| Issue 26 Vol II, October 31, 2006 | Archive |
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Caste and Cleanliness: Dirt and Dross of the Mind WHEN Malaysians proudly declare that Kuala Lumpur has the best most and modern airport in the world , they make no empty boast. This spick and span airport shines like a freshly cut jewel. There are no milling crowds and long queues of harassed passengers like at many other international airports. Services are maintained skillfully and efficiently.
All this is worth cherishing. But how do these our own Asian brothers who won freedom in 1957, ten years later than Indians, have accomplished this remarkable feat. Cities are well planned and well kept. An Indian, used to living in the squalid milling towns and cities does find it hard to explain. Even our best cities like Chandigarh and Bangalore are losing their charm. Malaysians not only keep their homes and offices clean but their transport systems , housing complexes and streets and roads are all neat and clean. In look Kuala Lumpur compares to any western city. The question as to how do the Malaysians of such diverse culture have achieved this nags me as it does any other south Asian visitor. I ask a third generation Punjabi youth, a budding lawyer, Swaran Singh Sidhu to provide me an answer. “They have imbibed a great sense of civic responsibility at all levels, be that government, community or individual. All strive to keep their homes, streets, roads and public places clean from dirt and dross. Rains are a daily natural phenomenon and so is cleanliness,” he says with pride. Yet A feeling of a little loss that the country of his origin can not lay any such claim nags him. His frequent visits tell him of the state of affairs. In India we try hard to keep our homes clean and even the poor make effort for that. But the civic sense seems to end there. We have huge budgets for villages, towns and cities besides for roads. But these are god forsaken places, dirty and puddles full of stagnant water that cause sickness. How many lives are lost due to malaria, tuberculosis and fevers of great variety. How many man-hours are wasted due these illnesses. one reason could be corruption that breeds inefficiency . In fact, they go hand in hand. Did not late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi calculate famously that out of one rupee marked for development , finally only ten paisa are actually spent. I pose these questions. “Malaysia too has corruption at many levels. But people and officials maintain services, normally obey laws and follow rules and regulations. That way Malaysians are different,” the young lawyer replies still debating for a more clear answer. About population we both agree. Should not more hands mean better cleanliness and not less. Again, there is a marked difference between the dirty north and comparatively cleaner south. How does one explain Punjab chief minister’s spending Rs three crores or perhaps more on just renovating his office where one does not know how many more months he stays. His Haryana counterpart has followed suit. Yet look around the civil secretariat’s most modern building and one can spot heaps of rubbish, bushes and litter. Some pockets just stink. Funds far sure like our municipal committees and state or central governments are not the problem. We have plenty if we wish to. No one cares as everyone shoots out in air condition cars. Every visitor has noticed this deterioration over the years. In India during the past everyone who counts has been sermonising the country on urban renewal. This means there is realisation at many levels. Our prime minister, finance minister and the planning commission wish to save our stagnating cities and towns from utter ruin. They all desire to infuse fresh life into the reform agenda. They suggest that more political space be created to sustain 8-9% economic growth. A key role in the growth story will be played by infrastructure investment. They talk gleefully of the $300-odd billion infrastructure investment in sectors like highways, power, ports and so on. However, urban needs and civic amenities are sorely missing in this infrastructure arithmetic. But missing are the city roads and street lighting, water and sanitation lines, solid waste management systems and houses for those who like sub human live in slums and yet though their cheap labour make the city life possible. The union and state governments have quietly washed off their hands of this capital investment responsibility by passing on the functional domain to civic bodies. These items of urban infrastructure also suffer from a visibility problem – they appear trivial when compared to muscular infrastructure projects that attract the imagination of our ruling elites. An upcoming super power must aim at big things. One result is that neither at the national level nor at the state there is there any real estimate of building clean and healthy cities and towns. At the level of mindset there is a far more serious problem. Why do Indians lack civic sense? Perhaps the answer is in our centuries old rotten and oppressive caste system where those who work are denigrated and pushed to the lowest ebb of social hierarchy. When we learn to respect work; the menial work of the sweepers and scavengers and bring it to the level of the elite “Brahmins”, the battle for clean environment would be won. |
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Empowering
Society with water vision Farmer Mohinder Singh and his three family members consumed pesticide in Khiyali village near Raikot last month. They soon died one after one another despite best efforts to save them. Reason debt accumulated over the years. The water woes had continued to haunt this family. Since there was no canal water and falling ground water level, 100 feet deep meant more investments, this pushed Mohinder into a debt trap, not uncommon in a high cost farm production. Many farmers are forced to dig deep tube wells every second or third year. Water-suicides are a new crisis in this otherwise prosperous state. Over drawl for water guzzling plants in Punjab are eclipsing its agriculture economy. They are also ruining its ecology, health and social fabric apart from destroying the water heritage and cultural value system. The stress and strain due to water crisis is taking Punjab into unending series of suicides.
We inherited a water tradition which was de-centralized and managed by community, the stakeholders . Each community has its own water-order wherein they treat water as an integral part of nature and not merely a resource used to meet ever increasing human demands. This water-order reflects in our social customs, traditions, beliefs and knowledge systems. Environmental justice to all living beings and sustainability are the foundations of this water-order. It covers all aspects of environmental, agricultural and economic sustainability along with social and cultural security. It also defines our relation with water. Unfortunately, Punjab has lost its inherited water-order. Then what could be the way-out for Punjab. What is water vision of Punjab and what Punjab government follows? Interestingly Punjab has no state water policy as of now. In 2004 a draft water policy was circulated within governmental circles. it is still hangs at stage. Ironically, there is no space for community initiative and participation in the proposed draft policy frame work. To begin with, let the people of Punjab have a water budget. As we manage our finances by budgeting, the water has to be budgeted too. It has to be done on various scales, such as – individual, village, block, district, town, geo-climatic sub-zone, river basins and then entire state, then sectoral levels like agriculture, industry and domestic supply. This water budgeting shall be based on equity, sustainability and harmony with nature along with social and environmental justice. We have to think about sustainable consumption pattern also. A systematic effort to curb ever increasing demand for water is earnestly required. The systems imposed by new economic-order of globalization by World Bank and international funding agencies, will certainly leave no scope for this inter-dependent life systems of shared and community governance. The new water pricing policy is going to rout our social systems too. The drinking water can not be and should not be controlled by the market forces. We have to prioritize the water supply according to social and environmental justice and make the pricing system based on these. Drinking water is a basic human need. First the community institutions were dismantled, the colonial regime has taken over entire control and has continued even after independence and now GOI, Planning Commission along with World Bank is talking about community management. Now government proposed to hand over water supply to panchayts, but it will certainly not work. The society has lost its capacity, its water vision and water-order and can not manage on its own. colonial rulers sapped any initiative we did not rectify this after independence. Earlier the society was stripped off its sense of relation with water and now all of sudden the government wants it to manage. *Eminent environmentalist and Water Guru Anupam Mishra questions this new found love for new participatory concepts like Joint Forest Management and others. The rulers and planners who had made management of our land, water and forest ' solo' first? Our society had shared management system since time immemorial". When state institution failed in managing things , then the talk about community participation began. Society has to be empowered first. It needs to go through a capacity building process to reinstall its own water–order. When a society loses its water vision and heritage it is bound to plunge into water devastation. The resource intensive development technology has converted the water into a commodity – only a consumer good. When there is no well defined relation then how will society move towards water conservation. If we want to conserve water then, what are the requirements of Punjab? Is it technology, money, guidance by developmental professionals and scientists from departments and Agriculture University or directions by World Bank? Some efforts have been made. For example, Sant Balbir Singh Senchewal work on holy Kali Bein rivulet in Punjab, but the entire governmental, bureaucratic and technocratic system still lacks the vision. Because the present developmental paradigm is not native to Punjab and its people, we are still over taken by European motives and methods by forgetting the spirit within our society. That is why our actions are poor in will, unsustainable in form and ineffective in results as they do not come from our own roots. The initiatives of Tarun Bharat Sangh by Magsaysay award winner Rajinder Singh in the district of Alwar and Laporia Navyuvak Vikas Mandal led by water worrier Laxman Singh in Jaipur district, are two exemplary success stories from Rajasthan. With much less rain fall as compared to Punjab the villagers have become self-sufficient in water without much help from government., They have retraced their water-heritage, re-enacted water-order and made the community the real custodian of water. Then there is another example of Doodhatoli Lok Vikas Sangthan situated in Pouri Garwal of Uttarakhand , where efforts have brought back the lost forest cover, including the entire biodiversity and wild life. The high mountain springs had dried due to deforestation and soil erosion which has once again become alive and perennial. These three examples reveal how community initiatives to formulate a strict water-order, social- discipline and urge for sacrifice have borne fruit. Punjab can do the same by adopting their experiences in accordance with its own conditions and eco-system. Punjab doesn't need technology, guidance by World Bank or developmental professionals; it needs only its water-order and water-vision. Just empower the society with these and the rest will follow. [Author is Executive Director of Kheti Virasat Mission. Jaitu, Faridkot in Punjab. umendradutt@gmail.com] |
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Kuala Lumpur
drives its name from the confluence of two rivers, the Klang and the Gombak
that sill flow quietly together, barely noticed amid the dwarfing skyline of
gleaming new hotels and office buildings. The Petronas Twin Towers, 452
meters, are the world’s tallest buildings. Situated midway along the west
coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur sits at the centre of the
Peninsula's extensive and modern transportation network. With a population
of over one and a half million people drawn from all of Malaysia's many
ethnic groups it can rightly claim to be as well maintained as its airport
and its adjacent capital city of Putrajaya as an example of modern day town
planning. Its roads, lanes and by lanes are all clean and fascinating. Add
to this Malaysia's cultural mosaic particularly the ancient Malay culture,
and the cultures of its two most prominent trading partners throughout
history, the Chinese, and the Indians. These three groups are joined by a
dizzying array of indigenous tribes, many of which live in the forests and
coastal areas of Borneo island. Ethnic and cultural issues do create
problems but are kept at bay.