New Religion

The saffron-clad sadhus and former dacoits now find a ritual for social restructuring and acceptance: water harvesting. They are building temples of water instead of temples of stone. Water harvesting has brought the new age Valmikis dignity and respect

THINK saffron. Think sadhus and sants, communal frenzy, the Gujarat pogrom, of swords raised to the sky and the battle cry of kar sevaks and their adversaries renting a fresh spring morning. Now take a break. Picture a rishi meditating on the edge of a temple tank - say, a postcard shot of a matted hair, unshaven, bare-chested ascetic immersed in deep thought gilded by the setting sun.

This rishi could be Swami Narayan or Devi Prasad and ironically, both live in Gujarat, a state known for its chemical and industrial power as much as for communal riots now. But here they are not involved in moving pillars to build a temple of stones. They are here to build "temples of water", where wisdom-seekers learn prudence and sagacity. Where the value of a drop of water is considered more than that of a place of worship. Here, water is the new religion.

More and more sants and mahants are taking to water harvesting. For some, it is to widen their social appeal, for others water is an instrument for social restructuring. The mantra is catching on.

Water is a great leveller, too. It's not just the puritans who are involved in harvesting water. At the other extreme are the social charlatans. Former dacoits Kalyan Gujjar or Jagdish Gujjar, for instance, whose lives now revolve around tapping and channelling water. Their past lives are but a bad dream, better left forgotten. Their reason for the metamorphosis is no different from their strait-laced brethrens: social acceptance. And with good work, that's not difficult to attain.

Water harvesting has brought the new age Valmikis dignity and respect. This in an age where water can kill too. Israel and Palestine have locked horns over water sharing, the Cauvery waters is still disputed in south India, and as recent as 1999, water riots in Gujarat led to the death of four people in police firing. So, the fact that future wars could be fought on the issue of water is a reality that cannot be washed away.

Ironically, it is not water that discriminates. People do. In the male-dominated society, women are yet to emerge as water heroes. This when women are the worst affected in a water-scarce scenario. It is they who travel long distances to fetch water. And this discrimination extends to almost areas of life. Down To Earth photographer, Preeti Singh, was denied entry by sants to some areas of the temple in parts of Gujarat.

This attitude must change if water has to become everybody's business. New communities will emerge only when there is equity. Discrimination will only lead to violence. These fragile water structures are like children. They need care and nurturing. And only local people can ensure this. We need more temples of water. And more kar sewaks. This is their story.

The Redeemer
There are those who despite years of formal education barely comprehend life's truths. And there are those who though living far away from the acknowledged centres of learning breathe wisdom. Among the latter is 82-year-old Pandurang Shastri Athavaleor Dada to the wisdom-seekersa self-taught individual.

Hindus believe, or rather used to believe, that water is the nerve centre around which their life and fertility depended. By and by, the spiritual obligation to keep the environment clean among other things gave way to blind faith and pernicious rituals.

Modesty could very well be his second name. Seventy-one check dams, 55 percolation tanks, 33 ponds, 22 nullahs and 60 gully plugging - 241 rainwater harvesting projects in just nine months. But Pramukh Swami Maharaj is humility personified. His refrain: "This is not enough. We can do more."

The mantle he donned, that of the fifth spiritual head of the Bachasanwasi Shri Adshar Purushottam Swami Narayan Sanstha, wasn't weightless. Like his predecessors, he had to indicate a path to harmony. It was exacting, just till Swami found one in "practical spiritualism". So during the 1987-88 Gujarat drought, he asked his 680 sadhus to set aside meditation and suspend religious activities and instead concentrate on water-related works. A move which perhaps did raise a few eyebrows. But Swami believed, "Socio-spiritual organisations are at an advantage of convincing and directing people to take up developmental works."Today, his work is spread across 8,100 centres worldwide.

Success, though, hasn't come easy. Villagers of Ugamedi in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat refused to cooperate. Ironically, in this case, it is not the "society's redeemers" who are irked by the caste hierarchies. It is the villagers who felt overwhelmed by the caste system. But not one to give up, Swami ordered his followers to go ahead and construct a chota talab (small pond). The prodigals returned to their saviour. Among other things, it meant a saving of Rs 2.5 lakh every month, which was earlier used for buying water.

Neighbouring Ningada's story is no different, only that in this case the villagers were waiting for the government to do the needful. Here too, the heedless sadhus took the onus upon themselves. Water is now available even 3-4 months after the monsoon, but government officials are not.

"Being an agrarian society, water is jeevan dhara (lifeline)," says Swami, who firmly believes that the concept of rainwater harvesting is essential to India. "To ensure societal sustainability, water conservation is not only a necessity, but also a responsibility". And sadhus have an important role to play. This from an individual who practices what he preaches in a state where many of his ilk threaten to take people to the dark ages.

He shares his name with the father of the nation. But that's not where the similarity ends. If an incident in South Africa was to change Mahatma Gandhi's life forever, Gujarat's second Bapu's changed on the trip to the Netherlands in 1979. That's learning home truths in alien lands.

Sadhu Devi Prasad Maharaja or Bapu, chanced upon rainwater harvesting systems in the Netherlands and came back stimulated to Jamnagar, only to realise that India had its own rich traditions of harvesting water. He understood that water is a solution to all problems and water is also the genesis of all problems.

He knew what he had to do. So he decided to address water issues in totality, which included conservation and effective utilisation. But many questions, some from the people with whom he discussed, dogged his mind. After mulling over traditions and needs, he decided on recharging the groundwater. That was in 1982. "At that time, no one realised the worth of the activity. But now after 20 years, people have understood its importance and are following the same strategy to prevent water scarcity," he says, beaming with a sense of fulfilment. Today, his organisation, the 350-year-old Ananda Baba Ashram, has worked in 30 villages.

Here's a story, almost myth-like, that Bapu loves to recount. Suryapara village had ten tubewells in the village, which was installed by the state government. But that didn't solve their water problem. Year after year, the drought-like situation only worsened and led to migration. Then one day, an old man came to Bapu and requested him to be a part of their initiative at striking water at the earth's end. Bapu accompanied them but with his own ideas, that of groundwater recharge. Now there is water in abundance.

Bapu's work on lakes is also commendable. As compared to the urban initiative of de-silting of the Lakota lake taken up by the ashram along with the people of Jamnagar and other socio-religious groups in 2000, this year the organisation is focusing its activities in the rural areas. Preference is being given to villages where there is acute scarcity of water for drinking and irrigation purposes.

"People often give credit of the work to sants not knowing that the heroes are the people. It is basically the positive approach of people, which makes the difference," he says, adding, "Sadhus just provide the direction. People do the work." He knows Gandhi better than most people do.

Village Hatiyaniki. Fifteen-odd people have gathered to discuss water harvesting activities in the vicinity. But there's just one face among the crowd, which is conspicuous enough to attract attention. Bereft of tact, his often-blunt interjections are received by a smirk from the other like-minded participants. But being unconventional only comes naturally to him, so he'd rather go and smoke a bidi outside before conformity enervates him. It's difficult to rein in Kalyan Gujjar -- he is his own master -- but if he sets his eyes on something, it's rare to see him not take it to fruition. And as of now, his eyes are set on taking the water harvesting system in his village Khejura in Rajasthan to heights neither conceived nor envisaged before.

In his case, appearances can be deceptive. Don't go by his torn vest and dirty dhoti or his overbearing temperament. Behind all this is a man who doesn't like to dwell on his sanctimonious past, preferring to forget it as a night-long nightmare. "I was one of the most agile members of the group (read dacoits)," he says, but his tone is far from haughty, so he prefers to quickly move on to talking about Tarun Bharat Sangh's (tbs) accomplishments in the area instead of his escapades. "tbs has been responsible in providing an opportunity to people like us to stay away from dacoity. If it would not have been for tbs , most of us would have perhaps gone back to it," he confesses. As a short-term benefit it provides gainful employment and "in the longer run ensures that villages have sufficient water for sustained agriculture which would finally result in secure existence". Here's a man who knows what's best for him.

Like Jagdish, most of his time is spent convincing people about making water harvesting a part of their daily life. "Earlier it was difficult to get people to discuss, but now things are changing," he says of his experience. His life led on the edge has also come of use to tbs . When a tbs worker was kidnapped by the dacoits, Kalyan ventured alone to bring him back, which needless to say he did without paying ransom. That's from someone who knows his head from the heart.

Smug and surging

If the annual plastic consumption in India rose by as little as one kilogramme per capita, the total demand would increase by about one million tonnes. The plastic industry looks forward to encashing this market potential. High profits and increasing demand ensure it grows exponentially

"It took us (India) 30 years to consume the first one million tonnes of plastics. The second million tonnes were consumed in only five years. By 2007 we will consume seven million tonnes per annum."
-- A joyous Mukesh Ambani, vice chairperson and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited, at Plastindia Foundation meeting in Mumbai in 2000.

A leader of multi-crore industry, which grows each year by more than 20 per cent, Mukesh Ambani, is bound to be happy. Come recession or economic boom, the plastic industry shows stupendous results year after year. Spurred by a demand that shoots up each year, the plastic industry knows it's bound for greater profits.

There is a surfeit of plastic products in our lives, from the blood bags used in the hospital to the gaudy coloured plastic pots that are fast becoming ubiquitous in rural India. All these plastic-based goods drive the demand curve for the polymers to a frenzied high each year. The largest end-user of plastics includes the packaging and poly vinyl chloride (pvc) pipes industry that are growing at 16-18 per cent per annum.

About four million tonnes of plastic or polymer was consumed in 2000-2001 in India to make various goods. That is about 500 times the weight of all the iron used in the Eiffel Tower. By 2006-07 it is expected to hit a high of 7.5 million tonnes -- nearly double in just four years (see graph: Shooting stars).

For an industry that made a modest beginning in 1957 with the production of polystyrene (ps), it has come a long way. The leading company in the field, Reliance Industries Limited is today poised to become the first Indian company to join the famed Fortune 500 list -- a list of top global companies. Along with Reliance a handful of other companies today supply India and other international markets with millions of tonnes of fresh plastic, which is referred to in industry parlance as 'virgin plastic'.

The other companies that lead the market in virgin plastics are Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (ipcl ), National Organic Chemicals Industries Limited (nocil), Finolex Industries Limited and Chemplast.

Big brother
Reliance alone sold polymers worth Rs 5,385 crore in 1999-2000. Currently Reliance, the market leader, holds nearly 52 per cent of the market and is poised to garner a much greater share in the pie. With the government planning to disinvest in the government owned ipcl the second largest polymer manufacturer in India. Reliance is keen to claim a stake in it.

It was during 1986-1990 that the country witnessed investments worth Rs 30,000 crore being made to create large capacities in the polymer industry. Further, post-1990 a series of policy changes, such as relaxed licensing requirements for petrochemical products and reduced customs and excise tariffs, gave boost to the industry.

In India the demand for plastics is growing approximately at a rate of 22 per cent annually. India's present polymer production capacity is expected to reach 3.5 million tonnes by the end of 2003. With a promised increase in capacities and liberalisation of trade to help push the cart, Ambani's claim of India consuming 7.5 million tonnes of plastic by 2007 seems easily achievable. A mere one kg increase in per capita consumption of plastics in India would yield an additional annual demand of more than one million tonnes annually.

Such swamping figures generate a debate about the size of the environmental problem that plastics are capable of creating. Plastics do not degrade. They persist in environment and pollute, posing danger to public health. But industry is quick to quell any such fears by citing the fact that the annual per capita consumption of plastic in India, at two kg, remains much below the global average of 17.5 kg, or for that matter, the Asian annual average of 10 kg per capita. "An increasing per capita consumption of plastics of a country is indicative of its advancement. All efforts, therefore, should be made to increase the consumption of plastics," said Alok K Goyal of ipcl 's Kolkata regional office at a paper presented at the International Conference on Plastic Waste Management and Environment in March 2001 .The industry also dismisses fear arising out of the fact that more than one-fourth consumption of plastics in India today is that of pvc - a chemical which is being phased out in some countries.

The other face
But it's not just the virgin plastic manufacturers who have hit the jackpot in Indian economy. The unregulated, primarily small-scale and increasingly polluting recyclers of plastics also abound in the country. Industry estimates say nearly 45-60 per cent of all plastic waste is brought back to use by recycling virgin plastic-based goods. From discarded computer chip boards to polythene bags all go through repeated 'down-cycling'. Polypropylene (pp) and high density polyethylene (hdpe) are two polymers which get recycled the most.

R N Singh, director of Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, says, "Almost 45 per cent of the total plastic consumed in the country gets converted to plastic waste." And about 45 per cent of this gets recycled. This is about 20 per cent of the annual polymer consumption or about 800,000 tonnes. This plastic reenters the market to be resold. As recycling is done repeatedly the volume of recycled plastic in the market keeps increasing . It, therefore, becomes a large enough chunk for the virgin plastic manufacturers to worry about as competition. But, manufacturers also use the recyclers to claim that waste in India is managed too well to complain about.

The recyclers in India also import a lot of plastic waste to regurgitate back into the markets. For the developed countries it works out perfectly. "The European Union norms do not allow members to produce more plastic than they can recycle. But they are allowed to produce if they export the plastic waste for recycling to other countries. They conveniently export plastic waste that they are unable to handle domesti-cally," says Kisan Mehta, president of Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation (ngo) Save Bombay Committee. A ' Briefing Paper on Pepsi, Plastic Production and Recycling' prepared by Greenpeace International way back in 1994 points out how plastic waste export from the us to India increased from 3,974 metric tonnes (mt) in 1992 to 7,841 mt in 1993 - an increase of 97.3 per cent in just one year. While India allows import of plastic waste only under licence a substantial amount of it is illegally imported. This fact was also high-lighted by the high-powered committee on the management of hazardous wastes set up by the Supreme Court of India in 1997. In 1994-95 it reported 24,240 tonnes of plastic scrap was imported illegally.

These recycling units, the manufacturers of virgin plastic and its innumerable processors together pose a question for the government: how can the environmental fallout of this growing sector be curtailed?

While the Indian government appeases the plastic industry, other countries have gone ahead and seen to it that the plastic industry owns up responsibility for its products. They have ably used extended producer responsibility (epr) to get the industry to clean up its act. A select group of countries have become leaders by actually phasing out the use of poly vinyl chloride (pvc). Slovakia, for instance has legislated to phase out pvc by 2008. Berlin has banned use of pvc in construction. Some polymer-using companies, such as Sharp of Japan, too have decided to take the right step and phase out pvc from their products.

But these specific product-centric actions are not the panacea. epr can help if applied irrespective of national boundaries. It requires that the producers take responsibility of their products right from production to final disposal. The producing company's responsibility stretches to cover all countries that its products land up in. Once the industry realises that it will have to pay through its nose to safely discard the dangerous contents in its products, it can either find alternatives to these products or find a way to manage them. Thomas Lindhqvist, professor at International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (iiiee) , Sweden, says, " epr ensures that the cost of waste management gets internalised in the cost of the product. Thus the cost of the product goes up, which in turn dissuades consumers from using it."

The European Union (eu) has used epr. But it's limited the liability of the companies, in some cases to within the member countries' boundaries, says Kisan Mehta.

A 1994 eu directive places responsibility on the member countries to set recovery target of packaging, either through energy recovery or recycling. The directive prioritises prevention of packaging waste, followed by reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery. The directive sets a 50-65 per cent recovery target to be achieved by the member states. Sweden goes a step further and sets up a 90 per cent recycling target for polyethylene terephthalate (pet) bottles. The companies that use them have to ensure they are taken back from the consumer. "In 1999, we achieved pet recycling target of 91 per cent for re-fillable bottles," tells Naoko Tojo, research associate at iiiee .

In Germany a monopolist Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kunststoff-Recycling GmbH (dkr) is the guarantor for proper recycling of plastic packaging under the country's laws. It is responsible for accepting and organising the recycling of plastic packaging for which the producer companies pay a licence fee. In return they are allowed to put a trademark green-coloured dot on their products giving their products an edge in the market. As a result Germany has used 1.5 million tonnes less of packaging material in 1998 when compared to 1991. "Since companies have to pay the 'green dot company' in advance for the collection of packaging waste, they have in fact redesigned packaging of products to be less wasteful," says Gerard McGovern, director of Association for Industry Responsibility in Waste Management, based in Hamburg,Germany.

Reason to hurry
Though such directives work in the the North, they at times do so at the cost of developing countries. When the producer's responsibility is limited to a countries political boundary it becomes easy to export the waste to other countries, such as India, where environmental norms are lax. This is fast becoming a reality, says Mehta.

For India, the time is running out. It has to regulate the domestic plastic industry and check imports of plastic waste or implode with garbage that the North exports and the ones Indian companies keep churning out.

In fact, as Chaturvedi suggests, it has to go a step ahead of the eu and other countries. It has to ensure that environmental laws cleanse the ever-increasing small scale recycling trade of the country as well. epr, in India has to cover for the health of the rag picker also who right now does the job for a pittance. India has to learn from the North and do one better if it has to meet the environmental challenge and yet not harm its economy. This is the challenge staring India in its face. But to meet the challenge the government needs to do more than put up a plastic smile at 'stop polybag' meets.

India