Punjab’s Path of Progress Should be based on Justice, Peace and Protection of Environment | Bharat Dogra and Jagmohan Singh

Punjab is a very important state of India whose importance cannot be judged in terms merely of its area and population. This cannot be judged even in terms of the undoubtedly very important contribution to food grain self-sufficiency and procurement for feeding the public distribution system. In fact the great importance of Punjab cannot be judged in terms of just any economic or demographic criteria as the entire county has a special affection and emotional attachment for the Punjabis and their culture. This is reflected in the nationwide great respect and reverence for Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh, in fact for all the great gurus, and for freedom movement martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Kartar Singh Sarabha.

The people of Punjab have been known for their large-heartedness and capacity for making great sacrifices for noble causes, for justice and fairness, as seen during the freedom movement in the mainstream as well as revolutionary struggles. The Punjabis as the people of a crucial border state have been in the forefront of protecting their country at the times of various wars.

However somewhere along the lines some mistakes were made, some wrong trends were also seen whose adverse impacts were further aggravated by forces beyond the borders of India. This led to a lot of avoidable stress, distress and violence. Distortions appeared also in the development path, which increased the problems of the peasantry in particular, reflected in the increasing indebtedness of a large number of farmers, culminating in many cases in very tragic suicides. According to a study of the Punjab Agriculture University, there were close to 9300 suicides of farmers between 2000 and 2018 in just six districts, about 90% of which were driven to a large extent by debt (reported in Mint).

Learning from past mistakes, Punjab must carefully choose its future path. There has been an unfortunate tendency that sometimes a lot of problems of the past are admitted but then the solutions and future course of actions suggested for future are along the same lines! Clearly such tendencies should be avoided. The future path of progress for Punjab should be firmly based on justice, equality and environment protection.

The path of justice should imply that various steps for creating a more equal society are given a high priority at various levels. The various government schemes which can be very useful for this should be strengthened and expanded. At the same time the government should introduce new schemes to fill in important gaps. In particular the neglected task of providing at least some land for the landless should receive attention, and despite the existing constraints there can be several creative ways of taking this further. Welfare of local rural and urban workers and also of migrant workers should get more priority. Urban housing schemes should be reformed to give much more attention to the housing needs of the urban poor (also the middle class), while any demolitions without providing alternative, preferably better, housing should be avoided.

The people of Punjab have shown their commitment to living with peace and unity despite several provocations. During difficult times several social forces particularly some left forces stood up very bravely to protect peace and unity. Nevertheless it cannot be ruled out that the sectarian forces will look for opportunities to strike again. Activities one kind of sectarian forces can also lead to more activities of other sectarian forces. So the risks remain, particularly when resources and support for such sectarian forces are also available from outside the country. However having suffered a lot from all this in the not too distant past, the people are likely now to be more protective towards the maintenance of peace.

Despite this, the past experience indicates that in certain conditions those with a narrow sectarian agenda can suddenly appear to have a larger presence, making the most of some mistakes or administrative lapses that may have been made. Hence it is better to be cautious instead of becoming complacent.

What is really important is that there should be strong peace movements at the grassroots which should work with continuity instead of working only as a fire fighting force. There are several aspects of violence including domestic violence, violence against women, workplace violence, bullying and ragging in educational institutions, child abuse etc. which cause a lot of silent distress and by helping in the prevention and reduction of all this, the peace movement at grassroots can becoming a much wider and more relevant force for peace. Hence its ability to check any tendencies towards wider sectarian violence will also increase significantly.

In addition it is extremely important that Punjab should make a very significant shift in favor of a path of progress which is based on environment protection and ecological regeneration. This path of environment protection should be based on promoting sustainable and creative livelihoods at the same time. Elitist environmentalism which is alienated from the concerns of common people including peasants and workers should be avoided.
Important aspects of environment protection should be protection of groundwater, ponds and rivers, water conservation and recharge, protection of soil, reduction of air pollution, promotion of natural farming and carrying forward climate change adaptation and mitigation in ways that are in keeping with the protection and strengthening of sustainable livelihoods of people. Government schemes, such as works taken up under NREGA, should be best pursued in ways in which the objectives of justice for the poor and environment protection can be taken up in a big way, strengthening sustainable livelihoods while at the same time providing short term relief to those who need this the most.

Some environment protection movements have been emerging in Punjab, such as those protesting against deforestation in Mattewara or against pollution by a distillery in Zira, or Jive Sarluj effort for protecting Satluj river or other scattered efforts. Such emerging movements should be encouraged and hopefully broader efforts of people will also emerge.

Once a shift to ecologically protective farming is being made, the cause of incentivizing it more and more by ensuring a very fair price for farmers should be taken up in a big way and in addition the shift towards ecologically protective farming should be helped by providing subsidies and various kinds of help specifically for this, instead of spending limited government resources in ways which end up accentuating harm to soil and water sources as well as other ecological ruin, as has often happened in the past. Additional funds related to climate change mitigation and adaptation should also reach farmers. Unfortunately the government has so far been following a reductionist approach—sometimes starting a scheme to discourage stubble burning, and sometimes doing something to protect from the more hazardous chemicals. Instead a more holistic approach is needed in which various problems can be tackled not in a half-hearted, piecemeal and isolated way but instead as part of integrated approach based on environment protection and sustainable livelihoods. Natural farming systems and mixed cropping systems that grow a much greater diversity of healthy food crops should be taken forward further on the path of value addition by encouraging village level food processing units which can provide healthy food directly to urban consumers at a premium price.

At a wider level there must be much greater encouragement for small industrial units which have practical possibilities and advantages for meeting various daily needs in relatively more labor intensive ways without requiring very large capital investments. Industries which already had a sound base in various parts of Punjab but suffered setbacks in recent times due to various factors should be helped to regain their strength.

Important initiatives based on real needs of society should be taken up particularly for education and health sectors. Youth should get all round support for finding livelihoods based on creative solutions for society’s numerous problems, and their education must also equip and encourage them suitably for such a role. The unfortunate trend of somehow finding better prospects only by going abroad should be checked. There was a recent report, not an isolated case, that when 60 jobs of waiters were advertised by a big restaurant in Canada, there were as many as 3000 applicants and the maximum number of these were youth, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, who had gone there to study or improve prospects. The Tribune while reporting this (October 5, 2024) quoted a student who had come here for studying as stating, “I had applied for 70 jobs over the past two weeks but got interview calls from only three places.” Another student told the newspaper that he cannot share his problems here back home in Punjab with his parents who had sold off their land to send him abroad. He said, “A majority of my friends are without jobs. Some have been here for the past three years. We do not know what to do.” Such tragic situations can be avoided with a strong and thoughtful focus on creative sustainable livelihoods, linking society’s real needs with the skills and opportunities required to meet these needs in satisfactory and effective ways.

Governance must improve in very significant ways. Corruption and wasteful spending must be checked and reduced in a very big way, while populism must yield place to governance based on the proper prioritization of various tasks and responsibilities. For the state government to make its significant contribution, its fiscal health should be restored and ensured.

A recent working paper of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), July 2024, has captured well several of these issues related to fiscal reform and governance. This paper titled ‘Economic Development of Punjab, India : Prospects and Policies’ has been written by Lakhwinder Singh, Nirvikar Singh and Prakarsh Singh. The authors point out that according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) statistics, the Punjab government has a debt burden of 47.6% of GSDP, which is more than Rs. 3.5 lakh crore, as of March 2024. If pending liabilities, non-guarantee loans and expected borrowings in the current fiscal year (2024-25) are included, the total accumulated debt by end-March 2025 will exceed Rs. 4 lakh crore. Compared with other major states of India, Punjab has the highest debt-GSDP ratio, the authors point out.

They say, “Each government in the state, during its time in office, has borrowed in a profligate manner…However most of the borrowing has to be used to service the existing debt. In 2021-22, the Government of Punjab paid Rs. 32,468 crore (interest payment Rs. 18,210 crore plus repayment of principal Rs. 14,258) for servicing the debt. The net availability of borrowed funds was only Rs. 2,734 crore (7.8% of total borrowings). In other words, 92.2% of new borrowings went to debt service. In effect, the Punjab government is in a debt trap, which is a huge drag on the revival of economic growth in the state.”

At the same time, this paper tells us, “the Punjab government continues to recruit more police personnel every year to strengthen the security apparatus, and its spending on police is among the highest of all major states.”

This paper also points out weaknesses of local government finances. “Averaging over 2013-18, per capita expenditure by rural local governments in Punjab was only Rs. 341, which was comparable to some of India’s poorest states, and much lower than an average of Rs. 2083 for 13 major states…To some extent, the problems of underfunding of local governments are a nationwide issue, but Punjab seems to be doing particularly poorly on this front.”

Pointing out some other governance problems, this paper says, “Perhaps the most striking relative deficiency is in investment in science, technology and the environment. Punjab spends as little as 0.39 per cent of its GSDP in this category, much less than many other states. Other areas in which Punjab is weak are knowledge-intensive employment, involvement of NGOs in knowledge-intensive activities and skill development training.”

In fact a big initiative to get the priorities right is needed to correct various distortions and imbalances that have emerged, apart from improving the overall fiscal health of the state. Once the priorities are properly identified, this will also be helpful for the Punjabis scattered all over the country and the world who have some resources to help their beloved Punjab, its villages and cities, to make their contributions in accordance with the proper priorities.

(Authors: Prof. Jagmohan Singh is Chairman, Shahid Bhagat Singh Centenary Foundation. Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril and India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food)