kishor Jagirdar

What is Localisation ?   Localisation, a trend diametrically opposed to globalization, is based on the belief that those living closest to the resource to be managed (the forest, the sea, the coast, the farm, the urban facility, etc), would have the greatest stake, and often the best knowledge, to manage it. Of course this is not always the case, and in India many communities have lost the ability because of two centuries of government-dominated policies, which have effectively crippled their own institutional structures, customary rules, and other capacities. Nevertheless a move towards localization of essential production, consumption, and trade, and of health, education, and other services, is eminently possible if communities are sensitively assisted by civil society organizations and the government. There are thousands of Indian initiatives at decentralized water harvesting, biodiversity conservation, education, governance, food and materials production, Irreplaceable ...

India ’s meteoric economic rise in the last two decades has been   impressive. There is however a dark side to it, hidden or ignored. Well over half its people have been left behind or negatively impacted; and there have been irreversible blows to the natural environment Globalised development as it is today is neither ecologically sustainable nor socially equitable, and is leading India to further conflict and suffering There are, however, a range of alternative approaches and practices, forerunners of a Radical Ecological Democracy that can take us all to higher levels of well-being, while sustaining the earth and creating greater equity According to the Tendulkar Committee on poverty estimation, which submitted its report to the Planning Commission in 2009, the proportion of people who were poor in India in 2004-05 was 41.8% in rural areas and 25.7% in urban areas. The poverty lines used to reach these numbers were Rs.15 per capita a day in villages and a bit...