How will disenfranchised peoples adapt to Climate Change?

K.Chaitanya Kumar – Indian Youth Climate Network(IYCN) – Hyderabad.

Headlines Today

• India goes to poll.• North Korea and its secret satellite.• Chinese company working on electric cars on

a large scale.• Climate activists roughed up – plan to stop a

power plant sabotaged.• IYCN is represented in a conference on

Climate Justice in Toronto,Canada.

Adaptation to Climate ChangeThe problem has to be mitigated, but the real solution is a mix of mitigation and adaptation.

The Current Situation:

India cannot and will not adopt any emission reductions or mitigation methods when the

figures suggest that our per capita emissions will never go beyond those of the developed

nations.

So what is the way forward for a country like India?

a)Sustainable development henceforth.b)Adapting to the dangers of climate change at the earliest.

Why adapt?• 2/3rds of Indian living below 2$ a day.

• Per capita emissions are over 15 times less than the highest (US).

• Though contributing 4% of world carbon emissions, we are incapable of reducing emissions without jeopardizing further growth.

• We are the most vulnerable to climate change.

------------------what does this suggest??-----------------------

• Adaptation is the key to saving lives and creating sustainable models for the future.

What does the World say?

• India needs to be a part of a separate group besides the dated non annex I countries.

• India needs to reduce its dependence on dirty coal and other fossil fuels.

Andhra Pradesh

Vol 1: The disenfranchised or the victims

• The rural India, 70% of the population is the most vulnerable and no surprises in Andhra’s case.

• The coastal regions bordering the side of the bay of Bengal are vulnerable.

• Though parts of the state form the Deccan plateau, a catchment area of major rivers, climate change will have its impact.

• Poor urban planning of cities like Hyderabad will aid in aggravating the affects of climate change and hence the urban poor casualties.

Elections in Andhra Pradesh – A magnitude unheard of before with over 5 million people.

A taste of what’s to come?

a) Political parties are fighting it out in various constituencies to woo the voter with promises of cell phones, tv’s, 25kg’s of rice at $2 etc.

b) Agrarian growth with farmer benefits are guaranteed without any fear of climate change.

c) Urban development will be a success with sky scrapers and expressways sans knowledge of emissions.

d) A possible split of the state owing to peasant struggles but with a lack of wealth distribution model.

Climate change has wider impacts on the state of Andhra that will affect the livelihood of all.

The problems they face?• Water security: A recent

report suggests that the ground water table of Hyderabad is critical and the city could go bone dry in the next 10 years.

• Food security: 4,500 committed suicide since the last 7 years due to bad seeds, costly pesticide and drought. In the name of free trade, thousands of lives were lost.

More • Overall changing weather

patterns: unpredictability, lack of awareness and no adaptation.

• Looming disaster of hybrid varieties of crops, BT brinjal etc.

• Land occupation for bio fuel cultivation.

• Decreasing land in urban areas and excess dependence on imports.

• Local water body pollution being aggravated by climate change.

and a lot more

• Andhra’s geographical position, sociological hindrances and its sheer size are but a few of the problems.

• The problem of black soot which is generally ignored.

• The case of gender inequality.

Andhra’s Adaptation

• The cultural diversity which comes through in the religions, castes, languages and regions calls for diversified adaptation methods.

• Local action before national or state policies trickle down.

• Unification of various actors at the grassroots levels to work together.

• A prioritization of needs of the vulnerable and acting accordingly.

Fact File – Andhra Pradesh• A.P. is divided into 3 met regions i.e.., a ) Coastal A.P. b)

Rayalaseema c) Telangana.The state as a whole is benefited by both the monsoons but Telangana gets less than 25 percent of the total from N.E. Monsoon.

• A deep study of the behavior of monsoons over a period of years show that the general characteristics of the rainfall in this region is erratic with a continued dry spell of three weeks and more creating drought conditions. Heavy spells are generally noticed in July and September resulting in two fillings of tanks and reservoirs.

• Andhra has 23 districts.• A coastal length of 974 KM’s• Major rivers are Krishna, Godavari and Tungabhadra.• Annual rainfall of 940mm.• Manufacturing sector is the biggest contributor to GSDP and

pharma industry is the biggest in the country.

Hyderabad, A.P. – Climate Change by 2050s

Per capita availability of water

Hyderabad – Mega city’s mega woes

Water Supply from Krishna

Chaitanya’s drinking water source

Supply per capita

Existing Pressures

• Dynamics of Demographics• Land & Energy use• Economic Activities• Territorial Occupancy• Trans-boundary Issues

Sustainable Development

Vol2 : The Villains

• The usual suspects – Government and its policy, private sectors.

• The unusual suspect – Cultural diversity and conflicts, energy inequity, deadpan middle class.

A case of Agriculture in Rural Andhra

• The region of Telangana has seen class-based mobilisation of the landless and poor peasantry since the early 70’s.

• The high class brahmins were typically the landlords or doras while the lower castes formed the tenants.

• The Vetti system is followed which is a principle of exchange.• The Goudas (toddy-tappers) had to reserve certain high yielding palmyra

trees for the dora, tap them and supply the produce freely. The village Kummari (potter) supplied pots; Chakalis (washermen) and Mangalis (barbers), in addition to their caste occupation-related services, had to perform other household chores at the gadi (residence of dora).

• Tenant cultivation is of 3 types – fixed amount, half the yield with investment from the share-cropper, 2/3rd to landlord and rest to share-cropper

The result?• Increasing unrest amongst the peasants lead to the

formation of CPI(ML) in the late 70’s. It was lead by young people across the state.

• Sircilla and Jagityal struggle. • The Peddapally struggle• The naxalite movement• The tendu struggle – beedi leaves.• Dalit movement in coastal Andhra

Of darker green and misunderstood technology

• The famous Green Revolution which began in 1965 spread to areas of Andhra very soon.

• Use of pesticides, fertilizers and technologically modified crops began.

• The use of technology began to make inroads in rural Andhra and the consequences are not what was expected!

An Example

• The leather workers of the Madiga community were dependent on the agricultural community for carcasses to produce leather chappals, which they then supplied to the community in return.

• On the one hand, they were affected by the entry into rural markets of chappals made in urban leather centres, and on the other, by the overall transformation of agrarian practices.

• Further, cheap rubber slippers largely replaced the chappals made by the local Madiga leather workers.

• The same case can be extended to the handloom communities in Andhra Pradesh.

• Freedom from labor obligations with the decline of the pre-capitalist production relations.

• Freedom from the old mode of production and craft basis sufficiently opened up autonomy.

• However, this notional freedom is obstructed and restricted by the lack of sufficient alternative sources of employment.

• The result is the migration of aspirations of rural youth to get a better job in cities like Hyderabad, Vizag etc. And this isn’t a positive change?

The middle class menace!

700 million young people(below 35) in the country and this could be the biggest bane or the biggest boon to this country.

Bane?a) Rising aspirations to adopt a western lifestyle.b) Apathy in the middle class.c) Oft denied and ignored aspect of urban traditions based on religion, caste,

gender.

Boon?a) Immense man power to drive green jobs and sustainable development

models.b) Scope for future leadership.

Steps to Adaptationa) Weather indexed crop insurance – a foolproof method to make sure the

truly vulnerable get the support from Govt.b) Avoiding yield wastage through proper storage techniques – example of

wheat where yield was beyond demand and govt. storage facilities were shoddy. Governance of food distribution has to revisited to address the most needy first.

c) Agro forestry – where trees and crops and grown together to avoid crop failure due to floods and restore soil fertility and also provide shade to the crops. Fact -600 million metric tons of carbon a year by 2040, compared with about 120 million metric tons for cropland.

d) Drastic policies on family planning in rural India – This is a tough step as it is bound by age old traditions.

More steps…• Financial mechanism which works with local cooperatives, self help

groups and banks at a wide scale level. • Better knowledge systems that provide not just the price of the crop but

also weather patterns – ITC for example began this.• Education systems that work as platforms for villages to gather and

discuss the issues of farming and share best practices to adopt.• A simultaneous shift to resistant/ tolerant crops and organic farming –

ICRISAT in Hyderabad is working on climate tolerant crops suitable in the plateau conditions.

• Prevention of migration to urban areas in search of jobs, decentralization/ de-modernization of industry in rural Andhra

• Calling for traditional practices and improving small and medium scale industries.

• If we pursue emissions trading in a big way, agrarian communities need to be a part of it.

• Introduction of renewable energy to rural areas.

• NREGA, Mid day meal, rural electrification, rural water conservation scheme.

A model NGO

• MV Foundation in Andhra has worked with over 108 villages in and around Hyderabad since the last 15 years. They took up

• Natural resource management methods – I. watershed mgmt, II. horticulture, III. vermi composting, IV.careful biofuel cultivation,V. Bio gas unitsVI.Solar energy appliances.

IYCN

Create communicate celebrate

Our Endeavour is to network various actors from the grassroots, politicians, media, youth and create a single platform to promote solutions

We believe everybody is a potential climate activist and can bring about the needed change.

Our activities

• First Indian Youth Delegation to Poznan.• Climate Solutions Road Tour• Rural Energy Project• Presence in National and International

conferences.• Organized over 10 conferences to bring young

people together.• A model powershift in India in July.

Our presence

• www.iycn.in

• www.indiaclimatesolutions.com

• www.whatswiththeclimate.org