Utopia,Fantasy or a Possibility?

Utopia, Fantasy or a Possibility?

Suraksha Giri, April 29^th 2015

My father took to farming with a passion. In addition to grain and pulses he enjoyed raising vegetables, brinjals, chillies, cauliflower, tomatoes, okra, gourd, pumpkin. When the vegetables were ready for sale, they would be taken to the wholesale market by early dawn. By six my father would decide that the price was below cost and a loss to sell. He would drive his van to the nearest convent, hospital or orphanage and leave the bonanza for them. He could afford that gifting. To most Indian farmers it would be ruin. Today when tomato is sold in the wholesale market at Rs 13/kg it retails in the shops that same day at Rs 32/kg a 146% profit, passing over two or three hands. We have heard of farmers suicides. Have we any statistics to show how many middlemen of the produce have committed suicide? Irony is that as increasing farmers commit suicide, the demand for fresh produce and food has steadily grown. Farmers are not going out of business from lack of market but solely because market forces are not supportive of them. They are the weakest link in our food chain and the nation is only as strong as its weakest link.

Around 2.7 lakh farmers have committed suicide since 1995. This is what P Sainath in his article of July 15^th 2014, on “Agrarian Crisis, Farmers suicides” has to say:

“Are the suicides occurring because of drought and crop failure?

Farmers have been killing themselves in years when the crop has been excellent.  And in seasons when it has failed. They have taken their own lives in large numbers in very different years.  When it rains they lose out, when it doesn’t, they lose out worse. There have been awful suicide numbers in some good monsoon years. And so too,  in years of drought, which can make things more terrible.The suicides occurred overwhelmingly amongst cash crop farmers. Growers of cotton, sugar cane, groundnut, vanilla, coffee, pepper and others. Far fewer suicides occur amongst growers of paddy or wheat. Can we argue that drought kills cash crop farmers but not those cultivating food crops?

The monsoon does have a very real impact on agriculture. But it is by no means the main reason for the farm suicides. And with the bulk of those suicides occurring amongst cash crop farmers, the issues of debt, hyper-commercialization, exploding

input costs, water-use patterns, and severe price shocks and price volatility, come much more to the fore. All factors majorly driven by state policies.”

The theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for human motivation may still hold good for India for two thirds of the population. The basic primary needs stated by Maslow are:

Physiological Needs: the physical requirements for human survival. If these are not met, the human body cannot function properly and will ultimately fail. These are Air, water, & food clothing and shelter.

Safety Needs: health, personal, financial

Love / Belonging Needs: Family, friendship, intimacy

The other two needs towards the tip of the pyramid are Esteem & Self Actualisation.

          

The three basic needs are Survival Needs whether physical, social, personal. Survival Needs do not imply degradation. They suggest a strong foundation for the intellect and personality, to nurture talent and innovation, to inspire creativity. The last two needs are Elevation Needs.

                  An Interesting study would be to map individual farmer suicides against the fulfilment of the Survival Needs especially in the agriculture districts of cash and regular crops. Financial safety may be jeopardised with crop failure, natural disasters. Or feeling marginalised and on the edge of main stream society can lead to depression, isolation. Television unveils a world of great promise; personality, style, clothing, housing, education, medical care, food of many flavours. The products and services advertised are all connected with the three needs suggested by Maslow. They may be packaged with sophistication, technology design and aesthetics but the core value of the product is satisfying one of the above. Take the hair care ads. What are they motivating? Love, belonging needs of being able to attract intimacy & friendship among one’s peer group, family. Hunger, habitation, disease, natural calamity can wreck havoc on an already fragile existence. The visual bombardment of ads promise wealth, financial security and belonging, and these charge up the rural folk, make them walk out off their homes, lands or even take their own life.

           There are several ingredients on the table. We are commissioned to prepare a tasty and nutritious repast, well presented, smart and with sensory appeal. The theme is ‘Smart Cities’.

      What are the raw materials that the Government is looking at to prepare the Smart Cities? Core ingredients are proper sanitation, drinking water, housing, connectivity, medical care, education, markets and recreation, non polluting industry and corruption free work ethic.

       We can add one important ingredient to this and tweak the recipe a little. Smart cities are places where fresh produce is consumed and serves as the food hub for cold stores and food stocking for the mega cities they serve. Thus along with the government spend on Infrastructure, agriculture and food gets linked served by roads, railways, renewable energy, and water management. Smart Cities will use agriculture and human resource development as their core capital for value addition.

          There are two big spoilers in this recipe, Pollution and corruption and both will soon be escalated to a Disaster Management Concern going by the trends in our mega cities like Delhi. It is often mentioned that the area around the National Capital Region has very little agriculture land left. Strange that the names of many places still read ‘gaon’, village, as in Gurgaon which in early nineties was vast stretches of farm land as also Noida, Faridabad and even Hauz Khas where potters and dairy units lived alongside some sophisticated boutiques. Posh communities have sprung up with sprawling farm houses but these do not belong to our individual farmers but fashioned for lifestyle statements.               

         Introducing manufacturing in smart cities will turn them into polluted zones. Even non polluting industry like electronics creates a hazard called E –waste. Recycling involve significant risk to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaking of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. To change the electricity metre given free by the department a line’s man demands Rs 500 per metre changed. It is 15 minutes work, all materials are from the government and he is an employee of the government. Yet he thinks nothing of asking for the “tip” claiming he has to share it with his superiors. Such communities are “Wealth Cities”.

        Smart Cities would carry the certification: ‘Pollution free, Corruption free.’

     Smart Cities are individual self contained communities where instead of heavy manufacturing the focus is on development of people, skills, food technology, master artisans. Smart cities are not places for the poor and deprived. They are the choice of habitation for those who prefer quality of life to wealth making. Our schools need teachers, our hospitals nurses, doctors, we need engineers, carpenters, technicians. Smart cities have education as an industry, skill development institutions, agriculture as their gardens and alternate energy as

the fuel. Smart cities are well connected by road and rail, use cycle or solar powered buses for public transport, have smart shopping malls, food choices, entertainment. SEZ  & SDZ in Smart Cities mean Special Education Zone and Skill Development Zone. Smart Cities

would thrive on agriculture and human resource development of the human asset. We have inherited these as our legacy, why should we fritter them away in mimicking growth models of different cultures? Were we to translate the benefits of Smart Cities as healthy quality life and take a poll, the youth will opt to live in these places where there is food, work, quality living and entertainment, sufficient for every persons need and not for a persons greed. 

            Indians are patient, adaptable and accepted for their ability to blend into different cultures. The worker from Bengal makes the best dosas working in a café in Mumbai. Adopting Hindi as a language was a problem but salwar kameez has revolutionised Indian dressing. Idly, dosa is standard breakfast fare across the country, fresh batter packets are supplied by an enterprising Malayali in Ahmedabad along with the milk delivery. Chat, Mehendi and Sangeet are standard wedding events as much as beauty parlours and smart phones. The 1.25 billion Indians are not sleeping. They have evolved even when not governed. Now what is required is for governance is to connect the dots, build bridges in the gaps. There is a master plan already laid out; it’s taking time to emerge as governance is caught up with being in power.

          Enough land is already available under industrialisation, manufacturing. Many old PSU are defunct, or obsolete. They can be made over and reused for today’s requirement. The question is, is more land required for helping the majority of Indian people achieve their Survival Needs with dignity or is policy orientation required for enabling 1.25 billion live with harmony and grace with the security of their basic human rights? It’s not about the land, it’s not the resources, its not economics, its governance and vision.

       Governance is about ensuring quality human life. Good Governance recognises this and works for it and not for personal benefit. Corporate Enterprise is engaged in the creation of wealth. Good Governance is focussed and engaged on building the human asset, physically fit and healthy, mentally bright and alert. Strengthen the individual farmer and keep the nation strong.