Letters

Degrading ideology

Arif Hasan's article on the Thar desert in Pakistan (Down To Earth, December 31, 1992) is an excellent exposition of how an ideology that overstresses development can degrade and debase a traditional society and disturb an area's ecology to a point of no recovery.

Please permit us to translate the article into Bengali so that we can circulate it among our colleagues in various non-governmental organisations....

Welcome changes

Your article on employment schemes (Down To Earth, May 31, 1993) suggests many directions for action and is welcome.

It is difficult to understand why structural adjustment should increase unemployment. Its adverse effects on employment will be concentrated in the organised public and private enterprises, which account for a small proportion of total employment.

In the unorganised (small-scale) sector of industry, sick units must go if they cannot be improved. The census of small-scale industries does not suggest that special concessions, such as reservations or price preference, benefit the majority of small-scale industries, whose needs are for credit and training. As in other countries, the informal sector might expand -- not contract -- as structural adjustment takes place.

Schemes like the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana are the only means to spread employment in rural India....

The wonder that is neem

Your coverage of neem (Down To Earth, April 15, 1993) is superb. I hope the government of India will accord proper attention to this wonderful plant and put it on the high pedestal it deserves.

I am now creating awareness about the potential of neem in Africa and in the process, bringing out an illustrated booklet on How to grow and use neem. ...

Misleading concept

Your coverage of joint forestry management (Down To Earth, April 15, 1993), is quite timely and plausible.

I consider the very concept of joint forest management (JFM) is a misnomer, as the phrase conveys the impression that forests are to be managed jointly by the people. But, in reality, JFM is a working arrangement between the forest departments and the villages on the fringes of the forests. In the process, JFM thwarts the very process by which forest dwellers have been trying to restore forest areas. In Maharashtra, JFM also provides an opportunity to the forest department to control and exploit revenue lands.

Induction of non-governmental organisations in JFM also diverts their attention from fighting the colonial Indian Forest Act of 1927, by which JFM is guided. The scheme, therefore, needs to be critically examined....

Panchayati Raj

I have not followed the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana programme closely and can well believe that all the allocations made have not been well spent (Down To Earth, May 31, 1993). But new Panchayati Raj structures, which should be on the ground during 1993-94, should help.

Under the Panchayati Raj act, the new panchayat institutions will have development functions and if planning becomes decentralised and multi-layered, the Panchayati Raj institutions will determine their own priorities. This would obviate some of the problems listed in your article.

Obviously, there will still be problems and progress will be uneven. Nevertheless, even if some states work the system well, a new tradition could be established....

Good work

It's good to see Down To Earth doing well and is in its second year. Some of my students read it regularly and often discuss the articles among themselves. I would request you to increase coverage of south India....

Grave situation

We were happy to read your report on the nuclear situation in Tibet (Down To Earth, June 15, 1993). However, a comprehensive report published by the International Campaign for Tibet, Washington, DC, includes the following details:

1. The Chinese authorities have built a top-secret nuclear city, called the Ninth Academy, on the Tibetan plateau. This is a primary nuclear weapons research and design facility and China's early nuclear bombs were designed there. Furthermore, radioactive waste from Ninth Academy is dumped nearby, causing illness and even death among Tibetan nomads in the area.

2. The Chinese have deployed nuclear weapons at at least three sites in Amdo province, which has been incorporated into the Chinese province of Qinghai. We have also received confirmed reports of illness and death among people living in the vicinity of uranium mines in the area.

3. The construction of Chinese nuclear facilities in Tibet has resulted in Tibetans being dispossessed of their land and an increase in the Chinese population.

The Chinese nuclear installations on the Tibetan plateau could substantially increase tensions in south Asian and east Asian regions. ...

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