The Deep Divide

I have just finished writing two reports. One on the implementation of the Panchayat Provisions Extension to the Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) 1996 in Chhattisgarh and the other on a strategy to reduce poverty in Madhya Pradesh. PESA basically provides that in scheduled tribal areas governance should be such that there is respect for and recognition of the special lifestyle and culture of the tribals which is traditionally resource conservative and not resource extractive like the mainstream industrial civilisation. Most importantly this statute stresses that the management and development of all natural resources within the area of a particular village will be done in consultation with the gram sabha or village general body consisting of all the adult voting members of that village. However, since natural resources are increasingly becoming scarce for the resource guzzling globalised industrial and consumerist economy it is very difficult for the state to respect the provisions of PESA. Thus there is a deep divide between the ideal provisions of PESA and the reality of industrial development. Consequently there is rampant violation of PESA going on in Chhattisgarh where mines and industrial plants are being set up in a hurry with scant concern for either the tribals or the pristine forested habitats in which they reside.
In discussions with my other colleagues in the team that has been constituted by the United Nations Development Programme and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, we came to the conclusion that the strategy to reduce poverty in Madhya Pradesh was known to everybody but it was precisely this deep divide between the ideal of sustainability and the reality of indiscriminate resource and surplus extraction that was preventing it from being adopted. There is a pathological governance failure arising from this failure to align development with social and environmental sustainability.
The question then arises as to what is the relevance of writing such reports which we know are never going to be taken seriously. One of my colleagues said that it is important to record our views. Record also the details of the small experiments in decentralised governance and development that we are carrying out. In the hope that some day the limits to this ongoing madness of over consumption will be reached and then there will be something to fall back upon.