Essay: Sustainability Politics in Practice
A case or an illustration of sustainability politics in practice, and show how dominant discourses can try and sometimes succeed in presenting it as if power, difference and inequality were minor issues that can be overlooked.
I would like to begin my essay with a narration. The story of the people of Beishempuiloa in Nagaland, North-east of India. That one evening was a revelation of ironies in life I had not felt before about paradoxes to definitions to national policies and that of ground realities. The house consisted of the vigilant, protective pet puppy dog that might one day get eaten, three little kids, a father and a mother. A single cooking pot cooking away dinner for all five, the minimalist kitchen utensils and furniture in the house. The youngest wailed uncontrollably in my presence. Clearly, I had invaded her space, while I sat in the darkest corner, observing their hut whose only source of light for that night was the fire and a small solar bulb. She had to be lulled to sleep with a rhyme. The dry twigs crackled in the fire, she wailed, the rhyme was recited in a sweet, grainy voice that filled the hut. Then there was silence, just the fire and the meat cooking over it. The condiments were special- garlic, some wild herbs stored very safe almost as if they were precious goods, and the common local chilli. The main occupation of the villagers was farming, growing food enough for the whole community. Labour was shared, food was shared. Money was essential but not completely dependent on it.
They had houses that they built themselves with materials available from their surroundings, thatched roofs with tin sheets, meshed walls of naturally treated bamboo, clean mud floors that kept the house cool in summer, a fireplace that warmed the house while being used for cooking. Their housing layout was beautifully designed, too. The animals were housed separately from main living quarters, water source was situated far away, toilets and bathrooms in their own hygienic place. They had in their design reasons for separating the kitchen area from living quarters. Yet, they made less than “dollar ninety a day”. Not all children attend school, health care was not easily accessible, roads were not pliable in monsoons and transport means a bicycle or walk normally, besides the taxis that have their schedule once in a couple days.
Now, a few things stated above clearly meet the criteria of what the United Nations determines as ‘poverty’ and ‘deprivation’. The lack of electricity, houses with mud flooring, bamboo walls, children out of school, lack of access to healthcare, earning less than $1.90 a day. This presents a stereotypical image on what poverty looks like. The detrimental factors of poverty and the constraints that determine the poverty line are usually an established set of criteria, independent of geography, cultural diversity and dependent only on the economic stature of the global economy and a normal distribution of incomes and expenditure of the poorer countries of the world. The fairness of all poverty related studies are undermined when such global standards are presented instead of specific parameters and criteria which are tailored for each individual community, their lifestyle and their means of livelihood.
Merriam Webster defines poverty as "the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions''. More often than not, poverty studies choose the monetary measures and values to determine the percentage of population under the poverty line and to establish standards of living. This is primarily because monetary measures are objective, easily acquirable and an established quantitative measure for comparison. On the other hand, material goods, livelihood, skills possessed, and way of life offer very little in terms of a quantitative measure to aid studies. However, their qualitative effect and impact are far reaching and far from the ground truth. Though indigenous communities may have rich material possessions such as agricultural land, produce, community based handicraft and handloom skills and while preferring to trade or barter in a primitive way, bypassing governmental systems and modern financial institutions, they’d still be labelled poor.
Since the indicators of poverty range across ‘health’, ‘education’ and ‘living standards’, most areas that are indicators in theory as determinants of poverty such as nutrition, flooring, assets, cooking fuel, etc, the indigenous people’s ways of life does not meet the standards set by that of UN.
As stated in the recently held conference on “Why are people poor - measuring global progress toward zero poverty”, Sabine Alkire in her presentation states, “Turning to poverty analysis, identifying a minimal combination of basic capabilities can be a good way of setting up the problem of diagnosing and measuring poverty. It can lead to results quite different from those obtained by concentrating on inadequacy of income as the criterion of identifying the poor. The conversion of income into basic capabilities may vary greatly between individuals and also between different societies, so that the ability to reach minimally acceptable levels of basic capabilities can go with varying levels of minimally adequate incomes. The income-centred view of poverty, based on specifying an interpersonally invariant ‘poverty line’ income, may be very misleading in the identification and evaluation of poverty (Sen 1990 Capability & Wellbeing)”. This statement, in context with the above mentioned story, the people live with just what they need, are happy, educated with ways of survival and of their own surroundings, respect and worship nature.
If growth and development were to be measured in terms of consumption or economics, many indigenous communities like the one mentioned in the story above would be lost in translation. The United Nations plans for the world’s poor, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, is to eradicate poverty in entirety, which, based on their analysis, is to provide people with employment, healthcare, nutrition, good housing, and the capacity to buy things to make life better for themselves. For example, the presentation at the conference, the deprivation cut-off of asset indicators for the Central African Republic was that a household owns at most one radio, telephone, TV, bike, motorbike, or refrigerator.
If poverty is measured in monetary assets, what happens to those communities that do not see money as a crucial means to survival? The emphasis on capital has been around since after the time of industrial revolution, when scientists have realised the consequences of human activities and have seen a rapid deterioration of the biosphere and the geosphere. This theory of eradicating poverty, without consideration for cultural diversities and geographical variations, may prove to disrupt sustainable systems even more.
These standards, when imposed on people to achieve the capabilities of consumption, are pushed into the struggles of earning a living, and failing to meet certain standards would deem them poor. question the different criteria that define poverty on a subjective level and that poverty can be relative and perceived. In India, there seems to be multiple kinds of poverty – but most disheartening, according to me, is the kind of poverty that arises due to confusion of when trying to fit in with the rapidly changing world, forgetting real needs and necessities to adapt to a system that supplies the labels of prosperity/ social status/ and development by entrapping humans after ignoring their sensitivity to changes. I see it as a progress trap, creating our own problems for which we’re also creating mechanisms to solve them which are only short term.
An example of disruption to sustainable ecosystems is the Palm oil expansion into North-East India. An excerpt from a news article related to this project quoting an industry personnel, “ Poola Mallesham, corporate head of the Oil Palm Division of Ruchi Soya said about its Arunachal Pradesh MoU, “Allotment of Zone IV will help in upbringing of more palm plantations in the near future which shall not only contribute to employment generation but go a long way in strengthening the rural economy by enriching the farmer income levels.” It is dialogues such as these that mislead common people and people in power that depend on news for information. Justifications to industries that disrupt ecology are heavily based on economic gains to local people and their employment. According to Umesh Srinivasan, a researcher at National Centre for Biological Science (India), “India should also seriously consider that traditional practices like jhum and community-based forest management contribute much more to local economies and livelihoods than oil palm can, especially in the north-eastern states. Further, these practices are also ecologically sustainable, provide vital ecosystem services, and help conserve rare and unique wildlife. These practices, with their diverse social, economic and biodiversity benefits need official recognition, priority and endorsement, instead of being misguidedly treated as ‘wasteful’ ”. Jhum involves cultivation of multi crops that are essential for a balanced diet to the local people. As it is a process where reserve forest land is burned down to make space for agriculture by the local communities, Jhum cultivation faces criticism. But the fact that the process also includes forest regeneration methods, uses no chemicals and brings with it “immense non-monetary benefits that are rarely taken into account”.
But can palm oil be sustainable? Umesh says, “Fostering this industry in a sustainable manner in northeast India is very very difficult. Areas suitable for oil palm are minuscule or non-existent, adding oil palm will destroy forests, and oil palm (like other plantation crops) is likely to alter social structure and dynamics on tribal communities, enhancing socio-economic inequalities.”
Despite having scientific research data that opposes certain plans of industries that could potentially cause ecological havoc, the government sanctions and grants permissions to go ahead with monocropping.
the state government itself that is indulging in irrational decision making such as diverting rivers or building multiple dams over rivers, or allowing oil palm plantations in ecologically sensitive regions.
The need for sustainability politics over conventional politics is higher than ever. Development of infrastructure is key to any developing economy. But the ability to compromise on implementation details when presented with scientific knowledge and datasets about the pros and cons of a proposed project is critical in determining how sustainability oriented a governing body is. An example in case would be the Hydel power projects that are implemented, and many awaiting implementation along the Teesta river which originates from the Pahunri glacier in Northern Sikkim, in Northeast India. There has been a constant struggle to meet India's massive quench for electricity and the government has insisted on exploiting the potential energy stored in this high altitude Himalayan river body. The government delegated responsibility of research, surveyance, construction and integration of energy projects to NHPC, an Indian Hydropower generation company. Surveyance reveals only a subset of the problems that might originate from construction of dams along the river, such as height of flooding, area of submersible land, locally affected ecology and volume of water downstream. But often, a holistic view of the problems is hidden away, ignored as a consequence or remains undetermined due to insufficient research and survey funds. Thus, the totality of the problem often comes to light and is acknowledged only after such projects are completed and enough time has elapsed to uncover them. Several projects implemented in a short time frame may magnify problems due to their cascading effect and scope of such problems are very unpredictable as they had never been accounted for in the first place.
In the end, the local state governments are the institutions which allocates land and resources and gives the final go-ahead to NHPC. Their role in this process, among many, includes addressing concerns of the people that may directly be affected by the project, offering comprehensive compensation for people to give up their lands and relocate, conduct polls and popularity studies, and essentially to weigh out the benefits of such a project in existence against the drawbacks and long term effects of the same. Taylor Graham's Taming the Teesta, a mini documentary exploring the widespread effects of these projects along the Teesta river, reveals the bureaucratic failure and inefficiency in dealing with these problems. Due to the government's interoperability at low levels, lower levels of transparency and accountability, there are documents of people losing livelihood and not being compensated for losses incurred. Thus, in a way, these hydropower projects which helped a certain percentage of population increase their standard of living by making power and electricity more affordable, also derailed a significant population by directly affecting their livelihood, either by direct intervention such as land acquisition or indirectly through loss of fisheries downstream. A classic case of poverty magnified by the same plan to reduce it.
References :
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poverty
https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Events/PDF/Slides/AL21-Alkire-slides.pdf
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