The Hindu Business Line : Pollution and policy

The official stand of India on the question of carbon dioxide emissions is, according to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that India’s per capita emission will never exceed that of the western nations. There are serious fallacies in this approach to the issue of pollution.

First, given the size of Indian population, the relatively small land mass and consequent density of population and the disparities in living standards, measuring pollution in per capita terms and comparing it with the western countries is quite inappropriate. The level of atmospheric pollution in the country is very high and the consequences are serious. People, especially children, fall ill often, and need to be dosed with antibiotics.

Second, given the vast disparities in the economic situation of the population, quite obviously a large part of the population – the poor – hardly contributes to the emission of carbon dioxide. Therefore, the per capita measure is a clever ploy not to take any action on pollution.

Third, it is again the poor who will be more vulnerable to the health consequences of the high levels of atmospheric pollution we now have in our cities. The poor will find it more difficult to obtain medical treatment for the illnesses that arise from the pollution, in the making of which they play little role.

In this environment, it is not clear how many of us remember the ancient Indian concepts such as panchabhutas, which refer to earth, fire, air, space and water as the sustaining force of life and are to be revered, and the conception of the earth as mother. Our current attitude towards pollution makes an interesting contrast with the earlier reverence for nature in Indian thought.

The issue of pollution needs a broader, deeper and more informed debate that goes beyond the rhetoric about economic growth and its imperatives.

P. M. Vasudev Auckland, NZ

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