Concept Note on Ministry of Peace

 

To the Government of Rajasthan

Concept Note on Ministry of Peace

Submitted by Rajagopal, P.V.

May 4^th, 2019

 

Introduction

Violence and conflict are pervasive in Indian society. However people often do not know that they are perpetuating violence. Violence can be so imperceptible yet it vitiates the very conditions of human wellbeing. In the world today, one third of all countries are in active conflict. Ten to fifteen percent of the global GDP is spent on the trading of arms. In the case of India, we are the single largest buyer of arms in the world importing roughly 13% of the total produced armaments. With such a big market in the country, this incentivizes people to buy more arms and in the process create more conflict. With greater conflict, behavior and social interactions are affected.

 

For example gender-based violence is endemic in India. Every thirteen minutes a rape takes place. Rarely do we trace the cause of gender violence to brute force that comes as an attitude when there is pervasive violence. Another example is huge conflict that is created when resources (such as land, forest, and water) are being denied to resource dependent communities and if these are being taken by companies to make profit, this leads to a lot of violence. Gender violence and resource violence are a part of the larger systemic violence in society.

 

Another space of violence that is often ignored is in India’s world-known film industry. Violence in ‘our films has been there since the inception and both national and regional film industries have glorified violence to such an extent they stylize and display destruction, cruelty and brutality’ (The Sentinel October 19^th, 2018)

 

Violence is also reflected in our children’s competitive attitudes. Parents are pressing children to compete and achieve at any cost. This leads to obsessive self-promotion without children learning ‘how to cooperate with one another’. Young children engaging in video games, are subject to ‘health hazards with long term effects’ (World Children’s Health Society, 2018). Video games, social media, television can have a numbing effect on children, which increases their propensity for violence.

 

Another area of violence is the destruction of nature. Polluting the water, air and soil has reached critical proportions and this in turn is hazardous for people’s health. Additionally climate change and global warming is threatening the very conditions of human survival.  This too is violence to the earth and is part of a pervasive violence.

 

How do we reshape these different forms of violence? This proposal suggests that collectively we need to create a culture of peace. We need to explicitly upscale nonviolence. Although a culture of peace begins in the family and in early education, public institutions such as schools, colleges, government workplaces, and municipalities can reinforce positive interactions, and help people develop ways to resolve conflict. This is where there needs to be a Ministry of Peace to ensure appropriate policies and programs.

 

Proposal for Ministry of Peace

In this 150^th Anniversary of Gandhi, it proposed that the Government of Rajasthan set up a Ministry of Peace to coordinate activities that combine to create a culture of peace.The Ministry of Peace would be responsible for setting up structures for carrying out various action programs. A team to help with this process is given in Annex 1. Although this needs more in-depth study, sevenpreliminary suggestions are being put forward here for consideration.

 

1.     School & College programs to teach and to set up practical experiential learning in having students use nonviolent conflict resolution in facing difficult situations and conflict.

2.     Setting up centers across Rajasthan to train rural youth people to deal with poverty, migration and resource problems.

3.     Constituting a dialogue group of people that can deal with various kinds of conflict.

4.     Bringing women into the role of being peacemakers in various settings.

5.     Taking up mediation as a way of solving common disputes such as gender violence and land issues.

6.     Working to link the way we conserve water

7.     Creating a nonviolent lens for planning and monitoring infrastructural development.

 

1.School & Colleges to teach and to set up practical experiential learning on nonviolent conflict resolution. In the spirit of Gandhi’s 150^th celebration, this is an opportunity toemphasize the study of Gandhi n terms of the ways that he solved conflict. The experiential learning could include many projects in different settings for helping youth to learn how to manage conflict in community or in society.Just as there an emphasis on the STEM subjects, there needs to be time given to learning the behaviors related to nonviolence such as cooperation. There can be awards given to teachers who make unique efforts in this regard. This could be a priority area for the Ministry of Peace in consultation with the Ministry of Education.

 

2. Setting up training centers across Rajasthan to build capacities among rural youth to deal with poverty, migration and resource problems. There are many problems faced by rural communities today wherepoverty and unemployment leads rural populationsto migrate to urban centers. Training youth in order to find opportunities in rural communities would be salutary for overall development. One of the programs that has made some headway in this regard is called GoRurban. It is run by youth out of Bhopal in Rajasthan. It is about urban youth giving support to rural youth to stay on the land and in farming as a legitimate livelihood. The urban youth become activists for a different kind of development. This has come about by building capacities in urban and rural youth. Thus the Ministry of Peace could help to set up these centers across the state.

 

3. Constituting a dialogue group of people that can diffuse kinds of conflict.

In this era of economic globalization, natural resources are in demand for profit-making. As a result many rural communities are being marginalized. They are not able to find a way to counter these trends even though they are in the majority.So the state should not support those profiting over those seeking basic livelihood through the use the law and the police services. Rather it is important to find a very strong dialogue group made up of experienced and sensitive people that have the capacity to take up mediation ofdiverse groups. In the long term the attitude of government bureaucrats will have to work with people and not opposed to them, if they want to resolve conflict. The Ministry could help to see this happen through the right kind of dialogue.

 

4. Bringing women into the role of being peacemakers in various settings. There are thousands of women’s groups in Rajasthan today; in addition to solving local economic issues, women could potentially play a more active role in peacemaking. For that they need to be provided more motivation and training. The Ministry could add a women training component to its peace activities.

 

5.Taking up mediation as a way of solving common disputes such as gender violence and land issues. Mediation has become a popular way of avoiding long wait times law suits, and less financial costs. Community based mediation can be effectively implemented with the help of experts already carrying out this work. A Ministry of Peace could keep a roster of such mediators when required.

 

6.Climate crisis: With global warming increasing/decreasing temperature levels, threatening resources, it is imperative that sustainable energy be a priority. The Ministry of Peace could also reinforce the awareness raising around the conservation of natural resources, and proper land use to ensure that people are producing and consuming in a low carbon economy as a way to address violence.

 

7.Creating a nonviolent lens for planning and monitoring infrastructural development:Just as there is social and environmental monitoring to help see impact, it is important to see whether any development project is causing more violence or less nonviolence. This is seen as part of building a peaceful society.

 

Conclusion

There are three Ministries of Peace in Costa Rica, Georgia and Nepal. The one proposed here is based on Gandhian principles and therefore explores deeper relations between members and institutions of society. This is a unique opportunity for the state of Rajasthan to show how a Ministry of Peace would function, and how such a Ministry would certainly influence the formation of other Ministries in other Indian states.

 

Annex 1:

To guide this process the Government of Rajasthan can form a small committee of experienced experts in this field. Some suggested names are:

 

Dr. S. N. SubbaRao, Eminent Gandhian

S. C. Behar, Former Chief Secretary, MP  and Educationalist

Dr. RevaJoshee, Professor of Education and Peace

Dr. John Chelladurai, Head of Academic Program, Gandhi Foundation

RajniBhakshi, Journalist and Gandhian Scholar

Radha Bhatt, Former Chairperson of Gandhi Peace Foundation

AdityaPatnaik, Gandhian Leader (Orissa)

Jill Carr-Harris, International Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and Peace