Local Nonviolent Economy - A Transition Movement

 

Local Nonviolent Economy - A Transition Movement

What is the emerging around local and nonviolent economy,it looks like a transition movement-Rajagopal

 

IMAGINE -CHALLENGE -INNOVATE- BE SMALL

 

Rajaji began the call by saying that he was happy to discover that successful strides have been taken in South India by various movements towards creating an alternative to existing market economy. Rajaji regards as transition movement for India. In west it is taking shape but not many people are aware of what is happening in India and so he framed the purpose of the call, which was to have many successful change-makers of the south share short summaries of their journeys leading to figuring out ways of synergizing and collectively moving forward.

 

Local Economy: See strengths of being small

Prasannaji quit theatre, and inspired by Gandhian teachings, founded the Shramajeevi Ashram, and Charkha, a dynamic rural khadi co-operative, managed entirely by local women. The ashram and weavers have the distinction of having revived traditional dyeing techniques and textiles such as the Udupi handloom saree that was teetering on the brink of extinction. Prasanna is proud that the 30,000 metres of khadi produced in the ashram.

 

The unit has 600 Dalit women in it. Over the last 2 years he has been trying to get the benefits of scale while keeping the strengths of being small. He found it beneficial to decentralize the 25 units of the organization into independent units while Charkha remained as a service provider for them (training, etc.).

 

Prassannji saw the important of “economy” in creating a nonviolent, locally based life and society. Taking his lesson, “How we can and must learn from the mainstream corporates”. He showed how they have evolved and implemented systems that could even be called Gandhian, such as decentralizing, treating employees as stakeholders, etc.

 

Executing Gandhi’s vision of a local economy

Dr. Jacob Pulickanji from Trivandrum spoke next. His journey started when he discovered that it was difficult to get even 25 people to attend a speech on Gandhi. He then turned to working with youth, women, etc. and to help them create ventures that were financially independent, sustainable, and generated income for participants while executing Gandhi’s vision of a local economy. They started by perfecting the technology of soap-making and added necessary products like food items and consumer products to their portfolio. Each unit focused on obtaining raw materials from, and supplying products in, the area where they were based in, and relied on door-to-door personal sales than using shops and ads. The movement spawned successful replicas throughout Kerala and has been received wholeheartedly by the people of each area while fostering financial independence.

Challenging Centralised Economy

Ananthooji of Thula was the next speaker. He pointed out that he is troubled by the centralized economy where Indian billionaires doubled their money in recent years, without creating the promised trickledown effect, and while creating ecological damage. He pointed that each village shop on average has 360 plastic packaged items from multinationals. All this means we are handing over a degraded, damaged earth to the coming generations. He spoke of CESCI Nagapattanam, where there was a synergy between the local community and the organization. Raw materials were sold to the organization by the local women, the finished product(oils) and by-products(composted) were sold at a subsidized rate to the villagers. Similar local oil creation firms are challenging the multinational hold on oil sales throughout Tamil Nadu.

 

Creating A Wholesome, Sustainable, Society

Dr. Manjunath H spoke next about Sacred economy in agriculture and about their Sahajala experiment in creating a wholesome, sustainable, society in Rangapura Panchayat of Tumkur. He spoke of Madhugiri, the area where Rangapura exists, in detail. It has a forest ecology (shrub, deciduous forests), pastoral ecology with high water absorption, rain-fed agricultural lands where mono cropping is being transformed to a more beneficial multi-storeyed natural cropping, and water-bodies, which would have been be affected if chemical farming is pursued. The initiative also intends to eliminate malnutrition in the area using local produce of fruits, vegetable, and grains, and also intends to create an art, culture & sports centred public space too for the area.

 

Coming together Connect to reclaim

Muthu Velyuthamji spoke next about how this coming together of already existing change-makers and movements could connect to existing markets. He spoke of ITC's attempt to cultivate and market Ashwagandha, an herb known by our tribal communities for many centuries, and of Dabur's Amla farm in Katni. He pointed out that we could reach such markets around the world with existing knowledge.

 

Riya: Civil Society Support needed to bring back nutritional diversity

Ms. Riya Simon spoke on behalf of Natural Farming Coalition. She spoke of the Odisha Millet Mission as its inspiration. OMM was able to promote millets in large way. It encouraged and scaled up millet production, the government purchased it creating a market, and then used it in PDS, school midday meals, etc., bringing changes to consumption patterns, and thereby created a wholesome and complete process chain and ecosystem. The NF coalition was trying to achieve the same thing in Natural Farming. Some of the initiatives are to encourage kitchen farming at various levels (home, anganwadi, etc.), farmer’s markets in various places including Mysore, efforts to bring back nutritional diversity that we had in the past, etc. She also said that many governments wanting to bring such changes but that they may need some help from the civic society for that.

 

Mr. Sridhar:Learning From Ventures & Invites Us Challenge Some Traditional Perspectives On Economy

Sridharji spoke of his organization that started in tourism, then progressed to honey creation and marketing, and then to natural indigo-dyed denims. He spoke of how they require the youngsters who train with them to start their own ventures. He spoke of catering to 7000 people over ten years with no hotel involvement in either accommodation or food, in their eco-tourism business. Based on his experiences, Sridharji invited us to challenge some traditional perspectives. He proposed:

a) A reconsideration of the relationship of scale and sustainability.

b) Whether we can go beyond the cost+margin view of pricing, and of charging a premium where the customers are ready and capable, so that we can have resources for a rainy day.

c)How decentralized movements have an advantage through their ability to customize their products vs a multinational who focuses on standardizing.

d) He also spoke of tantalizing opportunities to charge a premium for not doing anything/much to a product. Eg: unprocessed honey, white shirts, etc.

e) How information is a new addition to the traditional supply-demand paradigm and how AI and Big data can help in finding the correct market, and successful marketing.

f) How many individuals in the mainstream and in new technology fields wishes to make a difference and will be able allies if they get receptivity, a bit of open mind, and flexibility from us.

 

Mr. Anuj Jain: Globalising the Effort of Local

Mr. Anuj Jain ji from Nova Scotia, Canada spoke of his desire to meet and talk to each of the presenters so that he can showcase these efforts globally. He asked us to ponder what unique aspect can the Non violent economy bring to the table. He also spoke of creating a macro narrative from these micro initiatives.

 

Rajaji summarized the meet and said a real-life meeting will be hosted. He observed Srilankan change-makers are also keen to adapt and adopt what is happening here.

 

Biju bhai offered formal vote of thanks.

 

 

Report Prepared by Mr. Anish Abraham