Mainstream WeeklyPunjab 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