Parul Gupta- Sustainable Development

Ox·y·mo·ron is a noun, referring to a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined. For example: deafening silence, mournful optimist, blank copy.

Some “experts” would want to add the phrase sustainable development to the above list of examples. Such critics of the concept of sustainable development also suggest that it should instead be termed as “sustainable de-growth”, since they believe that environment and development (or growth) are antithetical to each other; that is, environment degradation is the price that needs to be paid if development is to be achieved. Deteriorating environment is often linked with increasing economic activity, requiring deforestation, energy consumption etc. “Development” is usually held responsible for environmental damage, while environmentalists are accused of being “anti-development”! Even a popular economic concept, such as the “Environmental Kuznets’ Curve” suggests that environment degradation increases, with an initial rise in per-capita income, and later decreases with further development.

However, to view environment and development as antagonistic terms is to have a very narrow viewpoint. Once the perspective is broadened, development and environment can be seen as complementing each other.

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. In other words, development that meets the needs of current generation without compromising the needs of future generations is termed as sustainable development (as defined by the Brundtland Commission). Thus, when development is viewed in terms of “quality of life” and not mere “numbers”, the complementarity between environment and development comes to the fore.



To refute the notion that environment degradation is a necessary condition for growth and development, I suggest two propositions, which assert that environment and development can, and should exist simultaneously.

Firstly, development can help conserve environment. Thus, both growth and environment conservation can be achieved together.

Constructive intervention can help enhance the quality of environment; and development facilitates constructive intervention. Thus, development can not be provided as an excuse to hamper environment. In fact, progress in the field of science and technology has given us the tools to protect the environment. Efficient electrical appliances, fuel-efficient vehicles, better methods of recycling and waste disposal, the concept of green architecture and many other such techniques are all a result of scientific advancements, which have been made possible due to investment in the field of technology. Undoubtedly, technology has made us lazy and seemingly insensitive towards nature and environment, but no one can deny that technology alone has opened up possibilities of adopting a greener lifestyle. It is, therefore, our choice: whether we wish to use technology to conserve or destroy the environment.

Secondly, environment degradation can ultimately lead to reversal of development. Thus, harming the environment to achieve “higher growth” is surely a risky prospect.

Without a clean and green environment, development has no meaning. The starkest example of this proposition would be a person who earns a 7-digit salary, but suffers from respiratory diseases due to air pollution and hence has to spend a huge portion of her/his income on medical expenses!

In addition, pollution and depletion of natural resources adversely affects livelihoods of all those who are directly dependent on the environment. Fishermen, cultivators, dairy farmers and many others are deeply affected by water pollution, soil contamination, acid rains, depletion of bio-diversity and other forms of pollution. Thus degradation of environment clearly affects employment and growth.

Moreover, noted economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen asserts that environmental plunder affects distributive justice, which is an important branch of development. Pollution is caused by the affluent classes (effluents from industries, vehicular pollution, wastage of resources etc.) but its ultimate effects are borne by the disadvantaged (scarce resources, contaminated water, poor air quality etc.). Sen strongly condemns this “disguised manslaughter”. This clearly highlights the fact that severe environment damage can retard rather than promote development, through its strong distribution effects.

These linkages unambiguously underline the complementarity between environment and development. Without doubt, one can’t exist without the other.

Surely, sustainable development is not an “out of reach” phenomenon. To achieve it, we just need some simple measures, common sense, practicality and sensitivity towards the environment. We need an integration of developmental and environmental concerns. Every society, at each level can contribute towards conserving the environment. The government can make intelligent policies and ensure strict implementation of the laws. In addition, a system of incentives and disincentives could be devised, aimed at protecting the environment. For instance, efficient appliances (CFLs etc) could be subsidized, while pollution causing vehicles (fuel-guzzling SUVs) could be taxed heavily. Educational institutions can also contribute by spreading awareness and internalizing the issue in young minds, with the help of NGOs. Enterprises can fulfil their corporate social responsibility by minimizing wastage in their offices, using efficient equipment and adopting environment-friendly production processes. At the individual level, simple steps like minimizing wastage of paper, water and electricity at homes, avoiding littering in public places and above all, being aware and conscious of environment issues can go a long way in repaying our debt towards the environment.

To conclude, I would yet again assert that sustainable development is, by no means, an oxymoron. Instead, it is a phrase that needs to be incorporated in our lives at each level. It is an ideology that should be the foundation of government policies, if we genuinely wish to leave behind a clean and green Earth for our future generations.

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The Author is a III yr B.A. Economics Honours student and part of the Webteam of DevelopmentChannel.org

Aparna Bisht- New Avatar of Plastics

Plastics have reigned our surroundings for more than a century now. From pens, slippers,drinking water bottles, cups, mugs, plates,toys to high end mobiles and aircraft components..They are light, inexpensive and can be moulded in more than a million ways. However they were not known to conduct electricity till date. As advancement grows by leaps and bounds these plastics are to act in an opposite manner as insulator.

Intense research has offered flexible, energy saving alternatives that could revolutionise industrial economics.A German research institute has devised a hybrid solution in a composite material that causes the cost effective plastic to conduct electricity and also is resilient like metals.And also it does not require any machinery to develop the components.

The new avatar of plastic can replace conventional plastic in automobile and aircraft manufacturing to a great extent.The headlamps housings on a car can be made more efficient and cost effective by the new conductive hybrid. Aircraft fuselage are partly made of Carbon fibre components that do not conduct electricity and a lightning stroke can have fatal consequences.A plastic metal hybrid coating would act as a safe discharge structure on such components. It will no longer be necessary to integrate metal circuit boards and the components will soon be able to be produced in a single work step,leading to reduction in product cost and the weight of the material will also be reduced drastically. Only time Will test the impact of the new hybrid plastic on our lives!

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The Author is a II yr college student and member of the Hansraj College Website Team of DevelopmentChannel.org

Kirthi Rao- Environmental Change

While the indifferent have lived pretty happily till now, quite ignorant of the damage their apathy has lead to, it will no longer be possible. Part of the reason why common people ( let me define 'common' as people having access to basic education and a basic standard of living) have been able to ignore the environmental implications of their actions has been that they have been insulated from it. Lining one's home with wood when it wasn't really required, not bothering to relocate and rehabilitate cut trees, wasting water, avoiding pollution checks for one's vehicle, buying that shahtoosh shawl when the conservationists were crying themselves hoarse about the endangered species- none of these actions meant that your house would be hit by a tsunami, or your neighbourhood will become extra polluted or suddenly waterless or inhabitable. But, now very soon things will have to change.

I'm saying this because the nature has started retaliating. Of course we can develop newer technology to defend ourselves. But my point is that increasingly, it'll become a fighting race. I wonder if anyone has noticed the kind of smog we've experienced this winter. I agree that one always feels that the current situation is the worst ever, but this time many weather monitoring bodies like CSE (Centre for Science & Environment) agree with me and point out that the RSPM (respirable suspended particulate matter) levels seem to be much higher than they were three years back in the windless winter days. The cause of this is the increased vehicular pollution; the burning of dry leaves and waste in the winters, the continued clearing of trees in the Capital for the Commonwealth games. For instance visit the area near Gargi College, where a wooded area has been cleared ruthlessly, so much so that the road adjacent to it is carpeted with dust now. The list goes on.


What this has caused is amply clear. Respiratory problems have been on a rise, and the Delhiite (the story holds for other cities too) who has already suffered at the hands of ever-choked killer roads, now has the added disability of not being able to see clearly in the thick smog! I speak from personal experience. Travelling Noida to Delhi in the morning and back at night, to and from work is a necessity for my family and the horrors we (and our co-commuters) faced in the first few days of January must be shared. The visibility was as low as 25 metres sometimes and due to the added truck-traffic in these hours, the commute was indeed a trial by fog. Just imagine you are in your car on a usually busy road and all you see through your windscreen is white smoky layers of smog. We saw how unnervingly easy it was for a disastrous accident to happen and indeed many fatal collisions occurred. And this is just one instance of our lives being directly affected by the way we treat our environment.

Consider the Mumbai floods of 2005. It was not only the antiquated and poorly managed drainage system which was to blame, the steady degradation, reclamation and habitation of important mangrove areas and land-sea bridge areas in the Mahim creek was a major reason. What's pitiful is that very few people even spoke about it while they were losing their breath over criticising the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the poor drainage infrastructure. This is alarming because this loss of the Mithi river and Mahim creek mangrove area had already reached a rate of 40% from 1995 to 2005; apathy will ensure that an even higher percent of the essential eco-drainage systems will be lost.

What is most important is that we speak to all we know about these issues, their causes and the need to put a stop to our ignorant plundering. And more importantly, put a stop to our plundering, careless, polluting ways!

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The Author is an executive member of the Website Team of DevelopmentChannel.org

Ekta Malhotra- Prevalence of Child Labour

I happened to watch a documentary film titled “Children now”. It depicted the vulnerable condition of the children at their workplace. I was deeply touched to see Pyaari; a small girl aged nine, hiding herself to avoid the owners of the factory. She wanted to enjoy the fun and freedom which is the birth right of every child. It is true about all other working children.

They have to rise in the morning. They have to work day and night in most inhuman and unhygienic conditions. They have to work in dim light. They are hardly provided any nutrious food. They are physically tortured, and some times sexually abused. They are usually employed to work in homes, restrauants and factories.


According to UNICEF,there are an estimated 250 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labour worldwide, excluding child domestic labour. Though the government has passed laws, child labor continues and, whether we like it or not, it will continue. As long as there is want and poverty, people living below poverty line will continue to seek employment for their children to supplement their children to supplement their family income. We should rather try to improve their working conditions. It should be made mandatory not to employ children below 14 years.

There should be vigilance on the wages paid to them. A high-level committee should be constituted to deliberate on the issue of child labor.

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The author is an executive member of the webteam for www.developmentchannel.org

Rishabh Gulati- Treating The Malaise- Tackling Corruption in India

Corruption, a pervasive putrescence used to describe a malaise in the human body, has a different but equally troubling impact on the body politic. An embedded system, of complex and necessary gratuities garnished with downright bribery, has permeated thickly into Indian public services, from the lowest rungs of officialdom to the highest echelons of political power.

Corruption has widespread impacts on social and economic development. Skimming funds from the public purse at every level and at every crossing within the chain of command results in only a fraction of government outlay reaching its intended beneficiaries. Necessary gratuities for the receipt or maintenance of public services like water, telephones and electricity, add to the cost of provision of basic amenities, especially to the poor. Systemic corruption has meant that officials do not process paperwork, issue orders, or accept tenders until a compulsory bribe has been paid. This not only grinds to a halt the efficiency of the governance process, but weighs the system heavily against those who do not have the financial muscle to pay bribes up front.

Unlike good governance, which only a few privileged citizens are able to benefit from, corruption is endemic to the lives of every Indian. From driving licenses to passports, from ration cards to even voter identification cards, greasing palms has become a way of life.

A few noble souls do try to stand up against the system. I recall a friend of mine attempting to pass his driving license test without bribing the transport official, despite humorous warnings from overlooking touts. It goes without saying that even as passing pedestrians were wont to praise his driving skills, he failed the test, not once but three times. Frustrated and with his revolutionary resolve come to naught, he found that a few hundred rupees later, the test did not have to be passed, indeed it did not even have to be taken. Delusion with the system begins imprinted on the license photographs of our young citizens as they reach the age of adult franchise.

Years later, trying to renew my passport, I met an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-corruption Bureau, who was of distance acquaintance, but had happily offered to help me expedite the process. Being a man handed the task of fighting corruption, I was a bit surprised, even fearful of entrapment, when he told me that a few thousand rupees other than the official processing charge would be required for various other ‘fees’ inside. Upon handing him to sum and happy to have a spanking new passport in my hand, I could not help but put to him the irony of the situation. Pondering the question he answered very seriously that his department went after the large scamsters who swindled thousands of crores from the public purse, these petty ‘fees’ for underpaid employees could be overlooked as a matter of livelihood.

The frank and unabashed nature of the man brings to light the kinds of corruption in a country like India. At the rosy end of the spectrum is the shameless corruption of uncontrollable greed that plagues big government tenders, acquisitions and projects. Thousands of crores are siphoned off from the likes of infrastructure, armaments and even fodder. These are then either piled under the inglorious charpai of the otherwise dhoti wearing, buffalo rearing farmer or deposited into secretive Swiss bank accounts by smooth talking arms merchants sporting linen suits and plucky ties.

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The author is Assistant Editor, Development Channel