Also, a proactive approach to total rehabilitation demands a paradigm shift from past experiences of R&R. As Bina Agarwal, an economist with the Indian Institute of Economic Growth noted once, There is a need for policy to shift away from its present relief oriented approach towards natures ills and peoples welfare in which the solution to nutrient depleted soils is seen to lie in externally added chemical nutrients, to depleting forests in monoculture plantations, to drought starvation in food-for-work programmes, to gender inequalities in ad hoc income generating schemes for women and so on. These solutions reflect an aspirin approach to development. They are neither curative nor preventive, they merely suppress the symptoms for a while.
In the context of Gopalpur, this implies making the plan more reflective of felt needs. To turn its R&R into a success, strong, sustainable and self-generative community activism needs to be institutionalised. Instead of a relief oriented appr-oach, the company needs to act as a creative facilitator of change. As the Chinese proverb succinctly puts it: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man, to fish and you feed him for life.
Further, the company needs to address the interrelated changes in the man-environment relationships such as in the mix of what is being produced locally and the technologies used, the processes by which decisions on products and technologies are arrived at, the knowledge systems on which such choices are based and the class and gender distribution of products and task.
Thus, for instance, in the context of the companys plans of afforestation at the rehabilitation site, this would imply a shift away from the currently favoured monocultural and commercial tree species to mixed species, including Kewra shrubs (the company has already sown around 25,000 shrubs) critical for local subsistence. Similarly, agricultural plans should focus on organic farming, mixed cropping and a plurality of water provisioning systems instead of just one large irrigation project (such as that of Rushikulya Dam proposed by the company). The latter aspect is especially relevant in the drought prone district of Ganjam.
