
Mr. Suresh Kurup ( MLA)
Mr. Chittayam Gopal Kumar (MLA)
Mr. Raju Abraham (MLA)
Prof. DK John ( former Principle, St. Cyrils College, Adoor)
9 pm to 9.30 pm: Thematic Key note Address : Mr. KM Mani ( Finance Minister of Kerala)
December 20
9.30- 11.15: Thematic Plenary:
Socio-economic Transitions in Kerala
Future of Kerala’s Development: Opportunities and Options
Chair: Dr. MA Oommen
Presentations:
Prof. V Santha Kumar, Professor, Azim-Premji University
Mr. N. K Premachandran ( Hon. Former Minister of Water Resources)
Dr. Pius Antony. UNICEF, Policy Officer, Hyderabad
Dr. TG Arun, Professor of Development Economics( Director, Institute for Global Finance and Development, UK)
Dr. N Ajith Kumar (Director, CSEES, Kochi)
11. 30 – 1 pm: Future of Health Care in Kerala:
Chair: Dr. Ram Mohan( Member, Central Council of Indian Medicines, Government of India)
Presentations: Mr. Adoor Prakash ( Hon. Minister of Health)
Dr. B Ekbal ( Former Vice Chancellor and Former member of Planning Board, Kerala)
Dr. SA Haffiz ( NRHM)
2- 3.45 Pm :Future of Media and Society in Kerala
Chair: Gouridasan Nair( Senior Assistant Editor, The Hindu)
Key note Address:
Mr. Sashi Kumar(Founder, Asia Net, Director, Asian School of Journalism)
Panellists:
Mr. NP Rajendran( Deputy Editor,Mathrubhoomi; Chair Person, Kerala Press Academy )
Mr. MG Radha Krishnan ( Associate Editor, India Today)
Mr. John Mundakkayam ( Chief of Bureau, Malayala Manorama, Trivandrum)
Mr. NP Chekkutty (Executive Editor Thejas)
Sarita Varma( Financial Express)
Mr. Damodar Prasad ( Director, EMRC, Calicut University)
4 pm- 5 pm: Future of Higher Education in Kerala
Chair: Mr. TP Sreenivasan, Vice Chairman, Kerala Council for Higher Education and Former Ambassador of India)
Presentations:
Dr. B Ekbal, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Kerala
Prof. CT Aravinda Kumar : Dean of School of Environmental Sciences, MG University
Prof. KM Seethi ( Director, School of International Studies, MG University)
5.15 to 7. 30 pm: Concluding Assembly:
Opening Remarks: MA Baby MLA( Hon. Former Minister of Culture and Education)
5.15- 6 pm: Valedictory Address
Mr. CP John( Member, Planning Board, Kerala)
Key Note Address Dr. Thomas Isaac, MLA (Hon. Former Finance Minister of Kerala)
6- 7.30 PM: Future of Culture and Society in Kerala
Key Note Address: Mr. MA Baby
Special Address: Paul Zachariah
Prof. B Rajeevan
KR Meera
Dr. CS Venkiteswran
The mission of Bodhigram Foundation is to facilitate enlightened communities, social action and policy initiatives for sustainable human development and democratic governance, through nurturing transformative leadership, knowledge process and innovative modes of socio-economic entrepreneurship.
Bodhigram seeks to nurture ethical leadership, inspiring ideas and building social and political consensus on issues that affect human beings in India and across the world. Bodhigram Foundation plans to have four specific initiatives a) Institute for Leadership and Management in Governance b) Centre for Community Tourism c) Centre for Local Governance and Development d) Centre for Cultural studies and Research.
The Bodhigram Centre is a multi-purpose campus with conference and research facilities, and meant for youth camps, Leadership development programmes, Trainings, Seminars and workshops . Bodhigram Centre also would promote Bodhigram Farm and Bodhiigram community tourism ( Indicare: www.indicarehealth.com) along with Bodhigram Ayurveda centre.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Human Rights in the Indian Context
By John Samuel
As important as civil and political rights in the Indian context are the rights of the marginalised -- women, tribals, Dalits or lower-castes, and the poor whose survival depends on access to natural resources. It is the rights of the marginalised and of the minorities in the country today that are in peril. The challenge is to empower the poor and marginalised to demand their rights and participate in the public sphere
The Constitution of India is one of the most rights-based constitutions in the world. Drafted around the same time as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Indian Constitution captures the essence of human rights in its Preamble, and the sections on Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy.
The Constitution of India is based on the principles that guided India's struggle against a colonial regime that consistently violated the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of the people of India. The freedom struggle itself was informed by the many movements for social reform, against oppressive social practices like sati (the practice of the wife following her dead husband onto the funeral pyre), child marriage, untouchability etc. Thus by the mid-1920s, the Indian National Congress had already adopted most of the civil and political rights in its agenda. The movement led by Dr B R Ambedkar (one of the founding fathers of the Constitution) against discrimination against the Dalits (the erstwhile outcasts or so-called untouchables who formed the lowest strata of the caste hierarchy and who currently number more than 170 million or 16.5% of the total population of India) also had an impact on the Indian Constitution.
In spite of the fact that most of the human rights found clear expression in the Constitution of India, the independent Indian State carried forward many colonial tendencies and power structures, including those embedded in the elite Indian Civil Service. Though the Indian State under Jawaharlal Nehru took many proactive steps and followed a welfare state model, the police and bureaucracy remained largely colonial in their approach and sought to exert control and power over citizens. The casteist, feudal and communal characteristics of the Indian polity, coupled with a colonial bureaucracy, weighed against and dampened the spirit of freedom, rights and affirmative action enshrined in the Constitution.
In the first 15 years of the Indian republic, such inherent contradictions within the Indian polity were glossed over by the euphoria of 'nation-building', an agenda generally endorsed by political parties, the middle class and elite civil society. However, when the contradictions within the Indian polity and State came into the open in the late-'60s, the oppressive character of the State began to be challenged by student movements and ultra-left formations like the Naxalite movement. When the Indian State began to suppress such expressions of political dissent and mini-rebellions, the violation of human rights by the State began to command attention.
Over a period of 30 years, the articulation and assertion of human rights within civil society has grown into a much richer, more diverse and relatively more powerful discourse at multiple levels. A brief historical sketch of the different trajectories of human rights discourse will help us locate human rights in the historical context.
There are four specific trajectories of human rights discourse in the Indian context -- Civil and Political Rights, Rights of the Marginalised (such as women, dalits and adivasis), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Right to Transparent and Accountable Governance. Though each of these trajectories is interconnected, they were promoted by different sets of actors (often with varying ideological affiliations) at different points in time. There has always been tension and lack of mutual appreciation between those who promoted civil liberties and the left-oriented groups who worked towards the structural transformation of socio-economic conditions and consequently of the State. As the concept of human rights was perceived as a western idea to gloss over inequalities and as a means of legitimising the capitalist and imperialist projects of the west (particularly the US) the left-oriented groups were clearly sceptical about human rights, particularly as expressed by the civil liberties groups. Though in some quarters such scepticism still exits, there has been a greater recognition of the need to promote and protect human rights, in spite of the misuse of the human rights discourse by the new imperialist forces.
Civil and political rights
The growing disenchantment with the Indian State that was expressed in various movements and political formations in the late-'60s and early-'70s was not tolerated by Indira Gandhi's regime. It is in this context that the movement for civil liberties led by liberal middle class intellectuals and activists became relevant. Organisations like the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) played a significant role in initiating and promoting a new discourse on civil liberties. However, many of the mainstream left parties, influenced by the socialist pretensions of Mrs Gandhi's regime, viewed the middle class movement for civil liberties as the agenda of the bourgeoisie and mistrusted the liberal voices of human rights groups as part of the American agenda. As many liberal institutions that promoted civil and political rights received funding from international agencies, the pro-establishment conservative groups as well as the leftist groups began to mistrust any organisation that received foreign funds.
The insecurity of Mrs Gandhi's regime resulted in the suppression of all dissent and the ultimate suspension of most Civil and Political Rights during the Emergency (1975-77). Almost all political opponents and activists were imprisoned and democratic rights suspended. The forced eviction of slumdwellers in Delhi and forced mass sterilisations created a sense of fear and insecurity among the people. It was during the Emergency, when every civil and political right was violated by the State, that the need to promote and fight for human rights was accepted across political classes. The civil liberties movement highlighted and challenged arbitrary detention, custodial violence and police atrocities.
In the last 20 years, the movement for civil and political rights has become much more coherent and widespread. It has grown beyond a set of urban middle class liberal intellectuals to a wide and diverse socio-political base. With the increase of insurgencies in the 1980s and the consequent State suppression of separatist movements in different parts of the country, various kinds of human rights organisations -- some genuine and some fronts for underground groups -- began to appear. The massacre of the Sikh community following the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984 raised serious questions about the role of the State in protecting the fundamental rights of citizens.
The rise of right-wing Hindu 'nationalist' forces, the biased stand of the State machinery, and the consequent communal violence all over the country in the last 15 years have given rise to a different set of actors who stress on the civil and political rights of the minorities. The complicity of the State in abetting and supporting the planned violence against the Muslim community in Gujarat in 2002, where more than 1,500 people were killed and hundreds of homes and shops destroyed and looted, brought out the contradictions inherent in the Indian polity and State. But the rise of fanatical and right-wing forces and their anti-human rights postures have, in a way, helped to bring together human rights activists across the political spectrum, including leftist groups and minority rights groups.
Public Interest Litigation and the judicial activism of the Supreme Court initiated by Justices V R Krishna Iyer and P N Bhagwati has played a major role in expanding the scope of human rights and giving it a much-needed legitimacy through some very important verdicts (on prisoners' rights, rights of landless labourers, release of bonded labourers, etc). Justice Krishna Iyer, the law minister of the first elected communist government in Kerala in 1956, was instrumental in building a new discourse that brought together the left-oriented groups and the civil liberties groups as part of the larger human rights community in India. Most of his judgements reiterated the obligation of the State to protect rights and equally, the participation of people in securing their rights and giving them meaning. The establishment of the National Commission of Human Rights under the Human Rights Act of 1993 provided a new impetus to civil and political rights in India.
Rights of the marginalised
While civil and political rights focused largely on the rights of the individual, in the mid-'70s a new human rights discourse, based on group rights, collective rights and people's rights, began to be articulated within the framework of social and political empowerment.
The emergence of the women's movement in the 1970s gave a new dimension to the rights discourse in India. In 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India submitted a report that highlighted the marginalisation of women in every sphere of life. The emergence of a number of women's groups such as Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Manushi, Joint Women's Forum etc raised a new consciousness and public debate on the issue of women's status, domestic violence, dowry, rape, custodial violence, trafficking and the invisible labour of women in the household. The women's movement not only critiqued the Indian patriarchy, casteism and feudalism, it also promoted a new awareness of women's rights. Though it began as a largely urban movement, over a period of 30 years, the women's movement has emerged as one of the most articulate and widespread movements in India, with new campaigns for women's political participation and rights. It is partly because of the pressure from the women's movement that the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments to introduce local self-government provided 33% reservation for women in local self-government institutions. The women's movement has played a key role in ensuring the participation of women in the electoral process and governance.
In the post-Emergency period a number of political and social activists and public-spirited professionals opted out of party/electoral politics and focussed on the micro-level process of social mobilisation amongst marginalised communities. These social action groups working at the micro level began to highlight the historic and structural marginalisation of the Dalits (the so-called outcasts), Adivasis (more than 80 million tribal people who form around 8.3% of the Indian population) and landless labourers. The empowerment of the marginalised has been the key mission of such social action groups. However, when it came to the demand for entitlement for these communities, most of these groups began to use the rights language, particularly because of the constitutional guarantees. As many of these groups were sceptical of mainstream human rights discourse, they have used the term 'People's Rights' to emphasise the collective characteristics of rights and to focus on the political aspect of their rights.
Thus from the mid-'80s there has been a consistent effort to define and re-articulate Dalit rights, the rights of Adivasis, people's rights over natural resources, etc. This became more pronounced following the large-scale displacement caused by large dams, development projects, forestry projects, mining companies, etc. Most of the displaced people were Adivasis and Dalits. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), the Fishworkers Struggle and the Dalit Human Rights campaigns brought the issue of people's rights and rights of the marginalised communities into the mainstream political discourse of India. This trajectory of human rights discourse combined an integrated vision of human rights based on social justice, affirmative action, people's participation and economic justice. The adverse effects of neo-liberal globalisation helped to develop a pan-Indian discourse on people's rights and also helped to connect with similar movements in the global south.
Economic, social and cultural rights
The explicit focus on Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) Rights is relatively new compared to civil and political rights and group rights. The emergence of ESC rights in the mainstream development agenda is in consonance with the emergence of more institutionalised and funded initiatives for poverty eradication and social development. In the initial years, many such initiatives and institutions (commonly termed non-government organisations or NGOs) began with a welfarist approach, trying to supplement or substitute the welfare State. However, over a period of time there has been a widespread realisation of the limitations of micro-level development intervention and poverty eradication programmes that do not question the politics and policy frameworks that perpetuate deprivation. Most of the welfare/development NGOs, with foreign funding support, became either subcontractors of the dominant development models or well-meaning do-gooders who addressed the symptoms of poverty and not the socio-political conditions and structural inequalities that perpetuate poverty. It is in this context that the need to bridge the micro-level action and macro-level political and policy arenas became relevant. As a result, a number of grassroots action groups and mass movements working with women, Dalits, Adivasis and the landless poor began to draw from the fundamental rights and directive principles of the Indian Constitution to pressurise and persuade the State to meet its obligation to fulfil ESC rights.
An activist judiciary has also served to expand the scope of fundamental rights to incorporate economic and social rights as well. Progressive and creative judicial intervention expanded the scope of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees the Right to Life. Justice Krishna Iyer and other activist judges, through a series of very significant judgements, drew extensively from human rights law, to conclude that the right to life means the right to live with dignity, and that the right to live with dignity includes the right to livelihood, right to education and right to health.
These progressive judicial pronouncements were in many ways a response to the social action groups and movements that sought judicial intervention to persuade and pressurise the government to protect and fulfil the rights of the most marginalised. Thus the emergence of ESC rights is the result of advocacy efforts by grassroots action groups and NGOs in India.
The series of World Summits, starting with the Vienna Summit on Human Rights in 1993, helped to bring ESC rights onto the agenda of many international development organisations. This in turn also resulted in many of the specialised groups taking up campaigns to promote specific rights. This includes the campaign for the fundamental right to education, which resulted in the 86th amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing the fundamental right to education. There have been similar campaigns for the rights of self-employed women and unorganised workers, the right to universal healthcare and a number of other campaigns focussing on economic and social rights.
The emergence of the environmental and consumer movements in the1980s paved the way for a series of new legislations and policy interventions to protect the rights of consumers and people. The resurgence of the Adivasi (tribal) movement and the increased marginalisation of the minority communities by the right-wing Hindu nationalist government has brought cultural rights into public debate and policy discourse.
While the 1970s can be termed the decade of the emergence of the civil liberties movement, the 1980s witnessed the emergence of group rights and people's rights over resources and livelihoods. It is in the 1990s that ESC rights came centrestage. Various factors including rights-based reorientation by international development agencies and organisations, political compulsions on the ground and the increased visibility of the rights discourse provided the right conditions for advocating ESC rights.
However, it is ESC rights that are most elusive. This is because the rhetoric of economic and social rights is not necessarily reflected in policies, programmes and budgetary allocations. As a result, the State pretends to promote economic and social rights, while systematically undermining these rights following the dictums of the IMF, World Bank and WTO. This situation leads to a growing sense of disillusionment and cynicism about the so-called rights-based approach. As a result the political content and policy feasibility of the rights-based approach is increasingly questioned, particularly because it is more often used as a development strategy than a means for political empowerment of the people and policy transformation.
Right to transparent and accountable governance
The great expectations of India's welfare State began to recede after 20 years of hope and optimism. Over a period of time, the welfare State became too fat to be functional. The saturated State failed to either deliver welfare or protect and fulfil rights. The government apparatus and the government itself faced a credibility crisis. Political parties as the legitimising vehicle of parliamentary democracy suffered a lack of credibility due to the criminalisation of politics. The proliferation of career politicians and increasing instances of corruption in all aspects of governance brought the issues of accountability and transparency into the development discourse. The saturation of the State, coupled with the debt crisis, forced the government to seek financial and policy assistance from the Brettonwood institutions to make the failed welfare State work. However, the accompanying neo-liberal policy prescriptions of these institutions in the form of structural adjustments, privatisation and liberalisation further alienated the poor from the Indian State. That is how two clear tendencies in governance became clear by the mid-'90s.
The first set of actors, led by the World Bank, advocated 'good governance' to address resource leakage, misappropriation and mismanagement of the loans taken from the Bank and to ensure that there would be relatively less risk in credit management and repayment. This was more for strategic reasons than any commitment to the democratic principles of public accountability and transparency. The second set of proponents of transparent governance have been grassroots action groups (like the Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan) and advocacy organisations who sought government accountability as part of the citizen's right to know and the right to participate in governance.
The Jan Sunwais (public hearings) and social audits initiated by MKSS in Rajasthan are a well-known example of a process of mobilisation that combines a rights-based approach with people's participation. The people's planning process in local self-governance in Kerala promoted by the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) is another example of participatory practices with a rights-based perspective. The Community Learning Movement for accountable governance, promoted by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), is an example of a rights-based praxis, based on the principles and practice of participation. Thus the new movements and institutions are working to advance the right to accountable governance and ensure that the peoples' right to participate in governance and development are the basic premises for people-centred governance and development.
In spite of the relatively greater visibility and legitimacy of the human rights discourse, the meaning and utility of rights is still a highly contested arena. Though India has ratified five of the six covenants (ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, ICCRC, and CERD) and conventions that constitute the legally-binding international human rights treaties, the implementation of these rights is rather poor. Although the new policy papers and the documents of the Planning Commission of India increasingly use the rights language, in terms of real programmes and implementation the performance of the Government of India is far from satisfactory.
(For detailed information on the right to information and the campaign in India, click here)
Making human rights work: Linking rights with participation
If human rights are to have real meaning, they must be linked to public participation. And participation must be preceded by empowerment of the people. A sense of empowerment requires a sense of dignity, self-worth and the ability to ask questions. The sense of empowerment along with a sense of legal entitlements and constitutional guarantees gives rise to a political consciousness based on rights. A process of political empowerment and a sense of rights empowers citizens to participate in the public sphere.
Most mass movements in modern India (the All India Democratic Women's Association, Ragpickers Union etc) have emphasised the process of empowerment while they also 'struggled' for rights. The notion of 'struggle' was implicit in claiming and promoting rights. Most social action groups and people's organisations started by challenging and changing oppressive power structures that perpetuate patriarchy, casteism and poverty. Thus at the core of many such organisations was political transformation through people's empowerment wherein people can assert their rights and voices and demand justice. The process of social and political empowerment encompassed a sense of conscientisation based on dignity, rights and participation. That is why the slogans of the Shramajeevi Sanghatana, the union of erstwhile bonded labourers and Adivasis (tribals) in Thane district of Maharashtra assert that "We are not animals, but human beings", "We are not here to beg, but to demand justice".
People-centred advocacy is a possible link between rights and participation. People-centred advocacy seeks to connect social development, human rights and governance. It is about creating enabling conditions for socio-political empowerment and enhancing the capability of the marginalised to advocate for themselves so that they can claim their rights, seek public accountability and participate in the process of governance. People-centred advocacy seeks to go beyond changing public policies to changing people's attitudes, behaviour and unjust power relationships.
The Community Learning Movement (CLM) promoted by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) is an effort to empower grassroots communities so that they can seek accountability from the institutions of governance, demand their rights and participate in the political process. CLM takes a cluster of 10-25 villages. Four volunteers from each village participate in an action-learning cycle of 18 months, in six phases of three months each. Once in three months, the volunteers meet for two to three days to share experiences, learn new topics and build strategic plans for addressing local issues. The Learning Space or Open Notice Board maintained by the CLM local unit provides information (policy, budget, local government etc) that affects the villagers and the volunteers update the Board regularly. As a result of these initiatives, the CLM group in Karnataka has come up with its own community newspaper and wall magazine. Ordinary women, who have developed a sense of their rights and responsibility, have sought accountability from local government officials and exposed corrupt forest officials involved in illegal tree-felling and smuggling of timber from the forest.
People-centred advocacy can be an effective way to link rights and participation. However, the challenge is how to transform this linkage into an emancipatory politics that would help the poor emerge from the structural inequalities that perpetuate poverty.
Human rights are legtimised claims and the State has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. However, rights become real only when people begin to realise their full potential as human beings and assert their rights in the private and public sphere.
InfoChange News & Features
As important as civil and political rights in the Indian context are the rights of the marginalised -- women, tribals, Dalits or lower-castes, and the poor whose survival depends on access to natural resources. It is the rights of the marginalised and of the minorities in the country today that are in peril. The challenge is to empower the poor and marginalised to demand their rights and participate in the public sphere
The Constitution of India is one of the most rights-based constitutions in the world. Drafted around the same time as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Indian Constitution captures the essence of human rights in its Preamble, and the sections on Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy.
The Constitution of India is based on the principles that guided India's struggle against a colonial regime that consistently violated the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of the people of India. The freedom struggle itself was informed by the many movements for social reform, against oppressive social practices like sati (the practice of the wife following her dead husband onto the funeral pyre), child marriage, untouchability etc. Thus by the mid-1920s, the Indian National Congress had already adopted most of the civil and political rights in its agenda. The movement led by Dr B R Ambedkar (one of the founding fathers of the Constitution) against discrimination against the Dalits (the erstwhile outcasts or so-called untouchables who formed the lowest strata of the caste hierarchy and who currently number more than 170 million or 16.5% of the total population of India) also had an impact on the Indian Constitution.
In spite of the fact that most of the human rights found clear expression in the Constitution of India, the independent Indian State carried forward many colonial tendencies and power structures, including those embedded in the elite Indian Civil Service. Though the Indian State under Jawaharlal Nehru took many proactive steps and followed a welfare state model, the police and bureaucracy remained largely colonial in their approach and sought to exert control and power over citizens. The casteist, feudal and communal characteristics of the Indian polity, coupled with a colonial bureaucracy, weighed against and dampened the spirit of freedom, rights and affirmative action enshrined in the Constitution.
In the first 15 years of the Indian republic, such inherent contradictions within the Indian polity were glossed over by the euphoria of 'nation-building', an agenda generally endorsed by political parties, the middle class and elite civil society. However, when the contradictions within the Indian polity and State came into the open in the late-'60s, the oppressive character of the State began to be challenged by student movements and ultra-left formations like the Naxalite movement. When the Indian State began to suppress such expressions of political dissent and mini-rebellions, the violation of human rights by the State began to command attention.
Over a period of 30 years, the articulation and assertion of human rights within civil society has grown into a much richer, more diverse and relatively more powerful discourse at multiple levels. A brief historical sketch of the different trajectories of human rights discourse will help us locate human rights in the historical context.
There are four specific trajectories of human rights discourse in the Indian context -- Civil and Political Rights, Rights of the Marginalised (such as women, dalits and adivasis), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Right to Transparent and Accountable Governance. Though each of these trajectories is interconnected, they were promoted by different sets of actors (often with varying ideological affiliations) at different points in time. There has always been tension and lack of mutual appreciation between those who promoted civil liberties and the left-oriented groups who worked towards the structural transformation of socio-economic conditions and consequently of the State. As the concept of human rights was perceived as a western idea to gloss over inequalities and as a means of legitimising the capitalist and imperialist projects of the west (particularly the US) the left-oriented groups were clearly sceptical about human rights, particularly as expressed by the civil liberties groups. Though in some quarters such scepticism still exits, there has been a greater recognition of the need to promote and protect human rights, in spite of the misuse of the human rights discourse by the new imperialist forces.
Civil and political rights
The growing disenchantment with the Indian State that was expressed in various movements and political formations in the late-'60s and early-'70s was not tolerated by Indira Gandhi's regime. It is in this context that the movement for civil liberties led by liberal middle class intellectuals and activists became relevant. Organisations like the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) played a significant role in initiating and promoting a new discourse on civil liberties. However, many of the mainstream left parties, influenced by the socialist pretensions of Mrs Gandhi's regime, viewed the middle class movement for civil liberties as the agenda of the bourgeoisie and mistrusted the liberal voices of human rights groups as part of the American agenda. As many liberal institutions that promoted civil and political rights received funding from international agencies, the pro-establishment conservative groups as well as the leftist groups began to mistrust any organisation that received foreign funds.
The insecurity of Mrs Gandhi's regime resulted in the suppression of all dissent and the ultimate suspension of most Civil and Political Rights during the Emergency (1975-77). Almost all political opponents and activists were imprisoned and democratic rights suspended. The forced eviction of slumdwellers in Delhi and forced mass sterilisations created a sense of fear and insecurity among the people. It was during the Emergency, when every civil and political right was violated by the State, that the need to promote and fight for human rights was accepted across political classes. The civil liberties movement highlighted and challenged arbitrary detention, custodial violence and police atrocities.
In the last 20 years, the movement for civil and political rights has become much more coherent and widespread. It has grown beyond a set of urban middle class liberal intellectuals to a wide and diverse socio-political base. With the increase of insurgencies in the 1980s and the consequent State suppression of separatist movements in different parts of the country, various kinds of human rights organisations -- some genuine and some fronts for underground groups -- began to appear. The massacre of the Sikh community following the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984 raised serious questions about the role of the State in protecting the fundamental rights of citizens.
The rise of right-wing Hindu 'nationalist' forces, the biased stand of the State machinery, and the consequent communal violence all over the country in the last 15 years have given rise to a different set of actors who stress on the civil and political rights of the minorities. The complicity of the State in abetting and supporting the planned violence against the Muslim community in Gujarat in 2002, where more than 1,500 people were killed and hundreds of homes and shops destroyed and looted, brought out the contradictions inherent in the Indian polity and State. But the rise of fanatical and right-wing forces and their anti-human rights postures have, in a way, helped to bring together human rights activists across the political spectrum, including leftist groups and minority rights groups.
Public Interest Litigation and the judicial activism of the Supreme Court initiated by Justices V R Krishna Iyer and P N Bhagwati has played a major role in expanding the scope of human rights and giving it a much-needed legitimacy through some very important verdicts (on prisoners' rights, rights of landless labourers, release of bonded labourers, etc). Justice Krishna Iyer, the law minister of the first elected communist government in Kerala in 1956, was instrumental in building a new discourse that brought together the left-oriented groups and the civil liberties groups as part of the larger human rights community in India. Most of his judgements reiterated the obligation of the State to protect rights and equally, the participation of people in securing their rights and giving them meaning. The establishment of the National Commission of Human Rights under the Human Rights Act of 1993 provided a new impetus to civil and political rights in India.
Rights of the marginalised
While civil and political rights focused largely on the rights of the individual, in the mid-'70s a new human rights discourse, based on group rights, collective rights and people's rights, began to be articulated within the framework of social and political empowerment.
The emergence of the women's movement in the 1970s gave a new dimension to the rights discourse in India. In 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India submitted a report that highlighted the marginalisation of women in every sphere of life. The emergence of a number of women's groups such as Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Manushi, Joint Women's Forum etc raised a new consciousness and public debate on the issue of women's status, domestic violence, dowry, rape, custodial violence, trafficking and the invisible labour of women in the household. The women's movement not only critiqued the Indian patriarchy, casteism and feudalism, it also promoted a new awareness of women's rights. Though it began as a largely urban movement, over a period of 30 years, the women's movement has emerged as one of the most articulate and widespread movements in India, with new campaigns for women's political participation and rights. It is partly because of the pressure from the women's movement that the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments to introduce local self-government provided 33% reservation for women in local self-government institutions. The women's movement has played a key role in ensuring the participation of women in the electoral process and governance.
In the post-Emergency period a number of political and social activists and public-spirited professionals opted out of party/electoral politics and focussed on the micro-level process of social mobilisation amongst marginalised communities. These social action groups working at the micro level began to highlight the historic and structural marginalisation of the Dalits (the so-called outcasts), Adivasis (more than 80 million tribal people who form around 8.3% of the Indian population) and landless labourers. The empowerment of the marginalised has been the key mission of such social action groups. However, when it came to the demand for entitlement for these communities, most of these groups began to use the rights language, particularly because of the constitutional guarantees. As many of these groups were sceptical of mainstream human rights discourse, they have used the term 'People's Rights' to emphasise the collective characteristics of rights and to focus on the political aspect of their rights.
Thus from the mid-'80s there has been a consistent effort to define and re-articulate Dalit rights, the rights of Adivasis, people's rights over natural resources, etc. This became more pronounced following the large-scale displacement caused by large dams, development projects, forestry projects, mining companies, etc. Most of the displaced people were Adivasis and Dalits. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), the Fishworkers Struggle and the Dalit Human Rights campaigns brought the issue of people's rights and rights of the marginalised communities into the mainstream political discourse of India. This trajectory of human rights discourse combined an integrated vision of human rights based on social justice, affirmative action, people's participation and economic justice. The adverse effects of neo-liberal globalisation helped to develop a pan-Indian discourse on people's rights and also helped to connect with similar movements in the global south.
Economic, social and cultural rights
The explicit focus on Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) Rights is relatively new compared to civil and political rights and group rights. The emergence of ESC rights in the mainstream development agenda is in consonance with the emergence of more institutionalised and funded initiatives for poverty eradication and social development. In the initial years, many such initiatives and institutions (commonly termed non-government organisations or NGOs) began with a welfarist approach, trying to supplement or substitute the welfare State. However, over a period of time there has been a widespread realisation of the limitations of micro-level development intervention and poverty eradication programmes that do not question the politics and policy frameworks that perpetuate deprivation. Most of the welfare/development NGOs, with foreign funding support, became either subcontractors of the dominant development models or well-meaning do-gooders who addressed the symptoms of poverty and not the socio-political conditions and structural inequalities that perpetuate poverty. It is in this context that the need to bridge the micro-level action and macro-level political and policy arenas became relevant. As a result, a number of grassroots action groups and mass movements working with women, Dalits, Adivasis and the landless poor began to draw from the fundamental rights and directive principles of the Indian Constitution to pressurise and persuade the State to meet its obligation to fulfil ESC rights.
An activist judiciary has also served to expand the scope of fundamental rights to incorporate economic and social rights as well. Progressive and creative judicial intervention expanded the scope of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees the Right to Life. Justice Krishna Iyer and other activist judges, through a series of very significant judgements, drew extensively from human rights law, to conclude that the right to life means the right to live with dignity, and that the right to live with dignity includes the right to livelihood, right to education and right to health.
These progressive judicial pronouncements were in many ways a response to the social action groups and movements that sought judicial intervention to persuade and pressurise the government to protect and fulfil the rights of the most marginalised. Thus the emergence of ESC rights is the result of advocacy efforts by grassroots action groups and NGOs in India.
The series of World Summits, starting with the Vienna Summit on Human Rights in 1993, helped to bring ESC rights onto the agenda of many international development organisations. This in turn also resulted in many of the specialised groups taking up campaigns to promote specific rights. This includes the campaign for the fundamental right to education, which resulted in the 86th amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing the fundamental right to education. There have been similar campaigns for the rights of self-employed women and unorganised workers, the right to universal healthcare and a number of other campaigns focussing on economic and social rights.
The emergence of the environmental and consumer movements in the1980s paved the way for a series of new legislations and policy interventions to protect the rights of consumers and people. The resurgence of the Adivasi (tribal) movement and the increased marginalisation of the minority communities by the right-wing Hindu nationalist government has brought cultural rights into public debate and policy discourse.
While the 1970s can be termed the decade of the emergence of the civil liberties movement, the 1980s witnessed the emergence of group rights and people's rights over resources and livelihoods. It is in the 1990s that ESC rights came centrestage. Various factors including rights-based reorientation by international development agencies and organisations, political compulsions on the ground and the increased visibility of the rights discourse provided the right conditions for advocating ESC rights.
However, it is ESC rights that are most elusive. This is because the rhetoric of economic and social rights is not necessarily reflected in policies, programmes and budgetary allocations. As a result, the State pretends to promote economic and social rights, while systematically undermining these rights following the dictums of the IMF, World Bank and WTO. This situation leads to a growing sense of disillusionment and cynicism about the so-called rights-based approach. As a result the political content and policy feasibility of the rights-based approach is increasingly questioned, particularly because it is more often used as a development strategy than a means for political empowerment of the people and policy transformation.
Right to transparent and accountable governance
The great expectations of India's welfare State began to recede after 20 years of hope and optimism. Over a period of time, the welfare State became too fat to be functional. The saturated State failed to either deliver welfare or protect and fulfil rights. The government apparatus and the government itself faced a credibility crisis. Political parties as the legitimising vehicle of parliamentary democracy suffered a lack of credibility due to the criminalisation of politics. The proliferation of career politicians and increasing instances of corruption in all aspects of governance brought the issues of accountability and transparency into the development discourse. The saturation of the State, coupled with the debt crisis, forced the government to seek financial and policy assistance from the Brettonwood institutions to make the failed welfare State work. However, the accompanying neo-liberal policy prescriptions of these institutions in the form of structural adjustments, privatisation and liberalisation further alienated the poor from the Indian State. That is how two clear tendencies in governance became clear by the mid-'90s.
The first set of actors, led by the World Bank, advocated 'good governance' to address resource leakage, misappropriation and mismanagement of the loans taken from the Bank and to ensure that there would be relatively less risk in credit management and repayment. This was more for strategic reasons than any commitment to the democratic principles of public accountability and transparency. The second set of proponents of transparent governance have been grassroots action groups (like the Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan) and advocacy organisations who sought government accountability as part of the citizen's right to know and the right to participate in governance.
The Jan Sunwais (public hearings) and social audits initiated by MKSS in Rajasthan are a well-known example of a process of mobilisation that combines a rights-based approach with people's participation. The people's planning process in local self-governance in Kerala promoted by the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) is another example of participatory practices with a rights-based perspective. The Community Learning Movement for accountable governance, promoted by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), is an example of a rights-based praxis, based on the principles and practice of participation. Thus the new movements and institutions are working to advance the right to accountable governance and ensure that the peoples' right to participate in governance and development are the basic premises for people-centred governance and development.
In spite of the relatively greater visibility and legitimacy of the human rights discourse, the meaning and utility of rights is still a highly contested arena. Though India has ratified five of the six covenants (ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, ICCRC, and CERD) and conventions that constitute the legally-binding international human rights treaties, the implementation of these rights is rather poor. Although the new policy papers and the documents of the Planning Commission of India increasingly use the rights language, in terms of real programmes and implementation the performance of the Government of India is far from satisfactory.
(For detailed information on the right to information and the campaign in India, click here)
Making human rights work: Linking rights with participation
If human rights are to have real meaning, they must be linked to public participation. And participation must be preceded by empowerment of the people. A sense of empowerment requires a sense of dignity, self-worth and the ability to ask questions. The sense of empowerment along with a sense of legal entitlements and constitutional guarantees gives rise to a political consciousness based on rights. A process of political empowerment and a sense of rights empowers citizens to participate in the public sphere.
Most mass movements in modern India (the All India Democratic Women's Association, Ragpickers Union etc) have emphasised the process of empowerment while they also 'struggled' for rights. The notion of 'struggle' was implicit in claiming and promoting rights. Most social action groups and people's organisations started by challenging and changing oppressive power structures that perpetuate patriarchy, casteism and poverty. Thus at the core of many such organisations was political transformation through people's empowerment wherein people can assert their rights and voices and demand justice. The process of social and political empowerment encompassed a sense of conscientisation based on dignity, rights and participation. That is why the slogans of the Shramajeevi Sanghatana, the union of erstwhile bonded labourers and Adivasis (tribals) in Thane district of Maharashtra assert that "We are not animals, but human beings", "We are not here to beg, but to demand justice".
People-centred advocacy is a possible link between rights and participation. People-centred advocacy seeks to connect social development, human rights and governance. It is about creating enabling conditions for socio-political empowerment and enhancing the capability of the marginalised to advocate for themselves so that they can claim their rights, seek public accountability and participate in the process of governance. People-centred advocacy seeks to go beyond changing public policies to changing people's attitudes, behaviour and unjust power relationships.
The Community Learning Movement (CLM) promoted by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) is an effort to empower grassroots communities so that they can seek accountability from the institutions of governance, demand their rights and participate in the political process. CLM takes a cluster of 10-25 villages. Four volunteers from each village participate in an action-learning cycle of 18 months, in six phases of three months each. Once in three months, the volunteers meet for two to three days to share experiences, learn new topics and build strategic plans for addressing local issues. The Learning Space or Open Notice Board maintained by the CLM local unit provides information (policy, budget, local government etc) that affects the villagers and the volunteers update the Board regularly. As a result of these initiatives, the CLM group in Karnataka has come up with its own community newspaper and wall magazine. Ordinary women, who have developed a sense of their rights and responsibility, have sought accountability from local government officials and exposed corrupt forest officials involved in illegal tree-felling and smuggling of timber from the forest.
People-centred advocacy can be an effective way to link rights and participation. However, the challenge is how to transform this linkage into an emancipatory politics that would help the poor emerge from the structural inequalities that perpetuate poverty.
Human rights are legtimised claims and the State has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. However, rights become real only when people begin to realise their full potential as human beings and assert their rights in the private and public sphere.
InfoChange News & Features
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Seasons
Living is a feel of seasons
Sensing sights, sun, smell,
flow, moon and snow!
Snow, Snow, Snow
A sheet of white
Showering on earth
Naked trees
Leaf-less woods
Birds flew off!
River is freezing.
The depth of winter
Touching the marrow
At minus 12!
Sun sulks at 10 am!
Days are short!
Snow yet to shine!
Time to fly!
To Gods of own Country
To embrace the joy of a sunlit morning
To feel the leaves of green grass
To dip the feet in to the warmth
Of a flowing spring
Wake up to the tune of a morning bird
Walk up to embrace the laughter of a
Little daughter!
Life revolves around seasons
In anticipation of
Sun, moon, snow, life
Leaves, flowers and people
Life is seasons.
Sensing sights, sun, smell,
flow, moon and snow!
Snow, Snow, Snow
A sheet of white
Showering on earth
Naked trees
Leaf-less woods
Birds flew off!
River is freezing.
The depth of winter
Touching the marrow
At minus 12!
Sun sulks at 10 am!
Days are short!
Snow yet to shine!
Time to fly!
To Gods of own Country
To embrace the joy of a sunlit morning
To feel the leaves of green grass
To dip the feet in to the warmth
Of a flowing spring
Wake up to the tune of a morning bird
Walk up to embrace the laughter of a
Little daughter!
Life revolves around seasons
In anticipation of
Sun, moon, snow, life
Leaves, flowers and people
Life is seasons.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Waiting in the Winter
Waiting in the winter
For the song of a bird
For a sun shine
For a smiling leaf
For the laughter
of kids on the playground
Smiles on the streets
For a warm hug!
Oslo- smiles
In summer
Sun never sleeps!
Sky bright-and blue.
Streets happy
Oslo Sulks
In winter
Sun ever sleeping
Everything cold
Everyone cold
Lonely streets
Moody sky
Covered bodies
Cold handshakes
Dark mornings
Waiting
For a velvet of snow
White Earth
White foot prints on the road
Waiting...
For the smile of the summer...
And flowers of the spring
For the song of a bird
For a sun shine
For a smiling leaf
For the laughter
of kids on the playground
Smiles on the streets
For a warm hug!
Oslo- smiles
In summer
Sun never sleeps!
Sky bright-and blue.
Streets happy
Oslo Sulks
In winter
Sun ever sleeping
Everything cold
Everyone cold
Lonely streets
Moody sky
Covered bodies
Cold handshakes
Dark mornings
Waiting
For a velvet of snow
White Earth
White foot prints on the road
Waiting...
For the smile of the summer...
And flowers of the spring
Young Life!
Young Life-
A gift unfolding
Young
Is to create life
Is to celebrate living
To Imagine,
To inspire and illuminate
Being young
Is being in Love
Sing a song of living
Dancing with others
To hold hands
To hug
To make love
To feel poetry
To learn to live everyday
To sense the power within
To question
To challenge
Making change happen within
And beyond...
Learning to laugh
Lighting up the lamp
Within
Feeling life- every moment
In a billion moods and modes
Of colours, creed and flow
Living, loving and laughing
When dreams begin to unfold
Winds of change begin to blow
Making poetry flowering
Making...
Hopes real
Making world smile
Earth Green
Sky- the limit
Life-
the beauty revealed-.
Dignity discovered
Divinity realised
Refusing to die
Swimming forward
In the waves of the world
Winds of change
To the flow of history.
A gift unfolding
Young
Is to create life
Is to celebrate living
To Imagine,
To inspire and illuminate
Being young
Is being in Love
Sing a song of living
Dancing with others
To hold hands
To hug
To make love
To feel poetry
To learn to live everyday
To sense the power within
To question
To challenge
Making change happen within
And beyond...
Learning to laugh
Lighting up the lamp
Within
Feeling life- every moment
In a billion moods and modes
Of colours, creed and flow
Living, loving and laughing
When dreams begin to unfold
Winds of change begin to blow
Making poetry flowering
Making...
Hopes real
Making world smile
Earth Green
Sky- the limit
Life-
the beauty revealed-.
Dignity discovered
Divinity realised
Refusing to die
Swimming forward
In the waves of the world
Winds of change
To the flow of history.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Dandi Diaspora
Cause and effect. Indian expertise in civil society problems gives them a global edge.
Sanjay Suri Text Size
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?240155
PRINT Share COMMENTS
Why Desis Lead In Civil Society Groups
•Indians have a better, first-hand experience of poverty. And also richer experience in combating it.
•Excellent at mobilising masses, in contrast to those in the west who are good only at lobbying.
•Indians groomed in the Gandhian tradition of working for the forgotten people and organising citizens for peaceful protests.
•India provides a democratic space for experimentation, in an environment not suppressive of innovative ideas. It helps produce well-trained leaders.
***
Of all those acronyms that crowd the communication space, there could hardly be another that sounds as dully inconsequential as 'NGO'. The yawn it inspires stretches right across 'civil society', defined as all those who organise themselves to pursue collective benefit. The persisting image of the 'civil society types' is badly dressed people who haven't showered for weeks just to make a political point, who live unwanted in a village somewhere except when they step into the city carrying posters to demand a better world, never mind how. Basically, the last reserve of someone with too much morality, or too little gumption, to be a proper scoundrel.
The trouble is that this no-proper-man's land is now beginning to matter worldwide in dramatic, even historic, ways. And Indians are right up there in leading that change, pushing governments and global giants like the World Bank into doing what they are convinced a lot of people want. These Indians are taking the street to meetings where decisions are taken over the lives of millions, even billions; and where necessary, in suit language.
It has the face of, say, Salil Shetty who heads the United Nations Millennium Campaign, whose job it is to hold governments to the promises made in 2000 to improve education and health, and reduce poverty. It's a campaign that could determine the quality of life of a couple of billion people, not forgetting that a few hundred million of them are in India. Shetty took up the position after taking over as the first non-Brit head of ActionAid, a charity with a once very British stamp.
It wasn't the expected way to go for someone who joined an MBA programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. "I went into the MBA programme kicking and screaming and pretty much stayed that way for the two years when I was there, asking why we need to study how to make rich people richer," Shetty told Outlook. And when after the MBA he also cleared the IPS exam, and then decided to join an NGO, "my friends thought I had gone bananas". Instead, he's gone places, in this un-smartest of callings.
Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives, IUCN: IUCN is the world's biggest environmental grouping; research and field projects all over
Invisible to an uncaring media, these Indians have been stepping ahead in parallel with Indians taking space around the top in other fields; the many writers, businessmen like Laxmi Mittal. Now Ashok Khosla from the NGO Development Alternatives has come to head the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the world's biggest environmental grouping that carries out research and field projects around the world, bringing together more than a thousand government and independent organisations. Then there's Dalip Mukarji, a doctor who worked at a leprosy centre in Andhra Pradesh and now heads Christian Aid, one of the largest charities in the world, supporting hundreds of millions of people. Ingrid Srinath heads Civicus, a hugely influential network of civil society groups around the world. John Samuel is international director of ActionAid.
These are not just Indians who happen to be there; they are there because they happen to be Indians. "In relation to social justice and poverty eradication questions, nobody can talk with greater legitimacy than an Indian," says Shetty. "We have both the largest number of poor people in the world and some of the most effective interventions to combat it. Take the Right to Information or Right to Food campaigns; they are at the leading edge of civil society action to combat poverty and discrimination."
In some ways, India has its problems working for it. Ingrid Srinath says, "The exposure to both, deep, structural injustices of the kind prevalent in India, and the multiplicity of successful civil society interventions there, makes it possible to relate to injustice and marginalisation around the world and to retain a sense of optimism and constructive engagement even in situations that seem utterly dire."
John Samuel, ActionAid: Global anti-poverty agency working with the world's poor everywhere
Indeed, India has a way of getting a lot of people together to make a lot of informed noise, then demand change—and achieve it as well. "People in the European Union and the United States are good at lobbying, not mobilising," says John Samuel. "In the West, advocacy meant experts hanging around in the corridors of power, and media-driven campaigns. In the last 10 years, global advocacy has been informed by India, Brazil and South Africa."
For instance, the mass protests over world trade talks apparently had a very Indian root. "The trade justice campaign arose from a workshop I did," says Samuel. This was some time before the explosive trade talks in Seattle 1999, when widespread rioting broke out against big corporations linking arms with rich governments to force deals profitable for them, but disastrous to too many others.
The protests were firstly a communication triumph. They began with a translation job, in decoding a negotiating language that was choking on jargon. "Civil society demystified the whole trade justice negotiations," says Samuel. "These highly technical agreements were brought to the people and ordinary political leaders." From conference rooms the discourse spilled on to the streets, and then flowed back to inform the negotiations. It sparked off a people's action that backed the likes of Kamal Nath in blocking an advance of EU and US business into markets like India that could have smothered much of local produce, and producers. In step with civil society, political positions by India, Brazil, South Africa and some others broke that Western habit that advanced nations must also be advancing nations, now into markets if not whole countries. No trade deal is better than a bad deal, civil society argued successfully. The lack of a wto agreement on this could well turn out to be one of history's more progressive indecisions.
Somehow, there is Gandhi somewhere in this Indian-led resistance. He believes in the outdated morality of working with the forgotten, he doesn't pursue the standard quest for the next smart thing to buy or new currency numbers to add to wealth accumulation. He has the ability to generate mass mobilisation, usually peaceful, and offers convincing arguments in the face of opponents who are as tough as they come. The Indian lead comes not just in mobilisation techniques that are learnt because there are so many of us; it comes by way of ideas that have been transforming.
Dr Rajanikant Shankarrao Arole and Mabelle Rajanikant Arole pioneered a system of preventive medication in hopeless situations in Maharashtra; the World Health Organisation picked that up and promoted it in other countries. Ela Bhatt's Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has become a model in scores of countries. Anil Aggarwal's work on clean air long preceded the follow-up later on steps to limit climate change, and his techniques for decentralised water management are now integral to local water management in villages. Rajesh Tandon's models for what he called participatory research have been adopted as almost standard in work among the disadvantaged.
Rajesh Tandon, PRIA among others: Participatory research, building alliances among societal development agencies
Tandon, who began with an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur followed by an MBA at IIM Calcutta and a PhD in the US, abandoned managerial ambitions to work in Indian villages. "I saw a disconnect between quantitative, instrumental knowledge and local views of knowledge that were more intuitive, emotive, practical, experiential," he says. "That disconnect began to bother me. The knowledge system of the expert was undermining the more rooted knowledge system." And so he developed methodologies to blend the two, such as developing a literacy primer for specific groups of village women arising from their world and the daily issues they deal with. At the many international conferences on development in the '90s, starting with the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, these ideas were rapidly, and widely picked up.
At least one simple reason that India has produced so many ideas for the world is that you name the problem, and we have it. But more because, says Tandon, "there is a democratic space available for experimentation, in an environment that is not suppressive, that is liberating in some way". And, talking Gandhi again, "India has a long tradition of people with all sorts of education and training coming to serve society", he adds.
They have worked to develop a new democracy that goes beyond a vote every five years or so; it's a continuing campaign to give disregarded choices a chance and the dispossessed a voice, but by producing the doable and deliverable. And when you have that, you don't petition a government with problems; you confront it with solutions.
Text Size
PRINT Share COMMENTS
Sanjay Suri Text Size
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?240155
PRINT Share COMMENTS
Why Desis Lead In Civil Society Groups
•Indians have a better, first-hand experience of poverty. And also richer experience in combating it.
•Excellent at mobilising masses, in contrast to those in the west who are good only at lobbying.
•Indians groomed in the Gandhian tradition of working for the forgotten people and organising citizens for peaceful protests.
•India provides a democratic space for experimentation, in an environment not suppressive of innovative ideas. It helps produce well-trained leaders.
***
Of all those acronyms that crowd the communication space, there could hardly be another that sounds as dully inconsequential as 'NGO'. The yawn it inspires stretches right across 'civil society', defined as all those who organise themselves to pursue collective benefit. The persisting image of the 'civil society types' is badly dressed people who haven't showered for weeks just to make a political point, who live unwanted in a village somewhere except when they step into the city carrying posters to demand a better world, never mind how. Basically, the last reserve of someone with too much morality, or too little gumption, to be a proper scoundrel.
The trouble is that this no-proper-man's land is now beginning to matter worldwide in dramatic, even historic, ways. And Indians are right up there in leading that change, pushing governments and global giants like the World Bank into doing what they are convinced a lot of people want. These Indians are taking the street to meetings where decisions are taken over the lives of millions, even billions; and where necessary, in suit language.
It has the face of, say, Salil Shetty who heads the United Nations Millennium Campaign, whose job it is to hold governments to the promises made in 2000 to improve education and health, and reduce poverty. It's a campaign that could determine the quality of life of a couple of billion people, not forgetting that a few hundred million of them are in India. Shetty took up the position after taking over as the first non-Brit head of ActionAid, a charity with a once very British stamp.
It wasn't the expected way to go for someone who joined an MBA programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. "I went into the MBA programme kicking and screaming and pretty much stayed that way for the two years when I was there, asking why we need to study how to make rich people richer," Shetty told Outlook. And when after the MBA he also cleared the IPS exam, and then decided to join an NGO, "my friends thought I had gone bananas". Instead, he's gone places, in this un-smartest of callings.
Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives, IUCN: IUCN is the world's biggest environmental grouping; research and field projects all over
Invisible to an uncaring media, these Indians have been stepping ahead in parallel with Indians taking space around the top in other fields; the many writers, businessmen like Laxmi Mittal. Now Ashok Khosla from the NGO Development Alternatives has come to head the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the world's biggest environmental grouping that carries out research and field projects around the world, bringing together more than a thousand government and independent organisations. Then there's Dalip Mukarji, a doctor who worked at a leprosy centre in Andhra Pradesh and now heads Christian Aid, one of the largest charities in the world, supporting hundreds of millions of people. Ingrid Srinath heads Civicus, a hugely influential network of civil society groups around the world. John Samuel is international director of ActionAid.
These are not just Indians who happen to be there; they are there because they happen to be Indians. "In relation to social justice and poverty eradication questions, nobody can talk with greater legitimacy than an Indian," says Shetty. "We have both the largest number of poor people in the world and some of the most effective interventions to combat it. Take the Right to Information or Right to Food campaigns; they are at the leading edge of civil society action to combat poverty and discrimination."
In some ways, India has its problems working for it. Ingrid Srinath says, "The exposure to both, deep, structural injustices of the kind prevalent in India, and the multiplicity of successful civil society interventions there, makes it possible to relate to injustice and marginalisation around the world and to retain a sense of optimism and constructive engagement even in situations that seem utterly dire."
John Samuel, ActionAid: Global anti-poverty agency working with the world's poor everywhere
Indeed, India has a way of getting a lot of people together to make a lot of informed noise, then demand change—and achieve it as well. "People in the European Union and the United States are good at lobbying, not mobilising," says John Samuel. "In the West, advocacy meant experts hanging around in the corridors of power, and media-driven campaigns. In the last 10 years, global advocacy has been informed by India, Brazil and South Africa."
For instance, the mass protests over world trade talks apparently had a very Indian root. "The trade justice campaign arose from a workshop I did," says Samuel. This was some time before the explosive trade talks in Seattle 1999, when widespread rioting broke out against big corporations linking arms with rich governments to force deals profitable for them, but disastrous to too many others.
The protests were firstly a communication triumph. They began with a translation job, in decoding a negotiating language that was choking on jargon. "Civil society demystified the whole trade justice negotiations," says Samuel. "These highly technical agreements were brought to the people and ordinary political leaders." From conference rooms the discourse spilled on to the streets, and then flowed back to inform the negotiations. It sparked off a people's action that backed the likes of Kamal Nath in blocking an advance of EU and US business into markets like India that could have smothered much of local produce, and producers. In step with civil society, political positions by India, Brazil, South Africa and some others broke that Western habit that advanced nations must also be advancing nations, now into markets if not whole countries. No trade deal is better than a bad deal, civil society argued successfully. The lack of a wto agreement on this could well turn out to be one of history's more progressive indecisions.
Somehow, there is Gandhi somewhere in this Indian-led resistance. He believes in the outdated morality of working with the forgotten, he doesn't pursue the standard quest for the next smart thing to buy or new currency numbers to add to wealth accumulation. He has the ability to generate mass mobilisation, usually peaceful, and offers convincing arguments in the face of opponents who are as tough as they come. The Indian lead comes not just in mobilisation techniques that are learnt because there are so many of us; it comes by way of ideas that have been transforming.
Dr Rajanikant Shankarrao Arole and Mabelle Rajanikant Arole pioneered a system of preventive medication in hopeless situations in Maharashtra; the World Health Organisation picked that up and promoted it in other countries. Ela Bhatt's Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has become a model in scores of countries. Anil Aggarwal's work on clean air long preceded the follow-up later on steps to limit climate change, and his techniques for decentralised water management are now integral to local water management in villages. Rajesh Tandon's models for what he called participatory research have been adopted as almost standard in work among the disadvantaged.
Rajesh Tandon, PRIA among others: Participatory research, building alliances among societal development agencies
Tandon, who began with an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur followed by an MBA at IIM Calcutta and a PhD in the US, abandoned managerial ambitions to work in Indian villages. "I saw a disconnect between quantitative, instrumental knowledge and local views of knowledge that were more intuitive, emotive, practical, experiential," he says. "That disconnect began to bother me. The knowledge system of the expert was undermining the more rooted knowledge system." And so he developed methodologies to blend the two, such as developing a literacy primer for specific groups of village women arising from their world and the daily issues they deal with. At the many international conferences on development in the '90s, starting with the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, these ideas were rapidly, and widely picked up.
At least one simple reason that India has produced so many ideas for the world is that you name the problem, and we have it. But more because, says Tandon, "there is a democratic space available for experimentation, in an environment that is not suppressive, that is liberating in some way". And, talking Gandhi again, "India has a long tradition of people with all sorts of education and training coming to serve society", he adds.
They have worked to develop a new democracy that goes beyond a vote every five years or so; it's a continuing campaign to give disregarded choices a chance and the dispossessed a voice, but by producing the doable and deliverable. And when you have that, you don't petition a government with problems; you confront it with solutions.
Text Size
PRINT Share COMMENTS
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Where is Kerala going?
http://www.mathrubhumi.com/english/story.php?id=116880
Posted on: 21 Nov 2011
John Samuel
Context of Socio-economic Development of Kerala
Kerala is at a critical juncture of its history, political process and economy. Over the last fifty years, Kerala achieved significant achievements in the area of social development, democratisation and, to some extent, economic growth.
Over the last 100 years, many factors, including a relatively healthy political party process, robust mass media, deeper influence of social reform movement and better access to education, played an important role in achieving better social development indicators. This has created a relatively empowered middle class society (in comparison to other states of India) with better social and political consciousness. The progressive policy consensus among key political parties, with better investment in social sector, from 1957 onwards served its purpose. However, the older policy framework is now more or less saturated and not good enough to help us to develop pathways to the future. Though it is important to have a sense of history, it is time not to get too much preoccupied with any past model so that we can look forward to the challenges and opportunities in the next fifty
years. Hence, it is important to have forward looking new political and policy consensus towards building the future of Kerala.
The relatively better performance of Kerala in social development and democratisation is a result of the cumulative process of social reform movements from the early 20th century, relatively better outreach of education and health facilities (initiated by the missionary and church network and later on by other community network organisations), the development of the mass media, the political process in the backdrop of freedom struggle and progressive movements and the relatively better cosmopolitan fabric of the society. The social democratic political and policy process from the 1950s also enabled to create conducive governance environment for achieving universal primary education, highest literacy rate, relatively better health care, and development and gender indicators. The investment in education and health in the 1950s to 1980s created a competent and skilled labour force that could negotiate in the global market. Kerala is one of the first and most successful states in India
in globalising its relatively skilled or semiskilled labour force, with waves of migrant workers to Gulf countries and other parts of the world. The economic boom in the Gulf States, due to the hike in the oil price also created demand for skilled labour force for the modernisation and socio-economic development of the oil producing countries. The skilled labour force from Kerala contributed significantly towards the socio-economic growth of India and the Gulf States. The export of labour force towards the development of secondary and tertiary sector to different parts of the world and the consequent expatriated income of migrant labours created a new wave of economic growth in Kerala from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While the growth in expatriated income created new demands in service sector, it also paradoxically contributed to the decline of primary sector- particularly that of agriculture. The cost of land and labour increased very significantly and the hyper-unionisation and party politicisation also created less conducive atmosphere for the development of manufacturing and secondary sector. In spite very significant growth in service sector (particularly consumer, health, education, housing, transport,
travel and allied areas), there was no corollary growth in the capacity of infrastructure. The migration of skilled force also contributed towards cumulative bran-drain from all sectors, including that of political process. This has created the paradox of the development of Kerala: higher socio-economic development, high per-capita income, less infrastructural facilities, conservative social values, better gender indicators along with less women's empowerment, and a civil society divided on the basis of party political affiliation and community organisations.
Kerala society jumped from Semi- feudalism to Consumerism via Communist aspirations - all within a div of sixty years. Hence, our own social and political culture became a strange and confusing mix of feudal- left- and consumerist and conservative- all in one! We also jumped from a predominantly agriculture - (primary sector economy) - to service sector (Tertiary sector) economy within a div of 40 years. We have moved rather fast from a rural based joint-family or networked-family social settings to nuclear and post-nuclear settings. A very significant section of our people moved from lower-middle class subsistence economy culture to a surplus bank balance - fuelled by expatriated income
From the 1990s, there was also significant deficit in the quality of youth leadership both in political and social process of Kerala. The expatriated income, the tremendous growth of consumer market and the decline of the quality of higher education contributed towards a new vulgarisation of politics, society and culture. While Kerala successfully became a part of the globalisation of labour force in the 1970s and 1980s, Kerala has failed to negotiate with other aspects of economic and social
globalisation. Though Kerala was well positioned to get the best possible opportunity out of the growth of IT sector in 1980s, the state missed the opportunity due to the lack of initiative to capture a significant opportunity to create at least a million more employment in the IT Sector. The lack of appreciation about the future potential of the sector and anti-entrepreneurial minds-set contributed towards the failure of the state to reap the benefits of the tremendous economic growth in the new sectors in the 1990s. The hyper-party politicisation of the development debate, the lack of long term vision in policy process and a deficit of creative imagination within the civil society led to a new stagnation of politics, society and economy of Kerala. Though there is dynamism of pseudo- debates and discussion in the political process and seeming economic growth- propelled by consumer market and expatriated income, there is stagnation at the core of the society and politics in Kerala. There is in
an increasingly trend of a rather cynical discussion and debates around the middle-class and even the quick rhetorical debates on the 24X 7 TV Channel tend to replace the substantive political discussions based on research, information and public discussions and debates. The term 'public' or 'civil society' or 'pothu-samooham' is increasingly substituted by the 'reality' show of predictable speakers, 'invited' audience and celebrity anchors. The Politics of TV Performance or street protest in
front of TV Cameras unwittingly eclipsed and consequently eroded substantive political discussions and educations in the society. This lack of real searches, dialogues and discussions between the real stakeholders and active organisations in requires serious exploration and discussion among all key stakeholders of the society to imagine a New Kerala: a Kerala that can help to nurture ideas, leadership, and innovation that can transform the state, India and the World. A more confident,
optimistic and vibrant Kerala can make wonders in the society and the world itself.
More than ten percent of the people of Kerala now live and work outside the state. The migration culture of Malayalies in the last seventy years and the money and ideas they brought back to Kerala played a very key role in influencing the society and politics more ways than what is being generally being acknowledged. From the nineties onwards, Kerala society is more in a post-nuclear family mode-where the members of a family are dispersed far and wide- and often virtually connected- or networked: rather than sharing a life or space. This also means a society of lots of elderly people and young people and nothing in between.
During the last ten years, there have been significant social and political churning in Kerala, resulting in new kinds of identity based assertions, increasing criminalization and violence in society and party-politicisation of issues to do with economic development of Kerala. There are many symptoms of a larger issue of social, cultural and political transition of Kerala in the context of new consumer materialism and neoconservative values and sectarianism - that came to define our society, culture
and politics in multiple ways.
Hence, the most important challenge for the political and policy leadership of Kerala is to challenge the stagnation that is settling in at the core of our society and to have a new movement for renewing the creative energies, recharging our potential and crating a passionate vision for the future of Kerala. Such a passionate vision and new creative movement for Kerala should create conditions for the renaissance of Kerala in 21st century. This means it is important re-imagine a new Kerala- with a long
term vision of the next fifty years, medium term vision for next 20 years and clear short-term policy and programme framework for the next five years.
Emerging Issues
Kerala is in the midst of a profound transition. It is important to understand the emerging issues that
will have a relevance to the people and governance of the state. In the context of the election in 2011, it is important to consider few important issues and to develop viable and practical approach to those issues.
There are nine key issues that need to be addressed with a sense of urgency and clear plan of action.
1) Huge number of educated unemployed.
There are around 4.2 million registered unemployed in the state. This means around 12% of population of Kerala are unemployed or underemployed. The issue of unemployment in Kerala was addressed through the migration of skilled and semi-skilled and professional workers from Kerala to the rest of India and the world. Kerala has one of the highest rates of suicides in India and world. And one of the main reasons for high number of suicides is the lack of employment opportunities and the social pressure from a highly consumerist and conservative society.
As the labour market is getting increasingly saturated in many parts of India and the world, the biggest challenge is Kerala would be to create millions of new employment opportunities in a mission mode.
Issue of inequality and poverty can only be addressed if the causes and consequences of unemployment are addressed in a sustainable way.
2) Corruption in Governance and government There is a wide spread discontent against corruption at various levels. The various allegations against government departments and ministers of this government and previous government created an
atmosphere of cynicism and anger among the common people of Kerala. There are various kinds of corruption- including the most obvious forms in appointment of teachers in the 'aided' schools and colleges, controlled by community-cast- networks across the state. Hence addressing corruption through pro-active policy framework and action programmes would be crucial to influence a larger cross section of people in Kerala.
3) The crisis of food production and agriculture
The migration of skilled and semiskilled labours to the gulf and other countries impacted the economy and agriculture of Kerala in a significant way. While this has created new employment opportunities in the construction sector and service sector, it also created deficit of labour in the agriculture sector. And the rapid shift to cash crops such as Rubber paradoxically increased the income of a section of middle class and at the same time adversely affected the food production in Kerala. Due to the
migration of semi-skilled labours to others states and gulf, and due to new employment opportunities in the construction sector, rubber plantations, and service sector, there has been an acute shortage in the agriculture and farm sector. This has increased the cost of labour very significantly, making the cost of agriculture production very high. As a result, Kerala is dependent on Tamil Nadu and other states for food. This has significantly increased the cost of food in Kerala. Such a situation along with
the inflation and fluctuating price of diesel and petrol created a steep price in the food price. This has created a new sense of discontent among the poor, lower middle class and government employees of Kerala.
4) Increasing criminalisation within the society.
The most evident form of criminalisation in Kerala is through the emergence of 'quotation-gangs'. These are group of young people living in a consumer society – with an urge to make quick money to meet the 'demands' of the market. They are primarily used by group vested interests with the covert support of local political leaders. They are involved in a) real estate mafia b) Illegal sand mining c) getting and selling spurious alcohol from other states and d) using force to get back loans or capture assets of those who defaulted on loans to the banks. They are also involved in planned and targeted murder, extortion and threatening. This has increased tremendously in the last five years- resulting in high profile murders, planned attack etc. Hence, addressing this issue would be crucial in the context of Kerala.
5) Rights, Safety, Security of women.
In spite of good gender-development Indicators, when it comes to women's rights, space and empowerment the track record of Kerala is not encouraging at all. In spite of the relatively high educational achievement of women, there are less number of women in political leadership and there is less spaces for women to assert their rights and space. This situation needs to change.
Recent attack against a young woman of twenty three in the train and her consequent death created a sense of anger among all cross section of society in Kerala. There is an increasing tendency of harassment of women in public as well as private spaces. Hence it is important to have concrete measures to address this issue in a proactive manner – with a sense of mission.
6) Environment degradation and vulnerability to natural disaster.
Due to the over exploitation of rivers (though illegal sand mining) and also the tendency to fill in the marshy- land (used for paddy cultivation) for construction purpose has created acute shortage of water in a state with relatively high rain fall. The new wave of urbanisation and the lack of clear programme of sanitation polluted the water sources. In the context of new urbanisation, based on the apartment-culture, scarcity of water will be an important issue. The pollution of water, lack of adequate sanitation, and breeding of mosquitoes everywhere, induced new communicable disease, killing so many people. The unprecedented pollution of rivers and water bodies lead to an environmental crisis, resulting in floods and other natural disasters. There is hardly any well planned programme or process to address the issue of environmental degradation, pollution,
scarcity of water and natural disaster.
7) Less quality of infrastructure
While Kerala has large quantity of roads and almost universal electrification, the bad condition of roads and regular power-cut created a sense of frustration among the people. The lack of regular maintenance of roads, along with rapid increase in the number of vehicles have created enabling environment for huge increase in road accidents in Kerala. The lack of good roads and the constant power-cuts have adversely affected the potential of the tourism sector in Kerala. This also proved to be a hindrance for creating new employment opportunities in Kerala.
8) The issues of marginalisation and Poverty
In spite of relatively better social development indicators, there are many communities and people still at the receiving end of poverty and marginalisation. A very significant number of people from Adivasies, dalits and fisher folks are still at the receiving end of poverty and marginalisation. Lack of land, productive resources and sustainable employment and income create seasonal as well as entrenched poverty among a section of the society. Hence it is important to have special focus to
address the causes and consequences of poverty and marginalisation in Kerala.
9) The vulnerability of Elderly People:
Due to intense migration of professional and skilled labour to different parts of India and the world, there is a real issue of the new vulnerability of elderly people, particularly those who have crossed seventy years. Many of them stay alone, and a large number of them do not have any health or psycho-social care. And Kerala will have very large number of elderly people and addressing their issue of health, security and developing support system would be crucial in the context of Kerala.
Kerala: Pathways to Future
It is important to have a paradigm shift in the socio-economic growth model of Kerala. The key challenge is how to build on the existing strengths of Kerala and at the same time going beyond the old policy paradigm to a transformative paradigm of socio-economic- and cultural renewal and renaissance of Kerala. On the one hand we need to address issues of poverty, marginalisation, and environmental degradation and on the other hand it is important to envision a socio-economic
paradigm appropriate for the making of a just, equitable, sustainable and prosperous Kerala.
Developing a robust and sustainable local economy that can negotiate with global economy – with high quality products and services- would be crucial for the future socio-economic viability of Kerala.
When there is high economic growth in the service sector, coupled with high unemployment rate, increasing sense of social or economic inequality- with identity connotations, and a new wave of consumerist materialism, there would be more chance for criminalisation, sectarian politics and communal tensions. So today the most important and challenging task is to create enabling policy and infrastructure conditions that can create millions of new jobs in the next ten years. While there will be significant opportunities for high-skilled professionals in the global labour market, there would be less opportunities for millions of semi-skilled and skilled labour force.
There is an estimated bank deposit more than 1.3 lakhs crore of rupees in Kerala and only 55% of this given as loan to be used. And even this is more often used n the consumer sector (like housing) rather than productive sectors. Here too most of the new investments are in the real estate, housing and retail sector. There is less significant investment in manufacturing or new knowledge economy sectors. Instead of inviting foreign investors, there is a very significant opportunity to create a new
entrepreneurial culture – by promoting locally and globally networked small and medium scale enterprises in select areas. It is also important to strengthen some of the traditional manufacturing sectors such as coir, cashew and hand loom- in a way that they are competitive, effective and economically viable. However, this also requires new infrastructure (road, power and water) facility and supportive investment climate. It is possible to create two million jobs in the networked enterprises in knowledge sector( R&D, IT, ) , Service sector( community tourism, health, education, ) and manufacturing sector( agro-industries and food processing,, garments, cosmetics ).
While all these require much detailed analysis, public discussions and master plan for the next ten years, it is also important to highlight few of the policy options in the context of the forthcoming elections in Kerala. It is important to begin to think about possible policy options, within the next five years. What follows is not a comprehensive policy framework, but more of an indicative framework that may help to address some of the issues to a certain extent.
Many of the potentially transformative initiative may not need more money, though it may require inspired, innovative and imaginative ideas and a leadership committed to long term development and renewal of Kerala. It is the present approach that needs to be revisited. It is time to talk about grassroots - and local level initiatives- of scale - to transform Kerala. It can create more than 1.5 million new job opportunities in the next five years. Creating strong and sustainable local economies
and linking with the global is the key. Now we are doing the opposite- linking global economy to the local- without any capacity or culture- and this create a completely false kind of service economy -based on consumerism rather than effective productive capability.
The key is developing productive capacity, vibrant local economies, grassroots entrepreneurial initiatives- public partnership, competitive local market that can negotiate with bigger market with niche comparative advantage. All these need enabling social, cultural, and infrastructural environment. We need a completely new different way of looking at things than the present mode of doing things- either old wine in new bottle or new wine in old bottle. We need to envision a new Kerala. We need a paradigm shift- nothing less than that. We need to renew and re-imagine society, economy and governance to create a sustainable, just, vibrant and peaceful Kerala for the coming generation. It is to time to invest in a new Kerala, laying the foundations for the future- Making Change Happen!!
Posted on: 21 Nov 2011
John Samuel
Context of Socio-economic Development of Kerala
Kerala is at a critical juncture of its history, political process and economy. Over the last fifty years, Kerala achieved significant achievements in the area of social development, democratisation and, to some extent, economic growth.
Over the last 100 years, many factors, including a relatively healthy political party process, robust mass media, deeper influence of social reform movement and better access to education, played an important role in achieving better social development indicators. This has created a relatively empowered middle class society (in comparison to other states of India) with better social and political consciousness. The progressive policy consensus among key political parties, with better investment in social sector, from 1957 onwards served its purpose. However, the older policy framework is now more or less saturated and not good enough to help us to develop pathways to the future. Though it is important to have a sense of history, it is time not to get too much preoccupied with any past model so that we can look forward to the challenges and opportunities in the next fifty
years. Hence, it is important to have forward looking new political and policy consensus towards building the future of Kerala.
The relatively better performance of Kerala in social development and democratisation is a result of the cumulative process of social reform movements from the early 20th century, relatively better outreach of education and health facilities (initiated by the missionary and church network and later on by other community network organisations), the development of the mass media, the political process in the backdrop of freedom struggle and progressive movements and the relatively better cosmopolitan fabric of the society. The social democratic political and policy process from the 1950s also enabled to create conducive governance environment for achieving universal primary education, highest literacy rate, relatively better health care, and development and gender indicators. The investment in education and health in the 1950s to 1980s created a competent and skilled labour force that could negotiate in the global market. Kerala is one of the first and most successful states in India
in globalising its relatively skilled or semiskilled labour force, with waves of migrant workers to Gulf countries and other parts of the world. The economic boom in the Gulf States, due to the hike in the oil price also created demand for skilled labour force for the modernisation and socio-economic development of the oil producing countries. The skilled labour force from Kerala contributed significantly towards the socio-economic growth of India and the Gulf States. The export of labour force towards the development of secondary and tertiary sector to different parts of the world and the consequent expatriated income of migrant labours created a new wave of economic growth in Kerala from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While the growth in expatriated income created new demands in service sector, it also paradoxically contributed to the decline of primary sector- particularly that of agriculture. The cost of land and labour increased very significantly and the hyper-unionisation and party politicisation also created less conducive atmosphere for the development of manufacturing and secondary sector. In spite very significant growth in service sector (particularly consumer, health, education, housing, transport,
travel and allied areas), there was no corollary growth in the capacity of infrastructure. The migration of skilled force also contributed towards cumulative bran-drain from all sectors, including that of political process. This has created the paradox of the development of Kerala: higher socio-economic development, high per-capita income, less infrastructural facilities, conservative social values, better gender indicators along with less women's empowerment, and a civil society divided on the basis of party political affiliation and community organisations.
Kerala society jumped from Semi- feudalism to Consumerism via Communist aspirations - all within a div of sixty years. Hence, our own social and political culture became a strange and confusing mix of feudal- left- and consumerist and conservative- all in one! We also jumped from a predominantly agriculture - (primary sector economy) - to service sector (Tertiary sector) economy within a div of 40 years. We have moved rather fast from a rural based joint-family or networked-family social settings to nuclear and post-nuclear settings. A very significant section of our people moved from lower-middle class subsistence economy culture to a surplus bank balance - fuelled by expatriated income
From the 1990s, there was also significant deficit in the quality of youth leadership both in political and social process of Kerala. The expatriated income, the tremendous growth of consumer market and the decline of the quality of higher education contributed towards a new vulgarisation of politics, society and culture. While Kerala successfully became a part of the globalisation of labour force in the 1970s and 1980s, Kerala has failed to negotiate with other aspects of economic and social
globalisation. Though Kerala was well positioned to get the best possible opportunity out of the growth of IT sector in 1980s, the state missed the opportunity due to the lack of initiative to capture a significant opportunity to create at least a million more employment in the IT Sector. The lack of appreciation about the future potential of the sector and anti-entrepreneurial minds-set contributed towards the failure of the state to reap the benefits of the tremendous economic growth in the new sectors in the 1990s. The hyper-party politicisation of the development debate, the lack of long term vision in policy process and a deficit of creative imagination within the civil society led to a new stagnation of politics, society and economy of Kerala. Though there is dynamism of pseudo- debates and discussion in the political process and seeming economic growth- propelled by consumer market and expatriated income, there is stagnation at the core of the society and politics in Kerala. There is in
an increasingly trend of a rather cynical discussion and debates around the middle-class and even the quick rhetorical debates on the 24X 7 TV Channel tend to replace the substantive political discussions based on research, information and public discussions and debates. The term 'public' or 'civil society' or 'pothu-samooham' is increasingly substituted by the 'reality' show of predictable speakers, 'invited' audience and celebrity anchors. The Politics of TV Performance or street protest in
front of TV Cameras unwittingly eclipsed and consequently eroded substantive political discussions and educations in the society. This lack of real searches, dialogues and discussions between the real stakeholders and active organisations in requires serious exploration and discussion among all key stakeholders of the society to imagine a New Kerala: a Kerala that can help to nurture ideas, leadership, and innovation that can transform the state, India and the World. A more confident,
optimistic and vibrant Kerala can make wonders in the society and the world itself.
More than ten percent of the people of Kerala now live and work outside the state. The migration culture of Malayalies in the last seventy years and the money and ideas they brought back to Kerala played a very key role in influencing the society and politics more ways than what is being generally being acknowledged. From the nineties onwards, Kerala society is more in a post-nuclear family mode-where the members of a family are dispersed far and wide- and often virtually connected- or networked: rather than sharing a life or space. This also means a society of lots of elderly people and young people and nothing in between.
During the last ten years, there have been significant social and political churning in Kerala, resulting in new kinds of identity based assertions, increasing criminalization and violence in society and party-politicisation of issues to do with economic development of Kerala. There are many symptoms of a larger issue of social, cultural and political transition of Kerala in the context of new consumer materialism and neoconservative values and sectarianism - that came to define our society, culture
and politics in multiple ways.
Hence, the most important challenge for the political and policy leadership of Kerala is to challenge the stagnation that is settling in at the core of our society and to have a new movement for renewing the creative energies, recharging our potential and crating a passionate vision for the future of Kerala. Such a passionate vision and new creative movement for Kerala should create conditions for the renaissance of Kerala in 21st century. This means it is important re-imagine a new Kerala- with a long
term vision of the next fifty years, medium term vision for next 20 years and clear short-term policy and programme framework for the next five years.
Emerging Issues
Kerala is in the midst of a profound transition. It is important to understand the emerging issues that
will have a relevance to the people and governance of the state. In the context of the election in 2011, it is important to consider few important issues and to develop viable and practical approach to those issues.
There are nine key issues that need to be addressed with a sense of urgency and clear plan of action.
1) Huge number of educated unemployed.
There are around 4.2 million registered unemployed in the state. This means around 12% of population of Kerala are unemployed or underemployed. The issue of unemployment in Kerala was addressed through the migration of skilled and semi-skilled and professional workers from Kerala to the rest of India and the world. Kerala has one of the highest rates of suicides in India and world. And one of the main reasons for high number of suicides is the lack of employment opportunities and the social pressure from a highly consumerist and conservative society.
As the labour market is getting increasingly saturated in many parts of India and the world, the biggest challenge is Kerala would be to create millions of new employment opportunities in a mission mode.
Issue of inequality and poverty can only be addressed if the causes and consequences of unemployment are addressed in a sustainable way.
2) Corruption in Governance and government There is a wide spread discontent against corruption at various levels. The various allegations against government departments and ministers of this government and previous government created an
atmosphere of cynicism and anger among the common people of Kerala. There are various kinds of corruption- including the most obvious forms in appointment of teachers in the 'aided' schools and colleges, controlled by community-cast- networks across the state. Hence addressing corruption through pro-active policy framework and action programmes would be crucial to influence a larger cross section of people in Kerala.
3) The crisis of food production and agriculture
The migration of skilled and semiskilled labours to the gulf and other countries impacted the economy and agriculture of Kerala in a significant way. While this has created new employment opportunities in the construction sector and service sector, it also created deficit of labour in the agriculture sector. And the rapid shift to cash crops such as Rubber paradoxically increased the income of a section of middle class and at the same time adversely affected the food production in Kerala. Due to the
migration of semi-skilled labours to others states and gulf, and due to new employment opportunities in the construction sector, rubber plantations, and service sector, there has been an acute shortage in the agriculture and farm sector. This has increased the cost of labour very significantly, making the cost of agriculture production very high. As a result, Kerala is dependent on Tamil Nadu and other states for food. This has significantly increased the cost of food in Kerala. Such a situation along with
the inflation and fluctuating price of diesel and petrol created a steep price in the food price. This has created a new sense of discontent among the poor, lower middle class and government employees of Kerala.
4) Increasing criminalisation within the society.
The most evident form of criminalisation in Kerala is through the emergence of 'quotation-gangs'. These are group of young people living in a consumer society – with an urge to make quick money to meet the 'demands' of the market. They are primarily used by group vested interests with the covert support of local political leaders. They are involved in a) real estate mafia b) Illegal sand mining c) getting and selling spurious alcohol from other states and d) using force to get back loans or capture assets of those who defaulted on loans to the banks. They are also involved in planned and targeted murder, extortion and threatening. This has increased tremendously in the last five years- resulting in high profile murders, planned attack etc. Hence, addressing this issue would be crucial in the context of Kerala.
5) Rights, Safety, Security of women.
In spite of good gender-development Indicators, when it comes to women's rights, space and empowerment the track record of Kerala is not encouraging at all. In spite of the relatively high educational achievement of women, there are less number of women in political leadership and there is less spaces for women to assert their rights and space. This situation needs to change.
Recent attack against a young woman of twenty three in the train and her consequent death created a sense of anger among all cross section of society in Kerala. There is an increasing tendency of harassment of women in public as well as private spaces. Hence it is important to have concrete measures to address this issue in a proactive manner – with a sense of mission.
6) Environment degradation and vulnerability to natural disaster.
Due to the over exploitation of rivers (though illegal sand mining) and also the tendency to fill in the marshy- land (used for paddy cultivation) for construction purpose has created acute shortage of water in a state with relatively high rain fall. The new wave of urbanisation and the lack of clear programme of sanitation polluted the water sources. In the context of new urbanisation, based on the apartment-culture, scarcity of water will be an important issue. The pollution of water, lack of adequate sanitation, and breeding of mosquitoes everywhere, induced new communicable disease, killing so many people. The unprecedented pollution of rivers and water bodies lead to an environmental crisis, resulting in floods and other natural disasters. There is hardly any well planned programme or process to address the issue of environmental degradation, pollution,
scarcity of water and natural disaster.
7) Less quality of infrastructure
While Kerala has large quantity of roads and almost universal electrification, the bad condition of roads and regular power-cut created a sense of frustration among the people. The lack of regular maintenance of roads, along with rapid increase in the number of vehicles have created enabling environment for huge increase in road accidents in Kerala. The lack of good roads and the constant power-cuts have adversely affected the potential of the tourism sector in Kerala. This also proved to be a hindrance for creating new employment opportunities in Kerala.
8) The issues of marginalisation and Poverty
In spite of relatively better social development indicators, there are many communities and people still at the receiving end of poverty and marginalisation. A very significant number of people from Adivasies, dalits and fisher folks are still at the receiving end of poverty and marginalisation. Lack of land, productive resources and sustainable employment and income create seasonal as well as entrenched poverty among a section of the society. Hence it is important to have special focus to
address the causes and consequences of poverty and marginalisation in Kerala.
9) The vulnerability of Elderly People:
Due to intense migration of professional and skilled labour to different parts of India and the world, there is a real issue of the new vulnerability of elderly people, particularly those who have crossed seventy years. Many of them stay alone, and a large number of them do not have any health or psycho-social care. And Kerala will have very large number of elderly people and addressing their issue of health, security and developing support system would be crucial in the context of Kerala.
Kerala: Pathways to Future
It is important to have a paradigm shift in the socio-economic growth model of Kerala. The key challenge is how to build on the existing strengths of Kerala and at the same time going beyond the old policy paradigm to a transformative paradigm of socio-economic- and cultural renewal and renaissance of Kerala. On the one hand we need to address issues of poverty, marginalisation, and environmental degradation and on the other hand it is important to envision a socio-economic
paradigm appropriate for the making of a just, equitable, sustainable and prosperous Kerala.
Developing a robust and sustainable local economy that can negotiate with global economy – with high quality products and services- would be crucial for the future socio-economic viability of Kerala.
When there is high economic growth in the service sector, coupled with high unemployment rate, increasing sense of social or economic inequality- with identity connotations, and a new wave of consumerist materialism, there would be more chance for criminalisation, sectarian politics and communal tensions. So today the most important and challenging task is to create enabling policy and infrastructure conditions that can create millions of new jobs in the next ten years. While there will be significant opportunities for high-skilled professionals in the global labour market, there would be less opportunities for millions of semi-skilled and skilled labour force.
There is an estimated bank deposit more than 1.3 lakhs crore of rupees in Kerala and only 55% of this given as loan to be used. And even this is more often used n the consumer sector (like housing) rather than productive sectors. Here too most of the new investments are in the real estate, housing and retail sector. There is less significant investment in manufacturing or new knowledge economy sectors. Instead of inviting foreign investors, there is a very significant opportunity to create a new
entrepreneurial culture – by promoting locally and globally networked small and medium scale enterprises in select areas. It is also important to strengthen some of the traditional manufacturing sectors such as coir, cashew and hand loom- in a way that they are competitive, effective and economically viable. However, this also requires new infrastructure (road, power and water) facility and supportive investment climate. It is possible to create two million jobs in the networked enterprises in knowledge sector( R&D, IT, ) , Service sector( community tourism, health, education, ) and manufacturing sector( agro-industries and food processing,, garments, cosmetics ).
While all these require much detailed analysis, public discussions and master plan for the next ten years, it is also important to highlight few of the policy options in the context of the forthcoming elections in Kerala. It is important to begin to think about possible policy options, within the next five years. What follows is not a comprehensive policy framework, but more of an indicative framework that may help to address some of the issues to a certain extent.
Many of the potentially transformative initiative may not need more money, though it may require inspired, innovative and imaginative ideas and a leadership committed to long term development and renewal of Kerala. It is the present approach that needs to be revisited. It is time to talk about grassroots - and local level initiatives- of scale - to transform Kerala. It can create more than 1.5 million new job opportunities in the next five years. Creating strong and sustainable local economies
and linking with the global is the key. Now we are doing the opposite- linking global economy to the local- without any capacity or culture- and this create a completely false kind of service economy -based on consumerism rather than effective productive capability.
The key is developing productive capacity, vibrant local economies, grassroots entrepreneurial initiatives- public partnership, competitive local market that can negotiate with bigger market with niche comparative advantage. All these need enabling social, cultural, and infrastructural environment. We need a completely new different way of looking at things than the present mode of doing things- either old wine in new bottle or new wine in old bottle. We need to envision a new Kerala. We need a paradigm shift- nothing less than that. We need to renew and re-imagine society, economy and governance to create a sustainable, just, vibrant and peaceful Kerala for the coming generation. It is to time to invest in a new Kerala, laying the foundations for the future- Making Change Happen!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)