Written by Tarushi Singh
Edited by Jairaj Vij
Illustrated by Ananya Prabhakar
‘Made with care and shipped with love, now I’m just a plastic unloved, thrown on tables or street sides, my owners disappear and put on a disguise, they tell tales of lies, where they are nature’s allies……the bond they share is so strong, nature is like the mother from whom they were born, scorn the ones who litter around, they become the police which was never around. Voiceless is my cry, but my presence never hides, everywhere you’ll see a sibling of mine lie. So, open your eyes and see what’s around, sustainability isn’t a threat for the generations to come about’
I’ve written this small excerpt to bring attention to the primary concern of the article, which is the perception of ‘sustainability’ and the impact it has on our daily lives. I will start by explaining my position and intention concerning sustainability.
If you search it up on Google, the first few results of ‘What does sustainability mean in simple terms?’ would be ‘Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ many of you might have used or use this definition when someone asks you What does sustainability mean, have you ever wondered ‘How were these needs generated?’ Well, considering the geopolitical inequalities of resources in countries we can understand that the needs of each state would be different but surprisingly in a world that is highly globalized, we haven’t been able to form a network that can constructively administer the exchange of goods and commodities between countries.
Scarcity for one may be abundance for another is in fact very true with regards to the contemporary world, neoliberal societies prioritize capitalist needs and want before the welfare of communities, this is evident if we take a look at the distribution of income in countries like India where top 10% and top 1% hold 57% and 22% of the total national income, according to the World Inequality Report 2022, the stark contrast in the condition of the population can now be explained. The rapid privatization of developing economies like India and China caused a decline in public wealth, taking the example of Gautam Adani the pandemic was highly beneficial for industrialists like him, through the effective use of political connections and execution was able to take over 8 of the largest airports in India, becoming the largest operator of ports in the country, gas distribution and privatization of many sectors etc. has contributed to multiplying his wealth eightfold, this process significantly decreases the public wealth.
The decrease in public wealth has had severe implications on the citizens living below the Poverty Line in India additionally it establishes the fact that sustainability isn’t a concern for the future but the present. In India, 80 million+ citizens are living below BPL(Below Poverty Line), and their ability to avail for help is hindered by numerous factors, the primary ones being unemployment and job insecurity in the country, this has created the dynamic of fewer jobs-more people consequently leaving the majority population at disadvantage, another factor that makes the situation extremely hurtful is the lifestyle of the citizens living below BPL, the dilemma is almost insolvable as to how can their livelihood be improved, within this cycle are also people who aren’t citizens of India but irrespective to that contribute to the countries economy and sadly no provisions and policies are made for their benefit or safeguard, automatically they become part of the low class of the country and are absorbed in the toxic cycle.
This makes me wonder that despite being aware of all the realities why are we as citizens so ignorant…..the role politics plays in our lives is so extensive that it gives us the so-called privilege of class, caste, religion, citizen, the privilege that is given to us is to make us ‘normal’ citizens and feel obliged towards a distorted view of a progressive and developing country, where the lives of all are important because ‘unity in diversity’ whereas in reality the very ‘diversity’ is being hunted down and their reason for sustaining and existing is being questioned, the more diverse more the intersectionality of an entity, leading to a society where needs of many need to be met but evidently needs of only a few are acknowledged.
We, ourselves have ignored the conditions of our fellow citizens and have contributed significantly to the depletion of resources, for me the primary resource which has been depleted is the Human Resource, the degradation and corruption of these resources is a major reason why our survival is being threatened.
The ability to sustain the quality of life is decreasing steadily and the major contributors to this are none other than Humans, well not over generalizing this but in our own ways, we ignore the ways through which we can make the lives of numerous people better and contribute to a more sustainable society. I’d like to conclude by saying that we first need to sustain our principles, and knowledge and apply it practically to reform society rather than discussing all the needs and reforms on paper. The easiest way to clean up after ourselves is to clean our practices and not buy 10 cleaning products.
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