Developed India would have to solve pollution, climate change challenge

India's attempt to reduce poverty with high economic growth will be compromised if it is unable to provide better living spaces, writes Amarjeet Sinha

From the citizen to the Supreme Court, everyone is seized of the matter; the solution continues to elude. Living in a gas chamber is fast becoming a way of life. The extent may vary but the environmental degradation stares at us from every smog blanket, over-flowing sewerage, mountainous waste dumps, ugly urban suburbs, and ghastly lives of struggle for the laboring classes in cities least prepared for them. Pollution disrupts lives and livelihoods of people; it challenges healthy lives. It compromises the growth potential of nations, footfalls of foreign tourists, and quality of life. Solutions have to begin in full earnest. We can no longer postpone comprehensive solutions. We cannot let dereliction by the developed consuming economies derail our resolve for climate resilience through innovations. The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) reflects the priority for environmental, social and governance indicators. Sustainable economic progress can only come through environment friendly efforts, both for citizens and companies. It is the only way to go.

As someone studying communities and their collectives across rural India, I started looking at urban spaces with an open mind. I read a lot and spoke to even more people who suffer the consequences of poor Air Quality Index (AQI), a measure of pollution. The first thing that strikes you is the absence of community connection and collective action at the last mile, the basti or the ghetto. Never have I come across more disempowered citizens not knowing how to go about life, their morning chores, their water, their shelter, their waste disposal. Based on an understanding of people’s lives and livelihoods, the following appear to be the right options towards a possible solution.

First and foremost, local communities in bastis must have a voice in their own governance. Urban wards are too large for effective community collectives and local citizen action. We need elected leaders at the basti level. The ward must have basti-level direct elections to enable accountability and citizen-centric planning for a better life. Women’s collectives like the self-help groups or community collectives like a Basti Vikas Manch representing the poorest dwellers are a necessary condition before change happens.

Second, with the strengthening of community processes at the cutting edge, decentralisation must be given the institutional space it needs. Funds, functions and functionaries, with all the community connections, must devolve to urban local bodies and basti-level elected committees. Concrete drains will choke up and sewerage systems overflow, if community connection is not integral to the process. Behaviour change will only happen if communities own the initiatives. Build community organizations from below.

Third, those who have responsibilities must also have the resources. It should not be like the current arrangement where municipal bodies have the responsibilities but not the resources and urban development authorities have the resources but no citizen-centric responsibilities like education, public health, water supply, and sanitation. This disconnect must end immediately and a fixed percentage of stamp duties and other taxes collected from urban areas must devolve to the local bodies for the eighteen sectors that the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution makes them responsible for. We will need additional funds for rural and urban missions to prepare emerging growth areas for urban life. We need to be prepared to provide a life of dignity to the laboring poor. We need a Town and Country Planning Act that applies across the states, to enable planned growth with civic amenities in rural areas as well. The Rurban Mission has already prepared model laws and regulations for standards that can be adopted by states.

 
Fourth, regulation can only be effective if the institutional autonomy of experts and independently constituted regulatory bodies is respected. The more we interfere with the independent functioning of evidence-based regulatory bodies, the more climate change damage we will inflict on ourselves. Even the stubble-burning challenges of rural areas require evidence-based and community-owned scientific solutions. Insulate institutions from interference. Science, professionals, and community connect must lead our pursuits.

Fifth, our fixation with causal or single-factor analyses must give way to multi-disciplinary studies of adverse nature events and their possible solutions. Urban pollution challenges are a total of many factors and mono-causal explanations do not take us anywhere. It is time we realized the need for a multi-disciplinary team to fight climate change. Public transport, electric vehicles, safe cooking, construction without pollution, and waste to wealth, are also some illustrative areas of work. The discipline of Science and technology must also embrace Social Sciences, to enable community-led solutions.  

Sixth, poverty is a polluter and we must recognize the need for preparedness to provide lives of dignity for the urban poor. We need a solution to the housing challenge with amenities for all, in urban areas. Urban infrastructure needs to learn how other countries created sustainable homes with dignity for the poor. Wages cannot be left to market alone when hordes of unskilled labour or semi-skilled labour is willing to undertake informal, low-wage casual employment. Recognise the unemployment challenge and its role in depressing wages. If productivity and wages both rise, it does not create inflationary pressure. Wages of dignity are the need of the hour.

Seventh, waste to wealth is needed on scale and the best way to begin is with local communities. Sit with them. Trust them. Explain to them. Learn from them. Build a partnership with them. When communities own brick-and-mortar infrastructure improvements, the intervention sustains and improves human well-being; never without communities. Civil society organisations are needed on a very large scale to bridge gaps between the state and the citizen and to build capacity for cleaner lives and human well-being. Many more professionals are needed, to work with communities.

Eighth, out-of-the-box solutions require scientific innovations and systems of applying thought after experimentation. We must create a platform for innovations to the climate and AQI challenge.

Ninth, remember our ability to pollute is directly proportional to our wealth and acquisitions, our air conditioners and automobiles. Climate change and the AQI challenge call for equity of nations and bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. It is time for more interactive community games to take over the polluting ways of solitary entertainment. It is time for sports, culture, and community to actually become more integral to human lives in collectives, cutting across the class barrier.

India’s greatest challenge today is to sustain very high rates of growth to reduce poverty faster and to raise per capita incomes most. It stands to be compromised if we are not able to provide better living spaces for our citizens, a cleaner environment, a less or non-disruptive AQI level, and a greater consciousness to fight climate change. Waste to wealth has to become a way of life just as rethink on some elements of small is beautiful is also needed. The churning is on. Developed India calls for shared growth and well-being. COP 28 and climate financing, 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' – the universe as one family, the need for collaborative global governance based on evidence rather than might – are all relevant. However, for a developed India of our dreams, the climate and the AQI challenge will determine, what our trajectory is going to be. Quality urban spaces for large scale non-farm livelihoods are needed. An inclusive India must also be a climate-resilient India.

The writer is a retired civil servant.

These are the personal opinions of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the views of www.business-standard.com or the 'Business Standard' newspaper.