Sustainable Development of India – A Gandhian Approach

By Anil K. Rajvanshi

The energy situation in India is quite alarming. Energy is the basis of all activities. From it flow activities in agricultural, economic and social areas. Without adequate energy, the development of the country is jeopardized resulting in economic stagnation and hence in tremendous internal upheavals. Consider the following facts:

In 2001-02 India imported petroleum products worth Rs. 70,000 crore1 . The demand of petroleum products in the country is increasing at 7-8% per annum thereby further increasing the imports and jeopardizing the security of the country.

It is a matter of shame for all of us that even after 55 years of independence there are around 65% of all rural households in India who have no electricity2 . The electricity shortfall in India is estimated to be 15000 MW and the Government of India does not have money to install this additional capacity. India requires about 140,000 MW of additional capacity by the year 2010, with an estimated outlay of about Rs. 5,50,000 crore. Because of tremendous shortage of electricity, industrial growth and general life in the country is seriously affected3. Moreover with any problems in the national grid, rural areas are affected most, since the state electricity boards provide urban areas with electricity on priority basis.
In the ghettos of Delhi and Surat (the twelfth largest city and the fastest growing city in India with a population of about 2 million) about 500 people died of dengue fever in 1996 and of plague in 1994 respectively. This was a direct consequence of extremely unhygienic, filthy and overcrowded conditions prevalent in the two cities. The ghettos are composed of migrant laborers from rural areas. The plague epidemic had a very negative effect on foreign investment in India4 .

In Mumbai, in 1992 about 400 people died and property worth crores of rupees was looted and destroyed as an aftermath of destruction of Babri mosque located 2000 km away in a remote town of Uttar Pradesh. Similarly large number of people in Gujarat were killed in 2001 because of communal violence. The events had little to do with the purported cause but were due to a release of pent-up emotions of a population which is mostly made up of migrants from rural areas and who live in overcrowded and increasingly difficult conditions. The events in Mumbai (the commercial capital of India) and Gujarat had a very negative effect on international and local investment5. The effects are felt even today.

Between 1950 to 1995, Government of India spent Rs. 50,000 crores on surface irrigation projects, including storage facilities. Till today only 50% of these irrigation facilities, built at such an enormous cost, are being properly utilized. Hence most of the country routinely goes through the cycle of floods and droughts. And there is a perpetual shortage of drinking water in almost all the regions of the country. Besides, the increased use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides to sustain Green Revolution is reducing the fertility of land, thereby compounding the land-water management problem6 .

We are having exploding population, large-scale unemployment and corruption with nearly one third of the population living below poverty line.

There is a tremendous rise of fundamental militancy in the country, which is a direct result of poverty and unemployment.

Developing countries are spending between 2 and 8% of their GNP on medical costs related to declining environment. Thus in India, the number of premature deaths in cities due to environmental pollution is ~ 52,000/year and the number of hospitalizations (due to asthma and other lung-related diseases) was ~ 25 million last year. These casualties cost India about Rs. 4600 crore/year, which is equivalent to the cost of adding 1150 MW electricity to the grid every year7 .

We feel that these events are a direct consequence of lopsided development model that India has been following and which is leading to an undercurrent of economic discontent. The model is based on 50-100 year-old model of Western countries, which includes centralized energy production, development of megacities at the expense of rural areas and the unsustainable husbanding of land. This development model has led to high levels of unemployment and poor quality of life in rural India and large-scale exodus of the population to big cities. This exodus is the result of lack of sustainable agriculture in rural areas. Gandhiji had all along advocated a decentralized model and we feel that had we followed it just after independence our situation might have been much better than today.

It can also be argued that the above situation and events have come about because of mismanagement by and corruption in the Indian Government. But it is our belief that the centralized big-government model in developing countries inherently leads to corruption and mismanagement.

Agriculture is mostly dependent on energy. Lack of energy is therefore the single-most important reason for decline of agriculture-based activity and hence the economic activity in rural areas. A sustainable food and energy strategy for rural areas will therefore create new economic activity and can stem the desperate exodus to cities. With an ever-increasing unmet demand for goods and services, because of economic reasons, a great chasm is developing between haves and have-nots, which is resulting in conflict and a general unrest in the country. The present slowdown in Indian economy is also creating large-scale unemployment and could further create frightening scenarios of social instability if timely correction is not made.

The increase in demand for goods has also led to a sharp increase in energy usage, both in urban and rural areas. With increased penetration of electronic media, the citizens of developing countries aspire for quality of life available in developed countries. Sometimes one wonders whether the wasteful Western quality of life is better and desirable. For example, the US alone is contributing 30% of global green house gas pollution8 . However, if all the people in developing countries like India and China (40% of mankind) have energy consumption similar to that in U.S. or Europe, then it will have a disastrous effect on the world economy and environment. Thus there are estimates that oil energy consumption in developing countries could surpass that in developed countries within 20 years 9. This will create great conflict among nations and it is quite possible that in future the wars will be fought over energy resources. The present crisis in Iraq is basically an oil war. There is, therefore, a need for an alternative development model based upon renewable energies, which is decentralized and takes into account the aspirations of the rural population.

Historically, it has been shown that the quality of life is proportional to the per capita energy consumption. Energy consumption of a country can be broken into two parts -- the cumulative energy consumption EI = ò Ec dt, where Ec is energy consumption of the country at any point in time and EII - the energy consumption per capita per year. EI goes in building infrastructure like roads, bridges, power plants, communication networks, etc. During the early and middle parts of this century, developing countries because of historical reasons (most of them were colonized), had very little of EI. Thus it is difficult for them to reach the U.S. or European quality of life, even if EII somehow becomes available. Since the lifestyle in Western countries is unattainable, we should try to develop an alternative lifestyle in India.

I think a lifestyle based on the maxim of ‘simple living and high thinking’ is a possible choice. Thus our ancient philosophical thought should be used to temper our greed for resources and energy. Gandhiji showed that with minimum needs and energy he was capable of producing the highest quality of thought. This has also been the tradition of our great saints10 . India has a great tradition of spirituality. Spirituality and sustainable development can go hand in hand11. Spirituality helps in keeping our greed for materials and resources in check and sustainable development can take place when we use the resources for our needs and not for our greed as Gandhiji once said. Spirituality also helps us have a compassionate view of nature, which prevents us from overexploiting it. It also tempers fundamentalist mentality and helps us live in harmony with each other thereby enabling us to work together for common good. Spirituality and efficient technology are complementary because both allow the realization of end result with least amount of materials and energy. I believe that a combination of high technology together with the spiritual growth guided by the traditions of India will be a new paradigm of sustainable development for the country. The Gandhian model may be difficult to follow, but it shows the way towards low energy development strategy.

In India about 75% of the population lives in rural and semi-urban areas. It is estimated that for the next 50 years or so, the major part of population in India and other developing countries will still be village-based. Hence rather than pumping in huge resources in urban areas where the quality of life is becoming worse by continuing on the present path, it is much better to improve the quality of life in rural areas through an alternative model based upon sustainable growth and renewable energy.

In the past, most development efforts for rural poor have focused on villages. But because of inadequate infrastructure, income-generating capability and economic power, they have become sinks for development funds. There are a large number of examples the world over where well- meaning development efforts in small villages have not yielded the desired results. Villages are small but they are unsustainable. Cities in developing countries on the other hand may have rapid growth and development, but they have an ugly growth pattern. Therefore a middle path model based on taluka development is being proposed for a sustainable rural society.

Gandhiji always talked about his dream village. However he was never able to spell out exactly what that village will be. Being not conversant with economic and technological issues he probably did not have the language to express his dream about the ideal village. However being an extremely enlightened person he intuitively realized that it should be a unit, which will give employment, money and general wellbeing to its citizens. That we feel is possible with an energy and food self sufficient Taluka.

WHAT IS A TALUKA?
A taluka is an administrative block generally comprising about 90-100 contiguous villages, with a small town as its headquarters. On an average 8 to 10 talukas make up a district. For example, in Maharashtra state there are 30 districts and 236 talukas. The average area of a taluka is ~ 1000-1500 km2 and its total population is between 200,000 to 250,000. The town population is about 50,000. Data on commercial energy usage show that on an average a taluka consumes about 10-15 MW of electricity and about 10-15 million litres/year of petroleum products12 . There are about 3342 talukas in India. The major economic activity in a Taluka is primarily agriculture-based.

Since the geographical boundaries of a taluka are fixed, it can be thought of as a closed biomass and rainwater basin. It is the thesis of the author that a taluka can produce a majority of its demand of food, fuel, fodder and fertilizer from the natural resources and agro-based material available in it and hence the development can be truly sustainable. For some talukas that do not have sufficient biomass, other energy sources like solar and wind can be used to produce energy.

WHY A TALUKA-BASED MODEL?
Societies are living and dynamic structures. In an evolutionary process they can be thought to follow the laws of a natural living system. The hallmark of evolution of a dynamic system is its size reduction; increase in energy usage efficiency; increase in complexity; possession of critical mass, and its "punctuated equilibrium" with the surroundings. In the "punctuated equilibrium" phase, the system stabilizes for a certain time13 . One of the crucial conditions for the evolution of a dynamic system is the availability of critical mass. The critical mass enables the system to process materials and energy through it and hence allows it to grow. If the critical mass is not available, the system does not grow and dies-off.

Societies can also be thought to be like Prigogine’s dissipative structures14 . For example, a convection cell in a body of water heated from below is a dissipative structure and is energy- dependent. The resulting shape of these structures therefore depends on the quality and quantity of energy passing through them14 . The systems possessing a critical mass grow with energy input and go through a ‘punctuated equilibrium’ phase after which they become unstable and collapse into smaller systems. These small systems then coalesce through time and again form a critical mass and the cycle continues.

However for the societal systems to grow in a sustainable manner, certain conditions have to be fulfilled. Thus sustainable systems can be compared to a chair15 . The four legs of this chair can be thought to be made of four activities; Energy, Economic, Environmental and Equity (social/cultural issues). All of them have to be of equal size for comfortable sitting and interconnected to provide stability. The base (seat) has to be of the right size. Too big a base will make the chair sag and too small will make it unstable. Correct base size can therefore be thought of as the critical mass.

It is our thesis that because of its population size and its fairly developed infrastructure, a taluka has the ability to form a critical mass for a sustainable society for developing countries. With proper use of its agricultural and natural resources, it can produce food, feed and fertilizer in a self-reliant, environmentally sound and economically attractive manner. Hence it can provide the four legs of the chair for sustainable development. As the energy and other resources available are decentralized in nature, a taluka can form an appropriate ‘dissipative structure’ and can remain in ‘punctuated equilibrium’ phase.

From the above evolutionary model it can also be conjectured that in future, with the increasing use of renewable energy, all societies will evolve to be decentralized, high technology-dependent and village-based. Similarly, the mega-cities will break into smaller sustainable units. India is already a village-based decentralized society. Hence, instead of following the mega-city-based model, it is better to arrest this trend by introducing high- technology systems in a taluka. These high-technology systems may include internet connectivity, desktop-manufacturing units, and micropower production systems like microturbines and fuel cells.

TALUKA MODEL
India produces in its Talukas ~ 400 million tons/year of agricultural residues which theoretically can produce ~ 53,000 MW of power via biomass-based power plants12. This power is 70% of the total amount available in the country at present from all other sources3 . Not only can these residues produce adequate power to supplement existing power production, but husbanding this resource properly can also produce adequate animal feed and fertilizer. With increasing food production, the quantity of agricultural residues will also increase. Its judicious use will improve the rural economy and the quality of land. However, this agricultural residue is spread all over the country and is dispersed. This points towards decentralized power production systems.

Besides producing power, the challenge is also to maintain high quality and productivity of land so that food, animal feed, fertilizer and fuel could be produced in a sustainable manner from it. For this, water and soil conservation has to be implemented. It is possible to achieve this by rainwater harvesting and by planting trees and grasses and general management of biomass resources in the talukas. As the economic returns will be directly dependent on the increased biomass production, the landowners in a taluka will take up such measures readily. The strategy will also help increase the income of the farmers (since they will get money from residues which are presently wasted), will provide jobs for laborers in each taluka to collect residues and will create employment in other biomass-based industries. It is estimated that each taluka can create about 30,000 new jobs from such activities16 .

Following this approach an Energy self-sufficient taluka model was developed16. This model was developed for Phaltan taluka. However we feel that this methodology can be easily used for other talukas in the country. The strategy for taking care of energy needs was based on biomass resources. Based upon the historical data of energy needs for Phaltan taluka it was found (as of 1995) that in 2000, it would require about 13 X 108 MJ of electricity and about 26 million litres of petroleum products (diesel, petrol and kerosene)16. It was also shown that all this energy could be easily met by biomass-based power plants, production of ethanol from sweet sorghum and from existing distilleries, and pyrolysis oil production from agricultural residues and energy plantations. Electricity from biomass-based power plants would replace the MSEB- supplied electricity, while ethanol and pyrolysis oil would replace the liquid petroleum products. The technology for producing all these products already exists17. This study also showed that with a capital input of Rs. 300 crore, Phaltan taluka can produce wealth of Rs. 220 crore/year and provide employment to about 30,000 people year-round. Thus the talukas in India have the potential of creating 10 crore new jobs and Rs. 7,26,000 crore wealth.

This benchmark study became the basis of national policy on energy self-sufficient talukas and was adopted by the Government of India in 1996 (ref. 11). As a part of this policy, presently all the states in India are collecting data on availability of biomass residues in their talukas. This study therefore showed that it is possible to provide all the energy needs of a taluka from its own resources, thereby pointing towards sustainability.

One of the tragedies of rural areas in India and other developing countries has been the lack of production of value-added goods. This has resulted in very little remuneration to the farmers and hence the depletion of rural wealth. We feel that a taluka provides a critical mass for production of agro-based value-added products. With availability of power and raw materials (agriculture-based), fertilizers, chemicals, processed food products, etc., can be produced. With smart ‘bench-top’ production facilities available in future, it may be possible to produce substantial amounts of locally consumed items. This will further help in increasing the wealth of a taluka and in creating extra employment. Recently, micropower projects like gas-based microturbines and fuel cells are becoming available17. They will further usher in an era of efficient small-scale manufacturing facilities. Identification and evaluation of such cutting-edge technologies for both agro-based industries and consumer products will help talukas leap-frog into the modern age.

Another natural resource, which is extremely necessary, for making Taluka program a reality is water. Sufficient water and energy can provide the energy and food security for the country. Large scale and centralized water schemes have not brought the desired result. There is therefore a need to promote decentralized water utilities for rural areas. The NARI study also showed that rain water harvesting in Phaltan talukas could yield 4 to 5 times more water than the existing resource (canal). The cost of water from such microutilities would be 1 paise/litre17.

POLICY ISSUES
The following policy issues will have to be addressed before the Taluka model becomes a reality:

- A policy decision will have to be made by the Government of India to set up a Taluka Development Corporation and invite private-sector participation in setting up power and water utilities in talukas. A partnership among the corporate sector, local NGOs and the government can be a new paradigm for rural development.

- A policy will also have to formulated so that the corporate sector will not only produce power/water, but will also be allowed to carry out its distribution. Most of the independent power projects have been bogged down by the disputes regarding distribution. Only possession of distribution rights will allow the utilities to make money and give good service. The local people managing their own affairs is on the Gandhian line of thinking.

Since both power and water production is from renewable sources (biomass and rain), existing norms, tax benefits and soft loans applicable to renewable energy sources should be made available to the corporate sector involved in the taluka program.

It is our thesis that in a democratic society like India, sustainable taluka development will decentralize economic and hence political power. Decentralization of economic and political power is the best bet against economic deprivation, corruption and unaccountable ruling elite and can be the engine for internal peace, stability and development of a compassionate society. It is my belief that development and democracy work best in a decentralized power structure, a message that was constantly preached by Gandhiji. I also feel that the taluka plan has the potential of producing a sustainable society for one-fifth of mankind (India’s population) and in the process can show the world a new way.

One of the great strengths of India is that the majority of its people can be satisfied with a few material comforts. This strength can become useful in the paradigm outlined in this paper. In a democratic setup, one cannot force the population into a certain lifestyle. But the existing traditions, norms, strengths etc. can be used to guide the society into sustainable living - a dream that was always projected by Gandhiji.