ARUN JAIN'S DIARY

Non Violent Economy

Trust you all are having a nice and joyful festive season!

Recently, Manju and I attended the Non-Violent Economy Network (NVEN) event at Madurai. I was very intrigued by the narrative of Non-Violent Economy. How come the Economy which provides livelihood to us all becomes violent?The movement is led by Global leaders from many countries who are relooking at the economy from a sustainable lens.

The Sustainability of Human Existence is now anchored around Climate, Water, Energy Systems, Chemical free Agriculture practices, Forests and Consumption.The word Economy is for 138 Crs people of India and 750 Crs Global people not for a select few. In India alone, there are more than 90 cr people living in Rural India spread across 6 lakh villages.

The lowest structure of local governance is the elected Panchayat System consisting of 2.5 lakh Panchayats, governed by 11 to 17 members each. Now the question is what is their role in our Urban Economy?How do we calculate the contribution of each village in the traditional economy?Are we in a hurry to produce higher and higher by applying toxic chemical fertilisers and compromising on Sustainability in Non Violent way?

I interpreted ‘Nonviolence’ as non-violence at Thought, Speech and Action Levels by an individual or community. Non-Violence for sustainability is to respect Nature, Climate, Water, Forest and Agriculture. It is also about Fair Trade& profit and about right consumption.

In the last 6 yrs, I am enjoying working with self motivated Development Accelerators (called NGO’s) through Mission Samriddhi who are completely committed to Sustainability without even knowing the word ESG or Non-Violence. I got humbled when the Tribal community of Shiratoki, a small village of Yavatmal, Maharashtra came together to participate in Collective Farming by pooling their 150 acres of the land. We got the opportunity to apply Design Thinking to solve problems of Fragmented land holding, Water, Natural farming and single crop dependency along with 10 other compassionate experts. We call this experiment HOCO farming (Holistic and Collective Farming). I must thank each one of the experts who are putting their substantial time in designing this non-violent economic experiment.

When Manju & I were thinking about a Diwali gift this year, we felt we need to participate in this movement in a very small way by sharing products from Non-Violent economy to our friends and families. We picked up a few products from rural non-violent startups. The Handbag is sourced from YellowBag Foundation which helps women gain financial independence, Millet based sweets and savouries are from The Timbaktu Collective, a non-profit organisation that works towards the sustainable development of marginalised people across 285 villages in the drought-prone and ecologically challenged in Andhra Pradesh

This Diwali, we were happy to be part of the Non-Violent economy movement.

Wishing you a Happy Diwali.