Greed and Economics - Part 1

I recently had an insightful and interesting discussion on “greed and morality of a person and his economic decision” with one of my learned friends. So that you are able to appreciate the story better, I need to give a little bit of background about my friend. We both have a high regard for each other’s education and experience. And when I refer to education it is Aristotle for me, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” I generally avoid going into discussions with anyone who lacks either an educated mind or an educated heart. My friend doesn’t lack either and is one of the successful leaders in the corporate world.

Now a little bit about my upbringing. My father was a trade union leader and a hardcore communist who never compromised on his values, morals and ethics no matter what the situation. My grandfather was a landlord and also a pioneer of Bengal Coal in British India. Both of them had an equal impact on my life. I along with my siblings grew up in an atmosphere where healthy and often heated debates took place on many things including capitalism vs communism.

Later in my life when I had a chance to study economic theories I read about the positives and negatives of all the ‘ism’s so that I could form my own view. One of the most interesting thing that caught my attention during college days was how Adam Smith described the model of economic system based on self-interest. This was in his path breaking work ‘The Wealth of Nations’. He showed capitalism goes very well with basic human nature wherein “We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.” As I was studying the pros and cons in depth, what worried me was that capitalism proved to have largely concentrated money and property at the hands of a relatively small minority of the global human population (the Elite or The Power Elite), leading to very large and increasing wealth and income inequalities. Our study material had real time data to establish this fact. And as we see it every year through data presented before the World Economic Forum at Davos each year, this income inequality has assumed humongous proportion

Another criticism, which was written about but not evident during my college days, was about corporate capitalism as well as inverted totalitarianism. These are terms used by humanists and the critics of capitalism, to describe a capitalist marketplace and society, which is characterized by the dominance of hierarchical, bureaucratic as well as large corporations, which are legally required to pursue profit without concern for social welfare. Corporate capitalism has been criticized again and again for the amount of power and influence they wield over government policies, including the policies of regulatory agencies and influencing political campaigns.

After reading my books, I was really happy that India as a nation chose mixed economy and I am an ardent fan of socialism. The phrase “socialist, republic” in preamble of our constitution is very close to my heart. I firmly believe communism is a failure because of its very model that describes it as ‘dictatorship of proletariats’. Dictatorship of any kind, as history has shown time and again is fraught with the danger of becoming an anti-people rule, in one way or the other. I also think, communism goes against basic human nature by talking about “common ownership of all land and capital and withering away of the coercive power of the state. In such a society, social relations were to be regulated on the fairest of all principles: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Differences between manual and intellectual labor and between rural and urban life were to disappear, opening up the way for unlimited development of human potential.”

I am personally scared of both - communism for its very word “dictatorship” that denies freedom to individuals. On the other hand, capitalism is equally disturbing since it’s based on self-interest i.e. greed.

On to the debate now. My friend was discussing land acquisition through one to one negotiation and how people change their stand regarding price with each passing day. I was happy to get this opportunity to understand how corporate leaders feel when people get into bargaining positions and bargain hard and do not compromise on the “premium price” that their land can fetch. I engaged deeply as I wanted to understand the core argument here from an industry’s point of view.

My friend felt it was highly immoral to change ones stand once a consensus had been reached and a price had been fixed for the land. My learned friend also stated 95% of landowners happily sold their land on the price that was negotiated. Some people however, created “trouble” resulting a delay in project. I wanted to understand the “trouble”. And as expected the trouble was that 5% researched hard and found out the actual price the land was going to yield when it changed hand. Therefore, they wanted to renegotiate. Well!

I wondered who needed the land at the first place! I asked, did the landowners come to the Industry to sell their land? And as you already know the answer I will not dwell on how much the land acquisition company needed the land! My friend stated that the company negotiated at first, people were glad to sell their lands since the prices paid by the company were greater than the then market rate. All of a sudden (according to my friend, you already know my opinion) people realized that they could probably earn much more from the property, given the desperate situation of the company. They then asked for 10 times more than the amount that was initially agreed on. Must had been a big surprise for a company which generally habituated giving the lesser amount than the agreed plan, isn’t it? And of course not a pleasant one. I could really understand how bad my friend must have felt but still did not appreciate the “morality” point that he used.

I asked him how come he was the person who could decide on the amount for which a farmer should have been happy? One can be happy with “x” amount and other may be at “10x”. The company was out there to make money on the basis of people’s greed! Why was he then getting flustered when people showed the character that is rewarded in capitalism? This is after all, what capitalism is based on!!!

And my knowledgeable friend got furious and stressed again and again that it was a question of morality and not economics. I was surprised by the fact that ‘my friend’ was not acknowledging the basic principles of capitalist economics. I politely suggested we should probably go back to our basic economics books again and let “morality” be in an economic negotiation based on market principles driven by profit.

As we decided to conclude on a note of respectful disagreement, I told my friend how I wish corporate bosses in my country actually felt land transactions aren’t about economics and buying and selling of land are not driven by maximizing profit but by the morals of what is good and what is bad and about being a good human being or a bad human being. I only wish!

Tribals determined to bring back green cover in vast brown wasteland

Chitrangi Tehsil of Singrauli District of Madhya Pradesh is characterized by rugged undulating landscape with clumps of stunted trees and scrubs. Although some of these areas are delineated as forest lands, especially the hillocks, they are devoid of any vegetation, including grasses. High rate of soil erosion and surface water run-off during monsoons have completely destroyed the top-soil of the area and exposed rocks and stones. One can only see vast brown land till the horizon in all direction. Some old and large trees are found, which provide some soothing effect to the otherwise harsh landscape and also prove that the flora of the area was very different than the present.

The area is habitat for many primitive tribes (Officially known as Particularly Vulnerable Tribe Groups), such as Baiga, Agaria and Kol. Although traditionally these tribal groups were hunters and gatherers, due to loss of forest cover and natural vegetations, they were forced to shift to agriculture. Presently they are solely dependent on the agriculture based livelihood practices. They practice subsistence agriculture. These people were found to practice traditional method of agriculture with minimum use of fertilizers, bad quality seeds and complete dependency on rain. The tribal population had no knowledge about good agricultural practices and no inputs in terms of material or technical support was provided from the government agencies. It is totally cut-off from the development of the outside world and accounts for one of the poorest segments of the district with lack of livelihood opportunities, high illiteracy, poor educational infrastructure and poor health care access.

It was further found that the locals did not have concepts of planting fruit-bearing trees or vegetables in the vicinity of their houses. The very idea of consumption of vegetables and fruits were non-existent in the area. During initial interaction with the villagers, it was felt that they had never even thought of plantations. Whatever vegetation existed were naturally grown and there was no initiative on the part of the villagers to develop plantations or green areas. People survived mainly on cereals such as rice, kodo (a minor millet), maize, etc, thus reducing their nutritional status and increasing the incidence of malnutrition among children and anemia among women.

The Intervention

This situation existed till the time people were motivated to plant commercially and nutritionally viable trees and vegetables near their homestead plots. It was thought that even if the villagers did not sell the produce in the market, they would at least consume it themselves, thus at least will have a nutritionally balanced diet. The process of motivation for planting trees took almost a year to bear fruit (pun intended!). After the motivation stage, however, 350 families showed their willingness to take up the challenge. They were provided with fruit bearing trees such as Papaya, Guava, Jamun, Amla (Indian Gooseberry), Jack-fruits, Mahua and Mulberry. Over a period of two years, about 2450 trees have been planted across 7 villages. The care of these trees was a joint responsibility of the local SHGs and the owner of the plot. Other than this, bamboos have been planted in about 300 plots during the last two years. Each plot has about 10 trees. The survival rate of the trees has been over 90%! This is a sure reflection of the fact that the local people have taken ownership of these trees and have taken care of them, even during extreme climatic conditions.

Due to continuous pressure created by the villagers as well as SGH members on the Forest Department, they have initiated the process of afforestation on barren hillocks since last year. About 2000 trees were planted on a barren hillock demarcated as forest land. Although the survival rate was about 60% in these hillocks, in the first year, the process of plantation has been at least initiated.

Along with the tree plantations, people have been encouraged to develop vegetable gardens. Nurseries have been developed in all the project villages which is being cared by the villagers under supervision of the SHGs. These plants are then distributed to individual beneficiaries, who plant them in their homestead plots. Waste-water pits have been made near to all hand-pumps so that the stored waste-water is used for the nurseries and tree saplings. This has also demonstrated to the villagers how to recycle water in an already water scarce area.

Change

As the initiative of tree plantation is a recent event, it is difficult to ascertain the quantitative impact of the initiative. However a major change was observed in the attitude of people for tree plantation. In many villages, people were found to plant trees on their own and said they wanted to get attached to the programme.

The vegetable plantation was a big success from two other aspects. Firstly, some families were found to sell vegetables in the market and were able to get additional income. Secondly, the families who did not, saved the money that would have spent in buying vegetables. And this is only the monetary benefit. The fact the families consumed much more green vegetables than they would have usually had, in this highly malnutrition affected areas, may not be quantified as a benefit at this point but there is enough research material that shows the immense health benefits of doing so. Many families mentioned during the interactions that this was the first time that they had so much vegetable as part of their diet. They also say that they never thought that vegetables can grow in this scale in such barren areas. The success of this venture led to many groups replicating the nursery model. In the first year there were about 6 village nurseries which increased to 13 in the second year.

Encouraging plantation of trees and vegetables in this area has changed the mindset of the people. Afforestation of the area, even at the rate of 2000 trees per year, will lead to gradual regeneration of the soil and increase moisture level and biomass in soil.

Although it is early to say that this intervention is great success, it can be safely concluded that there has been a positive trend towards increase in awareness regarding importance of trees in strengthening their livelihood and quality of life.   

The modest beginning that started from a dilapidated school building situated at a far flung village, on World Environment Day three years ago has reached to barren hillocks in the horizon, when local tribal villagers could show the Forest Department the way to bring back forest in this brown land.

My Experience with Rehabilitation & Resettlement - To Begin With......

I have worked for more than 8 years in various R&R projects. In this time period closely watched 25 mega development projects. The land acquisition was to the tune of 5000 hectare or more in each project. I followed those project areas even after the projects came to an end- sometimes for Social Impact Assessment (SIA) studies and other times owing to pure academic interest. I have overseen projects mostly in northern states. The only exception was Andhra Pradesh. The experiences that I would share are from states of Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Bihar.

It was interesting to observe that none of the project promoter be it government agency or private, want to deal with the project that has any rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) issue. As per the promoters the problematic nature of R&R issue can cause such delay in the implementation of the project that in most cases project become economically unviable. Therefore sincere effort goes to identify a land with least R&R issues unlike Singur in West Bengal or Jajpur in Odisha. 

I have witnessed on the one hand, State Governments bargaining with industrialist for the best rehabilitation package and the Chief Secretary of the state fighting for one job per family or for subsistence allowance as if he himself is loosing land and house. It makes me ponder why I doubt the government is really for the people, of the people, by the people. On the other hand, I have also seen entire government machinery working for the project developer and accepting meager package towards R&R. The Project Affected People (PAP) are the worst loser in this case. Definitely economic agenda and nature of governance at state level play a major role in deciding R&R packages. The more the state government is ready to bargain, the better it is for the people.

As per my personal experience nearly 90% project affected families gets due as per the R&R package as decided for the project and disbursement happen with proper guidelines. Then where lies a problem?

The first major flaw of R&R packages that I have experiences is though there is provision for ‘land for land’ compensation but people “opt” (if it can be called a choice that is) for ‘cash for land’. The flaw is that people can opt! This is an uninformed choice. The primary reasons for such acceptance that in these areas agriculture doesn’t sustain their families for entire year. They have not given a fair opportunity to develop their lands and agriculture. This is coupled with their apprehension that the land that will be offered would be distantly located. Therefore the PAP families don’t even bargain for ‘land for land’ compensation.

Secondly, there is another provision of subsistence allowance. This should be given to each family each month throughout the life of the project. The clever project promoters bargain for one time compensation to free themselves from any long-term liability. Again PAP families unaware of the implication accept this as the amount that is paid one time is beyond their imagination.

Are you wondering why the PAP families again become marginalized after getting such handsome package? It is because no one bothers to prepare the community or assist them with financial planning. The community needs hand holding for considerable time for both financial planning at household level or awareness about their rights and duties. Without any guidance the unaware and mostly un-educated people become subject to exploitation by their own relatives, village opinion leaders, vehicle dealers, insurance companies and most importantly mushrooming liquor shops in the vicinity.

A sincere effort from the Project promotes should go into the skill development trainings and awareness generation on their rights under packages from very beginning of project conceptualization to save vulnerable people from such exploitation. The PAP families should be made aware of benefits of R&R package that includes assistance in health, livelihood and infrastructure development and under Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR, the business concerns involved are mandated to increase their quality of living.

The proper networking among government machinery, NGOs and project promoters can assist the vulnerable community and in return the dream of inclusive growth may get a shape. But is anyone even thinking about them? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind…

On International Women's Day, 2013

Today is International Women’s Day and some of my friends sent me a message saying “Its Our Day”! The phrase suddenly brings forth so many faces and experiences in my mind at the same point of time that I got captivated by my thoughts. In all those faces I see myself in different phases of my life. I can actually connect with the experience and reactions of all. I got lost into a vast space wherein I have interacted with these women who are in a way parts of me only. 

I met my Grandma in my mind, who in her bid to maintain dignity never lost her temper ever, in spite of all the social stigma that she had to bear throughout her life. She never mouthed any bad word even as she carried around all the deep mental bruises throughout her life. It’s may be because of her that I find abuses absolutely intolerable. And today we, an extended huge family with perhaps more than 250 members, put her in pedestal of epitome of dignified women. I wonder if anybody ever asked her whether she was happy about the way she portrays herself and lived her life? 

I met my family-friend, in my mind, who is well qualified, economically independent urban woman. Or so we thought for the past 10 years of more. All of a sudden after all these years we had to get to know that she suffered physical abuse from the very next day of her marriage. She stays in the relationship much like any other domestic violence victim and we keep living in the hope that one day she would gather broken pieces of her spirit, put them together and would live a life. And we wait for the day when we can be of any real help to her.

I get highly encourages when Shukhmanti comes to my mind. She is member of the  Dalit community who had to bear abuses after coming back from workshop by fellow villagers (obviously from higher castes). The guy had the audacity to ask who she spent the night with! But Sukhmanti remained calm and told him, “Whatever I might have done last night, whoever I have been with, whenever I come back, its my life. And you know what! I will not even touch you with barge pole”.

An adolescent girl started working with us in the village and in due course got married. Its only a few months back that she asked me ‘Can I get a cycle so that I can cover more area and dissemination is much faster?’ All of a sudden I got a call the other day informing that she would not be part of the process of village development any more. What was the reason? The informed reason was that her in-laws especially mother in law don’t want her to work.  It was a shocking and saddening moment for me. During my next visit I went to her in laws place to have an informal chat with her extended family and without telling anything about the subject I gave her a hug and left. Both of us had tears in our eyes. Next day she came to the centre with her mother in law and to my surprise her mother in law assured me that the girl would work and its her responsibility to make it happen. Very important to note here that it’s the husband who was opposing her work not mother in law. My judgement that saas-bahu saga is most of the time a “made up story” got proved all over again.  

I met my confidante in tribal heartland when we decided to work with primitive tribal groups. Believe me the girl belongs to tribes who are hungry, poverty stricken as you might have seen in Discovery Channel. Unlike Africa when we entered their village the community threatened the girl that we might be Naxalites. The unmarried girl defying all social pressure came up as pioneer to change the future of their community. Now someone told me Basanti has become “Neta”, I am amazed, and a higher caste telling in public a tribal girl has became a “Leader”.

All these stories are about you and me, wherein we strive to be perfectly dignified women and never bother about our happiness. We undergo domestic violence without knowing definition and meaning moreover law (PWDVA, Visakha Judgement) to protect ourselves against domestic violence. Suddenly I discovered, it took me no less than nine years to understand the definition of domestic violence! Hence, no wonder that others are taking their time too. Whenever we try to step out of our socially defined roles there is constant attempt to assassin our character. We should look up to Sukhmanti and know what we need to do. We all need to understand these women vs women tales are patriarchal creations. We must also remember that like the menfolk we also need family support to work and there is no shame in admitting that.

The natural leader will emerge from each one of us the day we will start approving ourselves and don’t look for approvals from others. The day will be definitely ours.