Sacrificing Human Rights and Environmental Rights at the Altar of "Development"

Those familiar with India are aware of the country's remarkable paradoxes characterized by obscene wealth in the hands of a few billionaires, including four of the ten richest men in the world, existing side by side with appalling poverty where more than 78 percent of the population lives on less than twenty rupees (or fortyfive cents) per day. The paradox of a "Shining India" consists of the largest force of information technology and financial services professionals in a country aspiring to make India an economic superpower, living alongside the largest slum population in the world who live amidst unimaginable filth without electricity, running water, or sanitation. More than 100,000 farmers have committed suicide in the country in the last ten years. India ranks lower than many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa in the Human Development Index. In 1991, India adopted the World Bank-IMF model of "Structural Adjustment," popularly known as the LPG program, characterized by Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization. Since then, the rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has increased substantially, from 3 or 4 percent to reach 9 percent in 2007-2008. During this period, the number of millionaires (in U.S. dollars) increased manifold, as did the average income of the top 10 percent of the population. The number of persons living in acute poverty during the same period, however, continued to grow. The Arjun Sengupta report shows that 77 percent of the Indian population (836 million people) now lives on less than twenty rupees (or forty-five cents) per day.1 The average availability of nutrition to people also declined during the same period, most clearly indicating that this spurt in growth, far from being inclusive, was achieved at the expense of the poor and marginalized sections of society. One of India's leading economists, Utsa Patnaik, explained as follows: Expenditure data from the National Sample Survey Organisation's 61st Round (2004-05) show that rural and urban per capita cloth consumption, real food expenditure, and calorie intake have all declined from their already low levels since 1993-94. This country remains a Republic of Hunger with a larger proportion of ordinary people being relentlessly pushed down to worse nutritional status. As the tables show, the proportion of rural population unable to access 2,400 calories daily climbed from 75 per cent in 1993-94 to a record high of 87 per cent by 2004-05. . . . The corresponding percentages for urban India, where the nutrition norm is lower at 2,100 calories, are 57% and 64.5%.2 That was unsurprising since a lot of this "growth" was achieved by acquiring the traditional lands of poor farmers, particularly tribals, for mining companies, real estate companies, and "Special Economic Zones" promoted by private companies. As the rich/ poor divide increased during this period, the strength of left-wing Maoist insurgencies, which have come to control a significant part of the country, also increased. The majority of India's impoverished people are unable even to access the country's judicial system. In an attempt to deal with this lack of access to the judicial system, an activist Supreme Court of India created a new jurisdiction now known as "Public Interest Litigation" (PIL) thirty years ago. The basis of this jurisdiction was the creative and expansive interpretation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees every individual the right to life and liberty. The court declared that the fundamental right to life did not merely guarantee citizens the right to an animal existence, or merely protection from being put to arbitrary and unreasonable bodily harm by the state, but the right to live a life of dignity. This meant that citizens had the right to food, water, shelter, education, health, and so forth, which were all progressively declared by the Supreme Court to be part of Article 21. In a further innovation, the court declared that Article 21 also encompasses the right to live in a clean and decent environment. …