Today our topic is on the poverty and the environment of india.
Poverty and the Environment:
Both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues that have a lot in common, but are often treated separately. This link has never been more evident than in India’s case. There is a common misconception that for poor countries to develop, environmental concerns have to be sacrificed, or else that environmental concerns are a luxury to address once poverty is alleviated. However for India to develop sustainably it must learn from past countries and recognise that poverty and the environment go hand in hand. The Centre for Science and Environment based in Delhi observes that if the world’s poor were to consume in the manner of people in developed countries “we would need two additional planet Earths to produce resources and absorb wastes … and good planets are hard to find!”.
The links between poverty and pollution and environmental-damage can be seen everywhere in India. The use of rivers as sewers is common to Indian slum areas. There is also a link between dumping and landfill and countries of poverty. India has huge landfills scattered across it’s major cities and to highlight the link with poverty further most of these landfills are located next to the ‘bastis’. However to blame India’s poor for the environmental degradation would be a huge mistake. It is the lack of resources and facilities provided to the poor which results in the level of damage occurring in India. However there are many methods which the Indian government could use to tackle both problems i.e. reduce poverty by tackling environmental degradation.
· Strengthen participation by the poor in decision-making related to access to environmental resources: People in India’s poorest areas should be involved in deciding where sewerage should be provided and how best to provide clean water as their local expertise would be vital.
Employ only local people in the building of environmental resources in their slum areas: This would boost the local economy and also create a sense of pride in environmental resources within the community.
· Expand the natural asset base of the poor: By providing free plots of land to the countries poor India could promote a sense of environmentalism and a respect for nature while also providing economic assistance to the poor.
· Tackle environmental problems which affect the poor first and concentrating on overall environmental damage levels after. By tackling problems such as water pollution and air pollution in slum areas the Indian government could take its people out of poverty creating an overall knock-on effect for the countries overall sustainable development.
· If the Indian government where to apply some of the above methods they could both alleviate poverty and create an environmentally-sustainable country.
thanks for reading.
Poverty and the Environment:
Both environmental degradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues that have a lot in common, but are often treated separately. This link has never been more evident than in India’s case. There is a common misconception that for poor countries to develop, environmental concerns have to be sacrificed, or else that environmental concerns are a luxury to address once poverty is alleviated. However for India to develop sustainably it must learn from past countries and recognise that poverty and the environment go hand in hand. The Centre for Science and Environment based in Delhi observes that if the world’s poor were to consume in the manner of people in developed countries “we would need two additional planet Earths to produce resources and absorb wastes … and good planets are hard to find!”.
The links between poverty and pollution and environmental-damage can be seen everywhere in India. The use of rivers as sewers is common to Indian slum areas. There is also a link between dumping and landfill and countries of poverty. India has huge landfills scattered across it’s major cities and to highlight the link with poverty further most of these landfills are located next to the ‘bastis’. However to blame India’s poor for the environmental degradation would be a huge mistake. It is the lack of resources and facilities provided to the poor which results in the level of damage occurring in India. However there are many methods which the Indian government could use to tackle both problems i.e. reduce poverty by tackling environmental degradation.
· Strengthen participation by the poor in decision-making related to access to environmental resources: People in India’s poorest areas should be involved in deciding where sewerage should be provided and how best to provide clean water as their local expertise would be vital.
Employ only local people in the building of environmental resources in their slum areas: This would boost the local economy and also create a sense of pride in environmental resources within the community.
· Expand the natural asset base of the poor: By providing free plots of land to the countries poor India could promote a sense of environmentalism and a respect for nature while also providing economic assistance to the poor.
· Tackle environmental problems which affect the poor first and concentrating on overall environmental damage levels after. By tackling problems such as water pollution and air pollution in slum areas the Indian government could take its people out of poverty creating an overall knock-on effect for the countries overall sustainable development.
· If the Indian government where to apply some of the above methods they could both alleviate poverty and create an environmentally-sustainable country.
thanks for reading.
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