IGTAMSU-An ISO Certified University
An
ISO 9001 : 2015 Certified University
Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University, Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh, India
History and Origins
The history of the Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University (IGTAMSU) may be traced from the year 2002 when the great institution builder and thinker Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi, President, World Institution Building Programme (WIBP) was motivated and encouraged by the then Prime Minister Hon'ble Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the year 2002 for selecting the State of Arunachal Pradesh for establishing a State level University for taking care of the tertiary education needs of the North-Eastern States in general and of Arunachal Pradesh in particular.
Establishment and Legislation
Although the initial developmental work got initiated from the year 2002 after the formal invitation was accorded to the WIBP President Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi by the then Governor and the then Chief Minister for selecting the site and proposing the draft of the legislation to be passed from the Arunachal Pradesh State Assembly, it took almost ten years till the legislation titled "Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University Act 2012" was passed from the State Legislature (Act 6 of 2012). Since then different courses at Certificate, Diploma, Post Graduate Diploma, Bachelor's and Master's levels are being
2001 : The then Prime Minister of India Hon'ble Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi after discussing the action
plan for Arunachal Pradesh
Establishment and Legislation
Although the initial developmental work got initiated from the year 2002 after the formal invitation was accorded to the WIBP President Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi by the then Governor and the then Chief Minister for selecting the site and proposing the draft of the legislation to be passed from the Arunachal Pradesh State Assembly, it took almost ten years till the legislation titled "Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University Act 2012" was passed from the State Legislature (Act 6 of 2012). Since then different courses at Certificate, Diploma, Post Graduate Diploma, Bachelor's and Master's levels are being
Establishment and Legislation
Although the initial developmental work got initiated from the year
2002 after the formal invitation was accorded to the WIBP President
Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi by the then Governor and the then Chief
Minister for selecting the site and proposing the draft of the
legislation to be passed from the Arunachal Pradesh State Assembly,
it took almost ten years till the legislation titled "Indira Gandhi
Technological and Medical Sciences University Act 2012" was passed
from the State Legislature (Act 6 of 2012). Since then different
courses at Certificate, Diploma, Post Graduate Diploma, Bachelor's
and Master's levels are being conducted in the specialised areas of
nursing, law, paramedical sciences, management, engineering,
information technology, education, social sciences, applied sciences
etc.
2002 : Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi meeting the then Deputy Prime
Minister of India Hon'ble Shri L.K. Advani briefing him regarding
the vast potential regarding the overall development of Arunachal
Pradesh
2002 : Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi with the then Union Minister
of Health and Family Welfare Padmashree Dr. C.P. Thakur jointly
announcing the master plan for the North-Eastern Region with special
reference to "Health for All"
Accreditation
Created under the provisions of the Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University Act 2012 (Act 6 of 2012) of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, this university is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. The School of Nursing established by the University is also recognised by the Indian Nursing Council.
The Hon'ble President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind receiving
the first copy of his Book brought out by the IGTAMSU Team
Future Programmes
The university has also envisaged an action plan for launching new
programmes including Bachelor of Vocation (B.Voc.), Master of
Vocation (M.Voc.) besides Master of Science (M.Sc.) Degree by
research and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Degree by research.
The university is of the view that education is the largest single
activity in the world, involving over 700 million students and 31
million teachers at all levels, not counting millions of others in
educational support activities. But its importance stems not merely
from its size but also from its role as institutionalized knowledge
- the principal repository, producer, disseminator and transmission
belt of all forms of knowledge.
The most significant feature of education for mother earth
protection in the 21st century is not so much what the French call
li explosion scolaire (i pupil explosioni), but the knowledge
explosion, which has expanded the catchment areas of learning so
fast that it takes only a decade now for the state of the art in any
field to become obsolete. Different modes of communicating for
advancement of knowledge are fast changing and becoming more
sophisticated. In this technological era knowledge can be dispensed
technologically and electronically. Teachers and formal school
structures are becoming less important, and the conventional age
limits on the learning process are becoming blurred.
2014 : The Book titled "Narendra Modi : The Man India Needs"
authored the Founder Chancellor Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi being
released by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Government
of India : Hon'ble Mr. Kiren Rijiju at Leh Ladakh
As the human race prepares to venture
into a new century, conversations and news reports are peppered with
references to our fragile and endangered planet. The earth is five
billion years old, and over the eons it has endured bombardment by
meteors, abrupt shifts in its magnetic fields, dramatic realignment
of its land masses, and the advance and retreat of massive ice
mountains that reshaped its surface.
Life, too, has proved resilient: In the more than three and a half
billion years first forms of life emerged, biological species have
come and gone, but life has persisted without interruption. In fact,
no matter what we humans do, it is unlikely that we could suppress
the powerful and chemical forces that drive the earth system.
Although we cannot completely disrupt the earth system, we do affect
it significantly as we use energy and emit pollutants in our quest
to provide food, shelter, and a host of other products for the
world's growing population. We release chemicals that gnaw holes in
the ozone shield that protects us from harmful ultraviolet
radiation, and we burn fuels that emit heat - trapping gases that
build up in the atmosphere. Our expanding numbers overtax the
agricultural potential of the land.
Tropical forests that are home for millions of biological species
are cleared for agriculture, grazing, and logging. Raw materials are
drawn from the earth to stoke the engines of the growing world
economy, and we treat the atmosphere, land, and waters as
receptacles for the wastes generated as we consume energy and goods
in our everyday lives. Scientific evidence and theory indicate that
as a result of such activities, the global environment is undergoing
profound changes. In essence, we are conducting an uncontrolled
experiment with the planet to the extent that we have come to a
point of no return and we may face the disaster any time.
Our courses have been design for selecting accomplished individuals,
enabling them to guide the human race living in a historic
transitional period of burgeoning awareness of the conflict between
human activities and environmental constraints, preparing to venture
into a new century and a new millennium and to finally help save the
fragile and endangered planet with the natural resources already
overtaxed.
2018 : Hon'ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Mr. Pema
Khandu receiving the Book titled "Foreign Policies of Narendra Modi
Government" from the Founder Chancellor Dr. P R Trivedi, Chancellor
Dr. Markandey Rai, Pro Chancellor Dr. Utkarsh Sharma and Forensic
AuditorMr. Vineet Chaturvedi in the official chamber of the Chief
Minister
The successful students will help in
developing a neological and neocratic approach to governance for
reducing the toll the world citizenry have exacted in supporting
daily life and the ever increasing problems on the earth exerting
profound pressures on the environment.
If human society is to endure not for just another century but for
thousands and thousands of years, we need to learn a way of life
that could be sustained by the Mother Earth. Human society must
learn to control population size and develop more efficient
technologies that produce as little harmful waste as possible. We
must learn to rely on resources that are renewable. A society based
on these ideas is called a sustainable society. We should long for
having a sustainable world so profoundly different from the way we
live which cannot be imagined without a strenuous exercise of mind.
Like human body the Mother Earth has its organs that adjust to
changes - in climate, nutrient levels and other aspects of the
environment to maintain its stability. Just as the human organism is
made of trillions of cells and so is the world organism; each of us
is a cell of Gaia (Greek word for Mother Earth).
Changing our ways will be a colossal task which may involve arduous
work but as an optimist we should view the third millennium with a
cleaner and greener mind and pledge to work on new pollution control
technologies as the answer to our polluted waters and skies by
better treating our Mother Earth by not to rival nature but to
cooperate with it and live in harmony.
2018 : The Hon'ble Education Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Mr.
Honchun Ngandam receiving the Book on Divinity from the IGTAMSU Team
Members at Itanagar
As the human race has ventured to enter
the third millennium, conversations and news reports are peppered
with references to our fragile and endangered planet. The earth is
five billion years old, and over the eons it has endured bombardment
by meteors, abrupt shifts in its magnetic fields, dramatic
realignment of its land masses, and the advance and retreat of
massive ice mountains that reshaped its surface. Life, too, has
proved resilient: In the more than three and a half billion years
first forms of life emerged, biological species have come and gone,
but life has persisted without interruption. In fact, no matter what
we humans do, it is unlikely that we could suppress the powerful and
chemical forces that drive the earth system.
Although we cannot completely disrupt the earth system, we do affect
it significantly as we use energy and emit pollutants in our quest
to provide food, shelter, and a host of other products for the
world's growing population. We release chemicals that gnaw holes in
the ozone shield that protects us from harmful ultraviolet
radiation, and we burn fuels that emit heat - trapping gases that
build up in the atmosphere. Our expanding numbers overtax the
agricultural potential of the land. Tropical forests that are home
for millions of biological species are cleared for agriculture,
grazing, and logging. Raw materials are drawn from the earth to
stoke the engines of the growing world economy, and we treat the
atmosphere, land, and waters as receptacles for the wastes generated
as we consume energy and goods in our everyday lives. Scientific
evidence and theory indicate that as a result of such activities,
the global environment is undergoing profound changes. In essence,
we are conducting an uncontrolled experiment with the planet to the
extent that we have come to a point of no return and we may face the
disaster any time.
2018 : Hon'ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Mr. Pema
Khandu receiving the Book titled "Buddhist Heritage of Ladakh" from
Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi and Dr. Markandey Rai
Publications Programme
The university has brought out more than 100 books on different
developmental subjects including habitat, population studies,
eco-philosophy, eco-tourism, disaster management, sustainable
development, peace studies, conflict resolution, environmental
sciences, disaster management, geoinformatics, bioinformatics,
nursing, health, nutrition etc.
It has also been proposed to bring out a comprehensive Book on
Arunachal Pradesh titled "Arunachal Pradesh : Past, Present and
Future" running into more than 800 pages besides districtwise
profile of each of the 23 Districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Solution of the burning problems of the State and the Country
The university has also prepared a vision document with a view to solving all problems of the State and the Country by proposing changes in the developmental systems as the same has become obsolete or needs immediate modification. That is why the following existing systems and the proposed systems are described below :
2018 : Hon'ble Home Minister of India Mr. Raj Nath Singh with
President of Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) Dr. Priya
Ranjan Trivedi and Director General of Indian Institute of
Governance and Leadership Mr. Himadrish Suwan at North Block, New
Delhi
The Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University (IGTAMSU) after analysing the weaknesses in the present developmental policies has great pleasure in suggesting the following changes and modifications for the overall development of India in general and of Arunachal Pradesh in particular :
For Overall Development of Young People
1.1 Principles
IGTAMSU wants to believe that the key issues for India's young
people are:
a) access to secure, affordable and appropriate long term housing;
b) meaningful work and a competency based wage system;
c) access to education and training;
d) a clean and healthy environment;
e) access to diverse cultural and recreational facilities;
f) access to reliable and affordable transport;
g) access to a living environment which is free from the threat of
physical or emotional abuse or discrimination of any kind; and
h) access to health services which focus on the social, economic and
environmental factors that impact on the lives of young people.
Information about services available to young people must be
accessible and comprehensible.
We oppose all forms of ageism, and support initiatives to counter
this, including public education and affirmative action.
Youth interests must be included in public policy decision-making,
and this requires greater input from young people themselves.
Recognising that young people have a positive contribution to make
to society, we support representation from young people at all
levels of Government. Young people must not only play a central role
in formulating those policies which affect them, but they should be
included more widely in general policy formulation.
2018 : Hon'ble Vice President of India Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu
with with Dr. P R Trivedi
1.2 Goals
IGTAMSU wants to believe that we will :
a) facilitate processes which allow young people to express their
needs and aspirations at all levels of Government, as well as in
their own communities;
b) listen to young people through regionally based Youth Advisory
Committees comprising representative groups of young people with a
range of interests and skills, who will meet to discuss ideas,
initiatives and solutions to problems, as well as provide feedback
and advice on Government programmes. These Advisory Committees will
have input at both state and national levels, to assist with greater
coordination of national, state and local initiatives;
c) support the right of people from the age of 16 years to vote and
to hold public office, in recognition of the increasing awareness of
and responsibility towards current issues of young people.
1.3 Short Term Targets
1.3.1 Unemployment
We will work towards the implementation of a national employment
strategy for young people, to be administered at a local level with
a focus on facilitating community development.
Local Employment Committees will be established. They will provide
vocational training, financial support and the development of job
opportunities which address needs within local communities and
promote green jobs.
2018 : The Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
Dr. Mohan Bhagwat releasing the Book on RSS jointly authored by Dr.
P R Trivedi and Dr. Bipin Kumar
We also support greater representation
of young people on regional economic organisations and greater
recognition of community-based organisations which will finally
generate environment friendly and sustainable as well as socially
useful employment opportunities.
All labour market and training programmes must be developed in
consultation with young people and should not be discriminatory on
any grounds, including age
1.3.2 Education
Our education system must be able to provide the intellectual and
social skills necessary for confronting the social and environmental
problems now facing India. The skills and knowledge of indigenous as
well as non-indigenous ancestry and culture must be shared with our
young people to give them an understanding of the basic solutions to
our cultural crisis.
We are committed to:
a) diverse and inclusive curricula at the school level;
b) supportive school environments that cater for social and academic
development and raise self-esteem;
c) support for early intervention programme;
d) more flexible pathways to employment and training;
e) increased emphasis on training in life skills;
f) ensuring that training programmes are relevant and accessible,
and that they are directly connected to ongoing employment
opportunities; and
g) civic education to enable greater understanding of and
participation in all spheres of Government.
2018 : Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi presenting the first copy of
his Book on RSS to Hon'ble Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of
Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
1.3.3 Youth Justice
The recognition of young people's issues and needs is inadequate in
India's legal system. Young people often feel regulated by the law
but without adequate access to and support from the legal system or
their legal rights. Young people should be protected from violence,
discrimination and exploitation.
We support:
a) immediately establishing a Children's Bureau including a
Commission for Children as well as a Children's Ombudsperson; and
b) the development of a Children and Youth Justice Strategy which
would include community legal education and an advocacy programme
for young people.
1.3.4 Health
There are many serious health issues facing young people in India. Good health is closely connected to lifestyle. While young people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own health, we recognise that physical and emotional wellbeing is often compromised by inadequate access to appropriate housing, income support, meaningful work, creative or recreational opportunities as well as by degradation of the environment.
2018 : The Union Minister in the PMO and in charge of the
Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) Dr. Jitendra
Singh releasing the Book titled "Challenges of 21st Century"
authored by Dr. Markandey Rai
An integrated and holistic approach to
health policy is necessary.
Recognising the urgency of the problem, we support the development
of strategies to deal with youth suicide and mental health problems
among young people.
We also support increased HIV/AIDS education and more preventive
programme targeted to young people with eating disorders.
1.3.5 Housing
The number of homeless youth in India is increasing and projections
suggest this situation will worsen in the future. Adequate housing
and especially secure long term housing are fundamental to young
people working towards their chosen lifestyle.
We support facilitation of community housing and housing
cooperatives in urban areas as a means to servicing the young
homeless.
We support co-housing and all other forms of multiple occupancy.
Young people should be involved in the planning and development of
housing appropriate to their needs.
1.3.6 The Environment
Young people have a clear interest and concern in the wellbeing of
the planet. Respect for the environment is essential to the security
and wellbeing of future generations.
We support community-based employment, housing and cultural
activities which increase the quality of life and empower young
people without consuming vast amounts of resources and generating
excessive waste.
We encourage Hovernment support and facilitation of innovative
environmental projects including urbanised community farms as well
as gardens, alternative housing construction, design, energy
conservation and alternative energy generation, recycling and
secondary resource management.
2018 : The 2nd Edition of the Book on RSS authored by Dr. P R
Trivedi being released by Hon'ble Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Union
Minister of Human Resource Development
Policies for Older People
2.1 Principles
In recent years, political parties have been primarily concerned
with economic indicators of value. They have devoted scant interest
to quality of life issues. When the value of people is measured by
their productive capacity inside the market place, older people tend
to be disregarded, considered only when their votes are needed at
election time.
We consider it fundamental that older people be accorded the same
consideration and respect as everyone else. The experiences, skills,
wisdom and memories of older people are assets for the whole
community. We oppose all forms of ageism, and support initiatives to
counter this, including public education and affirmative action.
2.2 Goals
We aim to give older people control over their own social situation,
enabling them to realise their potential as fully participating
members of society.
This means that they should have the power to take part in designing
the institutions that will affect their well-being.
The exercise of choice to determine how to live, and what kind of
care is needed, is as important for older people as for everyone
else.
2014 : Hon'ble Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Mr. Jual Oram
releasing the Book titled "Tribal Welfare and Development" authored
by Dr. P R Trivedi
2.3 Short Term Targets
We are working towards:
a) promoting a supportive environment for older people;
b) giving everybody the right of early retirement;
c) ensuring that the right to work is not governed by age;
d) adequate health services;
e) ensuring that older people have access to a range of suitable
accommodation including quality public sector housing;
f) personal care for all older people;
g) providing sufficient home and institutional care so that older
people who need assistance can be assured of living out their lives
in comfortable and dignified surroundings that are appropriate to
their individual conditions and capacities;
h) easing the problems of transport for older people;
Policies for the Development of Women
3.1 Principles
We are committed to the following:
a) the protection of women's rights to equal respect, opportunity
and responsibility in society;
b) basing policies on ensuring equal access by women to all areas of
political, social, intellectual and economic endeavour;
c) increased and equitable participation by women in all
decision-making processes;
d) infrastructure changes to protect women from inequality,
exploitation, poverty and violence; and to enable them to reach
their full potential;
e) the right of women to make informed choices about their lives -
lifestyle, sexual identity, health, whether to bear children, their
reproductive process, etc. Discriminatory laws against women must be
repealed. Women and men should be able to choose whether they
participate in the areas of paid work and/or domestic
responsibility.
f) women having equal access to all forms of education and training.
2018 : Hon'ble Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State in
the PMO and in the Ministry of the Development of North-Eastern
Region (DoNER) releasing the Book titled "Foreign Policies of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi" jointly authored by Founder Chancellor Dr. P
R Trivedi and Chancellor Dr. Markandey Rai
3.1.1 Women and Violence
All women have a right to safety at home, on the street and in the workplace, but violence against women is not only a women's problem. Breaking the cycle of domestic violence in particular is a societal problem and the provision of shelter and refuge should be considered only a short-term solution. Any act of violence should be condemned publicly and privately as unacceptable. Our long-term objective is to create an environment of nonviolence, and to provide care and protection for victims in the interim.
3.1.2 Women and Pornography
We oppose the production, performance, display and distribution of pornographic material which depicts women and children as suitable objects for violence and sexual exploitation.
3.1.3 Women and Education
We seek to ensure educational experience and outcomes for girls and women that enable full and equal participation in all aspects of economic and social life.
3.1.4 Women and the Environment
The environmental decision-making process has, to date, largely
excluded women.
Some environmental planning and decision-making needs to be
decentralised and devolved to local communities in such a way that
the concerns of all people are heard.
The domestic sector and those industries where women predominate
should have equal representation in environmental planning and
decision-making.
2018 : Hon'ble Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce
and Industry, Government of India releasing the Book titled "Foreign
Policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi" jointly authored by
Founder Chancellor Dr. P R Trivedi and Chancellor Dr. Markandey Rai
3.1.5 Women and the Arts
We support greater recognition of women's contribution to arts and
acknowledge the role of women in shaping and representing cultural
norms.
We will work towards ensuring that the views of women are
represented, for example, through such avenues as representation of
women on Arts Advisory Boards.
3.1.6 Women and Sport
We support equal access for women and men to recreation facilities, coaching, sports education, competition, media coverage and funding. The need for programme which encourage girls to continue sporting and recreational pursuits beyond early secondary schooling is a priority.
3.2 Goals
3.2.1 Political and Public Participation
We will work towards:
a) ensuring that any reform is consistent with India's commitment to
the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
Against Women (UN-CEDAW);
b) ensuring equal representation of women in decision-making
processes in the organisations of at all levels, local, state and
national; and
c) ensuring that all public boards and committees will have a
statutory requirement for equal representation of women and men.
2018 : The CD titled "Foreign Policies of Narendra Modi
Government" being presented to the Director of Higher and Technical
Education Government of Arunachal Pradesh Dr. Tayek Talom by the
Founder Chancellor Dr. P R Trivedi and the present Chancellor Mr.
Markandey Rai at Itanagar
3.2.2 Women and Violence
We will work towards:
a) a review of all relevant laws which have bearing on violence
against women, treatment of victims and perpetrators; and
b) ensuring women's access to safe and secure accommodation through
a comprehensive housing policy and the provision of adequate
emergency housing.
3.2.3 Women and Pornography
We will work towards promoting the use of legal complaints procedures and processes.
3.2.4 Women and Health
We will work towards:
a) ensuring research and development funds are allocated both to
women researchers and into women's health problems;
b) ensuring changes to the education of health providers with regard
to women's health issues;
c) improving women's access to information regarding their health in
order that appropriate personal decisions can be made;
d) preventive health strategies targeting women and girls, including
those which reduce the incidence of smoking amongst females;
e) providing strategies for more women medical practitioners to
enter those specialisations where women are currently
under-represented.
2018 : The Hon'ble Finance Minister of India Shri Arun Jaitley
receiving a copy of the Book on Lal Bahadur Shastri from the Author
Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi
3.2.5 Women and the Workforce
We will work towards:
a) ensuring equal opportunities for people employed in the paid work
force with family responsibilities;
b) ensuring the provision of adequate child care facilities in the
workplace;
c) encouraging flexible working conditions to enable workers with
family responsibilities (eg. parents minding young children, and
adult children minding ageing parents) to fully participate in the
workforce, and avail themselves of opportunities equally with those
who do not have those responsibilities;
d) providing centres for continuing education and training for
workers, including training and promotion opportunities for
part-time and temporary workers;
e) taking steps to facilitate re-entry, without loss of occupational
status, of people who leave the workforce for parental leave or
family responsibilities leave;
f) ensuring changes brought about by strategies relating to the
elimination of sexual discrimination will not place undue and
unequal responsibility upon women and add to women's workload;
g) ensuring that award restructuring includes the specific aim of
upgrading and broadening the low-paid, low-status positions that
have traditionally been work for a majority of women, particularly
migrant women; and
h) ensuring that women enjoy the full benefits of enterprise
bargaining arrangements, particularly in the traditional work areas
such as the service industry, where there is low union
representation.
2018 : Dr. Mridula Saikia Khanikor receiving her Appointment
Letter as the Vice Chancellor of IGTAMSU from Founder Chancellor Dr.
Priya Ranjan Trivedi and the present ChancellorDr. Markandey Rai in
the presence of Dr. H.N. Khanikor at Ziro
3.2.6 Women and Education
We will work towards:
a) ensuring that a National Policy for the Education of Girls in
Indian Schools is implemented at all levels, until national
indicators on education outcomes are relatively equal for women and
men;
b) the elimination of gender-based harassment in school and
educational institutions and the establishment of Equal Opportunity
offices to assess and consult about the effectiveness of programme
and policies to achieve this;
c) ensuring that teacher training for new and continuing teachers
critically examines the patterns of sex role stereotyping that occur
in our society;
d) continuing Territory / State / Central programme to promote
girls' and women's greater participation in access to school, and
university education, especially in science and technology
disciplines;
e) promoting policies to achieve a higher retention rate of women at
higher degree level in universities; and
f) promoting policies to encourage a higher representation of women
academics in all faculties of universities, and a higher proportion
of women in senior academic positions.
3.2.7 Women and the Law
We will work towards:
a) remedying existing discrimination by ensuring a higher
representation of women on legislative and judicial bodies;
b) examining ways women could be encouraged to enter private
practice and the bar;
c) encouraging women to enter all areas of the legal profession,
d) reviewing all laws which have a bearing on violence against
women;
e) developing further options for the protection of victims, and for
the naming of perpetrators;
f) addressing the myth of 'victim-blaming' by promoting change in
societal attitudes to violence;
g) removing sexist language from existing laws, and ensure future
legislation is non-sexist and does not assume assignment of roles
according to sex;
h) repealing laws relating to sex work.
2018 : The Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University,
Itanagar, Dr. Saket Kushwaha being felicitated at IGTAMSU by Founder
Chancellor Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi and the present Chancellor Dr.
Markandey Rai in the presence of Governing Body Member and the State
Government's Representative Shri Padi Richo at Ziro
3.2.8 Women and the Environment
We will work towards:
a) implementing strategies and programmes to ensure that all
environmental assessments include consideration of impact on health,
community and women; and
b) implementing strategies to ensure that women's needs and advice
are considered in the area of urban planning.
3.2.9 Women and Sport
We will work towards:
a) developing monitoring strategies for equal opportunity and
anti-discrimination principles to be applied to the administration
of all sporting organisations; and
b) ensuring allocation of funding and awards will not be
discriminatory and will allow equal opportunity for women.
3.3 Short Term Targets
3.3.1 Political and Public Participation
We will work towards developing programmes and strategies to provide women with the skills to be effective candidates and members of parliament and to actively promote women to stand as candidates for election.
3.3.2 Women and Violence
We will work towards:
a) establishing a national enquiry into sexual assault and uniform
sexual assault laws. Specifically, the Party want recognition of
sexual assault within marriage and relationships;
b) providing education from early primary school level on
non-violent conflict resolution;
c) addressing the health effects, both physical and emotional, of
violence against women, through adequately funded, appropriate
health and education programme;
d) using publicity and educational campaigns to bring about a change
in the way violence is viewed in our society, which includes a
strategy to educate men that violence against women is a crime;
e) expanding crisis services for women, with and without children.
These include refuges, and services in areas such as rape crisis,
abortion counselling, incest and domestic violence. Special
provision needs to be made for geographically remote locations.
3.3.3 Women and Pornography
We will work towards:
a) extending classification systems to include video games, live
performances and other leisure technologies;
b) strengthening regulation on the display of advertising of
material which includes violence against and sexual exploitation of
women and children;
c) instituting an education programme to encourage critical
examination of the role that the entertainment industry and the
media play in the portrayal of women and children as victims of
violent and sexual exploitation;
3.3.4 Women and Health
We will work towards:
a) ensuring access to safe contraception on demand for all women,
and information on options available;
b) ensuring that women have a choice of where and how to give birth
and information on available options;
c) repealing all laws which restrict the right of women to choose
abortion and which restrict access to services; and
d) ensuring access to legal, affordable, humane and safe abortion
for all women, and provision of counselling pre and
post-termination.
3.3.5 Women and the Workforce
We will work towards:
a) ensuring that apprenticeships and training programmes have
positive discrimination towards women to ensure that opportunities
are not denied to women because of inaccurate evaluation of women's
ability;
b) giving the provision of maternity and paternity leave equal
status in order to encourage the sharing of the parenting roles and
equality of gender in the workplace;
c) undertaking programmes to raise awareness on issues of gender
equity in the workplace and in education;
d) ensuring that women have access to adequate retirement income,
including superannuation; and
e) ensuring continuation of superannuation during parental leave.
3.3.6 Women and Education
We will work towards:
a) providing adequate funding for the support structures and the
support personnel necessary to implement national policy;
b) ensuring that affirmative action is practised in schools to
overcome the attitudes inherent in our society that result in
different expectations for girls and boys. Such action would include
changing school curricula and increasing girls' participation in
areas of maths, science, technology and trades;
c) the application of affirmative action to increase the number of
women in senior, policy and decision-making positions in educational
systems;
d) providing bridging courses for women to facilitate their entry
into the formal education arena;
e) expanding women�s participation in science and technology to
ensure that the introduction of new technology does not further the
advantage of men; and
f) increasing women�s access to training and education in the use
and understanding of computers and computer technology.
3.3.7 Women and the Law
We will work towards:
a) applying affirmative action to ensure that more women hold senior
level positions within the Public Service departments responsible
for policy, administration and enforcement of the law;
b) applying affirmative action to ensure that more women hold senior
faculty positions within Schools of Law;
c) strengthening laws which prohibit portrayal of women or children
as objects of violence or sexual exploitation; and
3.3.8 Women and the Environment
We will work towards:
a) ensuring equal and proportionate representation of women on
environmental decision-making bodies; and
b) applying affirmative action principles to ensure women are able
to participate at all levels of planning, implementation and
assessment of environmental policy.
3.3.9 Women and Sport
We will work towards:
a) providing public education to raise awareness of women's rights
to equal recreation and the importance of this; and
b) providing public education to change attitudes towards women in
sport.
Policies for Health
1.1 Principles
We believe that good health is dependent upon:
a) the environmental, social, political, economic, cultural and
spiritual context of life;
b) protection of the biosphere and Earth's ecosystem, and ecological
sustainability;
c) peace and nuclear disarmament, freedom from war, freedom from
violence in the community and in the home;
d) social justice and community participation in decision-making;
e) the provision of equal access to affordable, appropriate health
services, which emphasise care as well as cure;
f) an emphasis on community-based and community-controlled primary
health care, available from a comprehensive range of service
providers;
g) the placement of greater emphasis on health promotion, disease
prevention and education for optimum health;
h) research which encompasses traditional and alternative/
complementary treatment modalities;
i) an intersectoral approach to policy-making with health-outcomes
criteria affecting decisions made across a range of portfolios, such
as transport, housing, environmental protection, employment, local
community services and education;
j) the availability of a universal health fund covering not only
medical and hospital, but including the full range of appropriate
health services and also including dental and nursing services; and
k) forms of treatment which have been developed in an ethical
framework which acknowledges true environ-mental and social
cost/benefits.
1.2 Goals
Our aim to:
a) develop and implement a national environmental health strategy
which supports a public health approach to health enhancement, and
identifies clear national health priorities;
b) reduce high hospital admission rates by re-orienting health
service provisions to a public health focus which is preventive, and
to a primary care approach concerned with maintenance of optimum
health status;
c) phase out the use of animals for medical research;
d) instigate a parliamentary inquiry into iatrogenic deaths in
hospital;
e) develop, with widespread community consultation, a Health Bill of
Rights and Responsibilities;
f) ensure that India fulfils international obligations to address
environmental issues which impact on health;
g) ban the use of hormones and drugs on farm animals, other than
those medications which are therapeutic and individually prescribed
by veterinarians;
h) restrict the use of chemical food additives and the practice of
irradiating food;
i) consider the effects of fluoridation of drinking water;
j) expand the network of multi-disciplinary community health centres
which will provide a range of treatment options, with
community-based control of resource allocation;
k) expand the availability of birthing centres, where midwives
provide primary management;
l) expand the availability of mobile women's health centres in
remote and rural areas;
m) initiate programme aimed at reducing suicide rates, particularly
among young people and people in rural areas;
n) reintroduce dental care as a service claimable under Medicare.
1.3 Short Term Targets
We support:
a) the maintaining of Medicare;
b) an increase in the Medicare levy on the basis that such funds
(i.e. those derived from the increase) be directed specifically to
primary and public health care (i.e. to maintenance of optimum
health) rather than to reactive disease management interventions;
c) the proposal that all pharmaceutical drugs be sold under their
generic name as well as under their commercial one and that the
generic name appear in all advertising for a particular drug;
d) the implementation of legislation whereby Medicare rebates are
available across a wider range of therapeutic interventions;
e) the development and implementation of social policies to address
the widespread over-use of medications.
Policies for Improving the State of Education and training
2.1 Principles
We support:
a) a vision of education as a life-long process of intellectual,
physical, emotional, ethical and cultural development, taking place
in a variety of formal and informal settings, and aimed at
empowering people to live purposeful, satisfying lives, to help
develop communities that are peaceful, just and ecologically
sustainable, and to extend that ethical commitment to the other
peoples of the world. Lifelong education can enable all citizens to
make a lifelong constructive and creative social contribution;
b) a vision of lifelong education, within which each person may be
called on to become a teacher sharing skills, knowledge and insights
with others;
c) the right of all people to have access to educational experiences
appropriate to their needs, abilities and aspirations, and to
adequate financial support while undertaking formal educational
programme;
d) the right of all children to an education;
e) the right of all people who are committed to home-schooling to
choose to educate their children at home;
f) major programme to create jobs, and the development of a rational
approach to workforce planning at the national level, so that all
people may participate in socially useful and satisfying forms of
work;
g) the maintenance and strengthening of a quality public schooling
sector;
h) the right of parents and citizens organisations, community groups
and academic and student unions to play a significant role in
setting directions, priorities, curricula and the running of the
public education system. This will assist the development of an
education system appropriate to a multicultural India, which places
more value on a sense of community and enriching personal
relationships than on motives of competition and profit which
presently permeate our society; and
i) the important roles played by professional associations, private
providers, community groups and business in providing educational
opportunities.
Recognising that in a technological society, empowerment of the
individual relies on his/her ability to effectively use
communication technology and information systems, we will support
education policies to enhance the opportunity for all Indians to
become scientifically and technologically literate.
2.2 Goals
2.2.1 General
We will work to:
a) provide a quality public education system with guaranteed access
for all;
b) develop a national work-force planning capacity based on sound
research, and reflecting national industry and employment objectives
which are built on the fundamental principles of social justice,
sustainability and increasing national self-reliance;
c) develop lifelong education and training options which enable
people to change occupations as they mature and grow older;
d) provide additional incentives and provision for a continuous
cycle of in-service training for teachers at all levels of
education, including tertiary teaching;
e) develop the associationist principle, leading over time to a
diminution in the role, authority and scale of centralised
educational bureaucracies, and an increased level of democratic and
responsible community involvement and authority in setting the
educational objectives and curriculum content of our schools; and
f) increase emphasis in education on such aspects as:
٭ understanding human relationships and psychological processes,
٭ physical and emotional health and well-being,
٭ dignity and self esteem,
٭ the development of an ethical commitment and of caring attitudes
to other people and to the planet,
٭ the importance of cooperation and social benefit rather than
competition and profits as social goals,
٭ a sense of responsibility for the well-being of future
generations, and
٭ adaptability and flexibility.
2.2.2 Tertiary Schooling
We will work to:
a) implement a policy of free tertiary education;
b) extend access to tertiary education through development of more
decentralised campuses, through the use of distance delivery modes
and through open access programmes;
c) conduct environmental audits and environmental development plans
in all tertiary institutions; and
d) encourage all tertiary institutions to include environmental
programmes among their courses.
2.2.3 Primary and Secondary Schooling
We will work to:
a) review the current National Statements in the key learning areas
to ensure that:
٭ there is a balanced concern in school curricula for all dimensions
of human development�intellectual, physical, emotional, ethical and
cultural;
٭ there is a balance between such emphases as personal development,
intellectual understanding, technical and technological competence,
vocational skills and learning for democratic citizenship;
٭ critical perspectives and processes are integral to all areas of
the curriculum in schools;
٭ there is emphasis on global interdependence;
٭ all curriculum areas reflect a commitment to the development of a
more peaceful, just, democratic and ecologically sustainable world
for all people; and
b) increase democratic participation in the decision-making
processes within schools and within home-based and community-based
educational settings;
c) guarantee the right of all children to education which promotes
freedom of thought;
d) guarantee the right of parents to choose to educate their
children at home or in other settings without being bound by
compulsory registration, provided they can demonstrate a commitment
to ensuring a balanced education for their children; and
e) encourage the development of local, community-based and
democratically controlled public schools, through provision of
capital and recurrent funding to such schools on a demonstrated
needs basis, provided those schools reflect the principles of the
national education policy.
2.2.4 Ethical Commitment to other Peoples of the World
We will work to:
a) extend the funding available through international organisation
for educational projects aimed at enhancing international
cooperation and under-standing, and at promoting social justice and
sustainability within communities and countries overseas through the
unconditional funding of projects devised by and for the people of
those communities and countries;
b) ensure that educational links with other societies, through such
appropriate development means as training schemes, exchanges,
admission of overseas students, development projects and
consultancies, are characterised by justice, equity and cultural
sensitivity;
c) develop educational material and methods for future-vision
building; and
d) provide increased financial support for the activities of
Development Education Centres.
2.3 Short Term Targets
2.3.1 General
We will work to:
a) allocate increased resources to all levels of formal education,
but with particular attention to supporting the renovation of the
primary sector;
b) extend Open Learning opportunities so that people of various ages
in all locations may have access to quality educational programmes
of formal and informal study;
c) retain appropriate centralised conditions of employment for
teachers, including the principle of tenure;
d) extend funding and other support to community groups,
non-government organisations, business, private providers and others
offering appropriate community education programmes and facilities,
including those catering for interest areas and segments of the
population not catered for by conventional and formal educational
provision;
e) provide additional funding for students who are physically and/or
intellectually disabled, or who are disadvantaged by location and/or
distance.
2.3.2 Tertiary Schooling
We will:
a) work to increase democratic participation in the decision-making
processes within tertiary institutions;
b) allow the collection of fees from students for amenities and
services, provided any fees collected are under the democratic
control of the student body.
2.3.3 Primary and Secondary Schooling
We will support a review of the Profiles developed in each area of the National Curriculum to ensure that they reflect the intentions of the National Statements, are supportive of sound educational principles, and are not used to promote an unwarranted technical, vocationally-driven notion of educational attainment.
2.3.4 People Requiring Special Consideration
We consider that the following groups of people should receive
special consideration:
٭ people in remote areas; and
٭ people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
We will work to:
a) raise awareness within the community of the educational needs of
these special groups;
b) guarantee equity of access as well as participation in
appropriate curricula;
c) establish and maintain conducive as well as educational
environments;
d) guarantee equitable resource allocation;
e) provide specialist support services; and
f) actively encourage such specialists to take up teaching and other
positions within educational institutions.
2.3.5 Education for Sustainability
We will work to:
a) develop a national strategy for environmental education which
addresses the complete range of environmental education in the
formal and informal education sectors, with some emphasis on locally
based action;
b) encourage Indian industry to ensure that its vocational practices
are environmentally sound, and that vocational training (and other
education) are to world best practice standards and to the best
available environmental standards (which may be in advance of
existing world best practice); and
c) provide support for schools which develop organi-sational
practices to minimise their environmental impacts (for example,
energy use), and ensure that maintenance and refurbishment of
infrastructure is environmentally sound.
Housing Policy for One and All
3.1 Principles
We will support initiatives which ensure that:
a) new urban developments are environmentally sound, respect human
scale and facilitate community interaction; and
b) the community is able to participate fully in urban planning and
in the assessment of development proposals.
3.2 Goals
We will work to:
a) ensure that people unable to provide for their own housing are
given assistance to do so by the Government;
b) eliminate housing-related poverty by increased provision of
public housing;
c) increase tenant participation in decisions about services to be
provided;
d) review building codes so that houses are constructed in
accordance with energy efficient design criteria and so that
building materials are selected for their low environmental impact;
e) regulate the materials used by the building industry so that the
environment is protected from both over-exploitation and toxic
processes;
f) encourage the development of urban villages in consultation with
local communities to allow people to live in ecologically and
socially satisfying ways within cities; and
h) ensure that the facilities that promote healthy communities
(recreational, cultural and social amenities) receive priority in
town planning.
3.3 Short Term Targets
3.3.1 General Planning
We propose that:
a) any future urban development be based on environmental and social
planning principles by
٭ ensuring that house blocks are correctly aligned for maximum solar
access;
٭ landscaping for rainwater trapping and waste water recycling;
٭ maintenance of privacy and noise controls;
٭ provision of adequate public open space;
٭ designing integrated cycleway networks across urban areas; and
٭ lowering residential speed limits.
b) town centres be planned to contain a greater mix of commercial
activities with
٭ introduction of more residential activity; and
٭ re-humanising of the centres through more public open space and
attractive urban design;
c) different types of housing be available to cater for diverse
social needs, including
٭ youth;
٭ non-family groups;
٭ the disabled; and
٭ older people;
d) the community's reliance on private motor vehicles be reduced
through
٭ improvements in public transport;
٭ concentration of residential, educational and small-scale
commercial development around neighbourhood shopping centres;
٭ the introduction and expansion of commuter cycling systems; and
٭ strategic location of carparking spaces.
3.3.2 Urban Development
The public transport system must be energy-efficient, economic and
convenient, e.g. light rail integrated with other express and normal
bus services to other parts of the cities.
We propose:
a) that planning of urban developments focus on the concept of urban
villages based on environmental and social principles;
b) that public housing be well integrated with other types of
housing;
c) that continued funding of community housing programmes be
supported; and
d) that certificates with gradings be issued to owner-builders in
remote areas so people can live in "unfinished" houses if they
choose to do so.
3.3.3 Building Design
We propose:
a) mandatory provisions requiring new buildings to meet minimum
standards of energy-efficiency, noise insulation and water
conservation;
b) encouragement of local wastewater recycling, composting toilets
and rainwater collection systems;
c) adequate car parking requirements for buildings; and
d) a system of solar access rights to facilitate the passive solar
design of new residences.
Efficient Transport Policy
4.1 Principles
Our transport policy is based on:
a) enabling people to obtain access to a wide range of destinations,
goods and services in a safe, timely and energy-efficient manner
which has low environmental impact;
b) the recognition that urban form and design are crucial aspects of
transforming transport policy;
c) using integrated transport and urban planning, and incorporating
environmental and social costs, so that energy-efficient modes of
transport (walking, cycling, public transport, rail, coastal
shipping) and non-transport solutions are able to compete for
funding with the provision of facilities for cars and trucks;
d) empowering local communities so that they can make informed
choices;
e) getting the most out of existing facilities by managing demand,
rather than continually building facilities to meet projected
demands; and
f) favouring walking, cycling and public transport as the preferred
modes of "passenger" transport.
4.2 Goals
Our aim to:
a) dramatically reduce per capita and overall use of fossil fuels
for transport, making the system sustainable into the future;
b) reduce car ownership and use for urban commuting while improving
the quality of service provided by public transport, especially in
relation to frequency, speed and convenience;
c) increase recognition that access to an adequate level of public
transport services is a community right and that these services
should remain under public control and not be subjected to full cost
recovery;
d) make users of private transport aware of, and ultimately pay for,
the full costs of their transport choices;
e) increase opportunities for the community to participate in
integrated transport and urban planning;
f) shift urban form towards the development of urban villages, to
bring people and jobs together in areas well-serviced by public
transport;
g) reduce the direct impacts of transport infrastructure (e.g.
noise, air pollution) on urban neighbourhoods and provide fair
compensation for those affected by new transport infrastructure;
h) improve the safety of roads, especially for pedestrians and
cyclists, and of airways and sea-lanes;
i) provide improved access to transport services for residents of
rural India;
j) improve services for those with special needs, including people
with disabilities, youth and older people; and
k) encourage the cycling and walking amenity of the streets by
supporting, for example, lower urban speed limits on residential
roads.
4.3 Short Term Targets
4.3.1 Overall
We will work to:
a) ensure the adoption of national standards for ambient air quality
equal to or better than world best practice;
b) ensure the adoption of national noise and emissions standards for
petrol and diesel vehicles equal to or better than world best
practice; these standards will include requirements for testing; and
c) develop targets for self-containment levels in urban planning;
that is, measures of the degree to which jobs, retailing and local
services are located with residential developments.
4.3.2 Land Transport
We will work to:
a) in each major city, double the market share (in passenger
kilometres) held by public transport compared with private cars by
2020;
c) ensure the adoption of targets for the average fuel efficiency of
new additions to the national car fleet of 5.0 litres per 100 km by
2020, reducing to 4.0 litres per 100 km by 2025;
d) ensure the adoption of mandatory fuel-efficiency labelling of new
cars;
e) make all central funding or approvals for transport projects
contingent on the achievement of specified environmental and social
criteria; these criteria will include air quality standards
(including greenhouse emissions), environmental protection
benchmarks and public participation;
f) ensure that in planning any new road construction, thorough
consideration is given to the need for the road, viable public
transport alternatives, destructive impact on local communities as
well as the external costs to the environment.
4.3.3 Ports and Shipping
We will work to:
a) cap the number of port sites at the present number;
b) amend rules to expose oil tankers to strict and unlimited
liability when travelling within Indian waters, bringing India into
line with the world best practice embodied in the United States Oil
Pollution Act 1990; and
c) institute strict and mandatory controls on ballast water
discharges and on other practices that put the Indian marine
environment at risk.
4.3.4 Air Transport
Recognising that air transport causes considerable environmental
damage and is also less fuel efficient by a large factor than ground
transport, particularly in comparison to transport by rail or by
sea, we consider it important that the environmental costs of air
transport are taken into account openly and incorporated into the
cost of air travel.
We believe there are many unexplored possibilities for decreasing
the dependence on air travel. One of these is the expansion of
teleconferencing. In general, we will support measures such as tax
incentives which will encourage people to fly less.
We recognise that bad planning in a number of cases has caused
housing areas near airports to have an unacceptable noise level and
support moves to remedy such mistakes, for example through modifying
flying patterns and airport operations and compensating residents in
the most affected areas.
Information Technology Policy to be User Friendly
5.1 Principles
Our Information Technology (IT) policy flows from the basis that we must adopt lifestyles and development paths that respect and work within the ecological limits. Developments in IT need to be subject to community scrutiny and the benefits of IT need to be shared amongst all members of the community and not be used to increase power and privilege for a few.
We want the debate about technological choice brought out of the
back-rooms of Government and industry and into the public arena.
There must be appropriate public IT planning to ensure integration
of IT into the broader social and economic objectives and to avoid
the adoption of IT products becoming supplier-driven and piecemeal.
Full implementation of on-line services envisaged in some
"Information Superhighway" proposals will be very expensive and the
extent to which Government should fund such proposals requires
further analysis. We will support sufficient Government funding to
enable no- or low-cost access to e-mail, the Internet and other
electronic information resources for schools, libraries and public
sector organisations, in a context where the provision of such
services is important to full participation in society.
We support direct measures, rather than tax incentives, which tend
to be less equitable, to help organisations convert their systems to
avoid the millennium bug.
5.2 Goals
Real opportunities exist for India, with a relatively educated and
skilled population, to make a large contribution to developments in
software, multimedia and intellectual property.
We support universal access to the fullest range of information and
communication services.
5.3 Short Term Targets
We propose:
a) the establishment of an independent Information Technology
Assessment Board (ITAB), to continually assess both new and existing
information technologies and to recommend Governmental action.
Economic assessment would run alongside checks on health, safety,
environmental and cultural impact, risks, and job satisfaction. The
ITAB would have a statutory obligation to keep the public informed
of its work in a clear and accessible way;
b) the encouragement of significant value-added operations in IT,
such as Research and Development (R&D).
c) in the practices of Government Departments and in private
business, the enforcement of the principles of:
٭ privacy-maintaining the confidentiality of personal information;
and
٭ freedom of information-enabling public access to statistics and
decision-making processes;
d) the encouragement of the adoption of codes of ethics or practice
for which members of practising professional bodies can be suspended
or "struck off" if the code is contravened ? preventing or
restricting their ability to practise;
e) to make Government set an example of open and responsible use of
IT in its own systems;
f) the promotion of the development of networking standards for
global operation in order to boost international communication,
understanding and trade;
g) support for a democratic, egalitarian operation of the Internet
with appropriate regulation based on wide public discussion;
h) support for the growth in "telecommuting" whereby office staff
can work from home, reducing the demand for physical commuting,
whilst ensuring protection for employees' conditions;
i) support the growth of teleconferencing in order to decrease the
dependence on air travel
j) support for the growth of remote "work centres" or "tele-
villages" in order to reduce depopulation and increase employment
opportunities in rural areas;
k) support for the growth of "tele-conferencing" in order to
decrease the need for travelling;
l) to prevent the emergence of monopoly in telecommunications,
computing or IT;
m) to identify and list sensitive applications/systems (i.e. with
safety or security implications) and restrict their design to
qualified professionals holding a valid licence to practise;
n) to achieve greater public review of the development of Government
computer systems, requiring proposals for new or amended Government
systems to be widely published with adequate if reasonable
objections are recorded;
o) to support universities as well as other research establishments
in research free of external direction by industry or Government;
p) to support the full and frequent flow of information from
researchers to the professions and the media regarding research
progress and its implications;
q) support for an industry free to develop hardware, software and
services commensurate with ethical business practices;
r) the encouragement of flexible approaches in industrial relations
responses to changes in organisations, working conditions, job
definitions and skill boundaries - all affected by IT;
s) the imposition of a rating and censorship system (similar to
film) for computer games and related leisure services;
t) the improvement of women's access to training and education in
the use and understanding of computers and IT;
u) to ensure that the education system promotes children's access
to, and ability to use, information and technology;
v) facilitating access to Internet and e-mail services for rural
residents by providing local call cost access through a
Government-managed and/or funded rural internet provider service.
w) enabling the trained IT professionals to get neological training
in the field of enrepreneurship for establishing more and more
training centres all over the country with a view to having a
competent cadre of young men and women having expert knowledge in
the field of different aspects and facets of information technology
for managing the third millennium.
Policies related to Work including Employment
1.1 Principles
We distinguish between work, defined as any purposeful activity, and
employment, defined as paid work. We support the principle of full
employment, meaning the availability of safe, socially useful,
environmentally benign, adequately paid work for all those who wish
to engage in it. This may be full or part time.
We define unemployment as the lack of availability of paid work for
anyone who wishes to engage in it.
We do not support the perception in society that unemployed people
cannot make a useful contribution to society. We reject any
inference of 'inadequacy' in those who choose not to seek employment
but contribute to society through other productive, economic and/or
socially useful activities.
We are committed to redressing discrimination and inequality across
the spectrum of work. We also believe that economic growth is an
inadequate solution to the unemployment problem at a time when
market economics and mass-consumerism have already placed the
environment and people under heavy pressure.
The trend to globalisation and the view of economic rationalist
theory that international competitiveness should be the priority
consideration in economic policy clearly both need review.
Constraints on globalisation are necessary for important
environmental, social and economic reasons. Protecting employment in
domestic industries is one of those important social reasons, and
such protection may also have environmental benefits from reduced
transport of goods.
While protection can have an overall economic cost, this cost is of
secondary importance to the social and environmental benefits, and
is therefore a cost that is warranted for the
social good.
We realise that the logical consequence of the present conditions is
that less formal work is needed and more free time becomes available
for everyone's chosen pursuits. We will work towards shorter
standard working hours and a reversal of current trends towards
increased unpaid work.
A radically new perspective needs to be taken. The green vision is
one where work, leisure and income are all shared equitably. In a
green society, everybody is the master of her/his own time. People
must have time for leisure as well as for shouldering the
responsibility of the family, society and the environment. People
must also have time to keep better informed and to participate in
politics.
1.2 Goals
We propose an employment, labour market and income policy that will
recognise and reward all peoples� occupations appropriately, with a
commitment to a proper safety net for all.
We aim to redress discrimination and inequality in employment and to
promote equitable participation by all Indians regardless of gender,
age or ethnicity.
We will work towards creating a society in which:
a) the goal is full employment as defined above;
b) the norm is shorter hours in paid work than at present;
c) people enjoy self-esteem, security and material comfort whether
or not they have paid jobs;
d) it is recognised that all people have the potential to contribute
to the enhancement of the community, whether or not they are in paid
employment;
e) educational, recreational and creative opportunities and
resources are provided for all people, regardless of age and
regardless of whether or not they are in paid employment; and
f) actions which are positive for the society and the environment
are valued whether they are paid for in the formal economy or
carried out in the informal sector.
1.3 Short Term Targets
There is plenty of socially and environmentally sustainable work
which needs to be done and imaginative forms of job creation and
sharing will need positive intervention by Government.
There are also many areas of manufacturing and services which could
be encouraged whilst taking careful account of the need for such
activities to be environmentally positive or at least benign.
We propose:
a) the creation of a system in which all citizens have the right to
a Guaranteed Adequate Income.
b) a society where paid work is distributed more equitably than it
is at the present time;
c) greater equity in job sharing because of the shortage of
full-time jobs for all and the need for more leisure time and less
stress;
d) greater equity in job sharing between people from different
regions, with different gender and of different ethnic origin;
e) the creation of ecologically sustainable industries;
f) legislation preventing discrimination against people who are not
in formal employment;
g) public discussion on the meaning of work, facilitated by the
Government;
h) the promotion of an anti-materialist culture to reduce needless
consumption, whilst enabling people to fulfil their real economic
and social needs.
Social Citizenship including Social Justice and Empowerment
2.1 Principles
2.1.1 Inequities addressed
We propose a system in which the Central Government will assist the States, and where necessary mount its own programme, to address the uneven provision of basic services in India. The unevenness of delivery of services is exemplified by the disastrous state of housing, health and education that exists in many rural areas.
2.1.2 Work to be Redefined
We call for a redefinition of the concepts of work and unemployment.
2.2. Goals
2.2.1 Affirmative Action
We recognise a continuing need to focus on disadvantaged groups in
the Indian community.
Affirmative action policies need to ensure that the opportunities
and rewards for women are equal to those for men.
2.2.2 Strengthening Communities
While a world view is necessary if we are to both care for the planet and redress world-wide injustices and inequities, the fate of the world rests significantly on the actions of communities - both in their ability to generate local initiatives and in their combined ability to promote change at national and international levels. We aim to strengthen local democratic processes, encourage regional sustainable development initiatives and planning, and enhance management capabilities within local communities.
2.3 Short Term Targets
2.3.1 Income Security
We propose that the social security system be reformed. It should be
simplified and made more uniform by:
a) aligning all payments for adults and independent young people
associated with unemployment, study, disability, special benefit and
age pensions;
b) aligning all youth payments and increasing these over time to
reflect real living costs;
c) amalgamating the various child support and family allowance
payments, and increasing these in line with the cost of caring for
children;
d) linking all income and other support levels to changes in the
cost of living, so that they are automatically adjusted for
inflation.
2.3.2 Targeting Inequities
We propose that disadvantaged individuals and communities will be the focus of specific public housing, health, education and public transport programme.
2.3.3 Community Development
We propose that:
a) financial assistance be provided to local interest groups to
assist them to participate in local and regional planning and
sustainable development initiatives;
b) funds be made available from the Central Government for the
coordination, preparation and implementation of ecologically
sustainable strategic plans by state Governments and regional
organisations;
c) funds be made available for the planning and initiation of
ecologically sustainable industries at local and regional level; and
d) funds be provided for a Rural Community Initiatives Programme to
be instituted to assist in the strengthening of rural communities,
including improving opportunities for employment, cultural and youth
activities.
Industrial Relations Policies for Productivity
3.1 Principles
The starting point for us in industrial relations, as in all policy
areas, is ethics. The workplace should provide the opportunity for
workers to be empowered and to engage in safe, socially useful and
productive work. Criteria such as profitability and efficiency are
important in structuring a workplace, but they are secondary.
The central issue in industrial relations is to maintain the
arbitration system as the protector of the public interest.
We support:
a) the provision of pathways for all employees to have work which is
safe, satisfying and socially useful;
b) opportunities for workers to receive education and training
appropriate for the achievement of these goals;
c) equal opportunities and fair and equitable treatment across the
workforce for all employees;
d) effective consultation between Governments, employers and unions
on all aspects of industrial legislation;
e) processes of conciliation and arbitration as the proper bases for
a fair and effective industrial relations system;
f) the rights of unions and unionists to take industrial action to
protect and promote their legitimate industrial interests without
legal impediment;
g) the establishment of a Charter of Workers' Rights in special
legislation;
h) the right of all workers to be involved in participatory
planning; and
i) a wider role for the Indian Industrial Relations Commission (IIRC)
a body to be established as an arbiter in industrial disputes to
consider social and environmental implications regarding a dispute.
Appropriate representatives of relevant groups should be given
standing to appear in the Commission to present their views
regarding such implications.
3.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) maintain the system of industrial awards;
b) extend the system of equal opportunity throughout the workforce;
c) develop flexible and democratic workplace patterns and
structures;
d) support the highest standards of workplace health and safety.
3.3 Short Term Targets
We will work to:
a) repeal the provisions against legitimate union activity such as
boycotts and pickets in the Trade Practices Act and other pieces of
Central legislation, and protect unions and workers against common
law actions;
b) provide accredited and transferable training and skill
development for employees in a national framework;
c) support a national system of industrial relations and facilitate
the provision of more flexible working arrangements/hours where
these are not at the expense of work satisfaction, workers' income
or family life;
d) extend union participation in the Central industrial relations
system regardless of the nature of the employment of their members,
such as casual or part-time employees;
e) facilitate the continued effective and democratic functioning of
unions;
f) encourage employee owned or managed businesses, or businesses
with significant employee ownership or control;
g) establish processes which ensure the participation of women in
enterprise or collective bargaining and other industrial
negotiations;
h) support legislation that ensures that employers recognise and
negotiate with the relevant unions;
i) support only those enterprise agreements that do not undermine
the system of awards and award conditions, and support enterprise
agreements that involve employers and unions;
j) ensure resources are provided to organisations of the unemployed
to give them an effective voice in society.
Strengthening Rural Communities trhough rural reconstruction
4.1 Principles
4.1.1 Rebuilding Rural Communities
While a world view is necessary if we are to both care for the
planet and redress world-wide injustices and inequities, the fate of
the world rests significantly on the actions of communities - both
in their ability to generate local initiatives and in their combined
ability to promote change at national and international levels. Our
policies therefore strengthen local democratic processes, encourage
regional sustainable development initiatives and planning, and
enhance management as well as administrative capabilities within
local communities.
Our policy for strengthening rural communities is based on the
recognition that the situation in rural communities, whereby
occupational choices are limited, family members often have to leave
the district to obtain work, services have been cut back and where
cultural and social opportunities are restricted, is one which needs
major Government attention and implementation of positive community
and regional development initiatives in order to be redressed.
We recognise that Indian rural communities have, in recent time,
been subject to Government policies which have adversely affected
the viability of community life, the quality of life in rural
communities as well as adversely affecting producers' access to
markets within India. We are wary of making an economy less diverse
and more vulnerable through encouraging it to specialise in those
industries in which it has competitive export advantage while
abandoning those industries that cannot compete against foreign
imports.
An efficient and sustainable agricultural sector is critical to the
viability of local and regional economies and is a vital component
of the revitalisation of rural India. Our policies for strengthening
rural communities and for Agriculture recognise the central role of
community and ecologically sustainable agricultural production to
regional and national economies.
We also recognise that in a technological society, empowerment of
the individual may rely on his/her ability to effectively use
communication technology and information systems.
We will support education policies to enhance the opportunity for
all Indians to reach their full potential in science and technology
literacy.
4.1.2 Physical Environment
Agricultural practices are presently operating beyond the ecological capacity of most areas devoted to farming, which in turn impacts on rural communities. Processes that threaten biodiversity, the long-term viability of agriculture and in which inappropriate land management practices are currently implicated include:
٭ ongoing legal and illegal clearing of native vegetation;
٭ changed and/or insufficient flow regimes in rivers and streams;
٭ salination;
٭ soil erosion and degradation;
٭ chemical contamination of habitat and food sources;
٭ water pollution;
٭ irrigation; and
٭ intensive inappropriate or cruel animal production practices.
The ecological and economic cost of land degradation will increase
unless major steps are taken to counter degradation processes. Farm
financial pressure is a contributing factor to land degradation. The
servicing of loans often requires farmers to extract the maximum
amount of income from their land. Financial pressures are
exaggerated by unsympathetic banks, fluctuating commodity prices and
unreliable climatic conditions. The cost of land degradation in
India is now measured in crores of rupees per year, resulting also
in significant impacts on rural communities.
Our policies for water are based on adopting a total catchment
approach to the management of water, recognising that the
restructuring of the water supply in India by introduction of free
market competition is likely to be accompanied by a severe loss of
social and environmental accountability and responsibility; and,
equitable allocation of water amongst all users.
4.2 Goals
4.2.1 Provision of Services to Rural Communities
We aim to:
a) provide a level of services comparable, where feasible, with
metropolitan services, for example, in health, education, community
care, communications (including both post offices and information
technology services), sports facilities and cultural activities;
b) provide programmes to ensure residents achieve a comparable
quality of life and access to services;
c) provide programmes to enable rural residents to appreciate
culture and knowledge; and
d) facilitation of public transport and communications (including
postal services) and provide improved access to transport services
to residents of rural India.
4.2.2 Community Participation in Government
The following goals are set by us:
a) in the long term, wherever possible, decision-making should be
determined by bioregional considerations and patterns of social
interaction;
b) community services and local environment policy should be
provided at the closest possible level to the consumers of the
services; and
c) there should be a move towards regional planning and organisation,
foreshadowing the eventual emergence of a more decentralised system
of Government.
4.2.3 Environment
We aim to:
a) hold the amount of water captured for human use from surface
aquatic systems and provide environmental flows to all river systems
and their dependent ecosystems;
b) limit the amount of water drawn from groundwater systems to rates
not greater than they are replenished; and
c) maintain public ownership and control over all major water
supply, distribution, drainage and disposal systems.
4.3 Short Term Targets
4.3.1 Provision of Services to Rural Communities
We will:
a) work to provide a quality public education system with guaranteed
access for all, including rural residents;
b) provide additional funding for students who are physically and/or
intellectually disabled, or who are disadvantaged by location and/or
distance;
c) initiate programmes aimed at reducing suicide rates, particularly
among young people and people in rural areas; and
4.3.2 Support for Young People in Rural Communities
We support:
a) increased employment and education opportunities, for
disadvantaged young people, including for those in rural or remote
areas; and
b) greater representation of young people on regional economic
organisations and greater recognition of community-based grassroot
organisations which generate environment friendly and sustainable as
well as socially useful employment opportunities.
4.3.3 Community Participation in Government
We propose that
a) funds be made available from the Central Government for the
coordination, preparation and implementation of
ecologically/environmentally sustainable strategic plans by local
Governments and regional organisations; and
b) financial assistance be provided to local interest groups to
assist them to participate in local and regional planning and
sustainable development initiatives.
4.3.4 Trade
We will also support a review of agriculture subsidies in terms of their adverse social and environmental impacts.
4.3.5 Environment
We will work to:
a) implement, as a matter of urgency, national legislation to
control the clearing of native vegetation, with complementary
provisions at State and/or local level;
b) integrate commercial wood production into diversified
agricultural enterprises, as well as providing marketing mechanisms
to facilitate this;
c) support the development of alternative fibre industries where
they are more ecologically sustainable;
d) provide funds for the planning and initiation of ecologically
sustainable industries at local and regional level;
e) propose changes in the taxation structure for chemical
fertilisers and pesticides with the aim of supporting a change to
ecologically sustainable farming methods. Levies on these products
will be redistributed to the farming community through education,
information and other appropriate programmes on integrated and
non-chemical pest management and sustainable farming practices.
f) maintain or restore the natural diversity and productivity of
soil in agricultural and pastoral areas.
g) provide information and low-interest loan incentive programme to
assist rural residents to:
٭ choose renewable energy systems for domestic and farm power
supplies; and
٭ adopt water conservation practices for domestic and farm use.
Drugs Policy and Drug De-Addiction Policy
5.1 Principles
In a democratic society in which diversity is accepted, each person
has the opportunity to achieve personal fulfilment. It is understood
that the means and aims of fulfillment may vary between people at
different stages of their lives, and may, for some people at
particular times, involve the use of drugs.
Classification and regulation of drugs should be based upon known
health effects with community education programme to make factual
information freely available.
Regulation should aim to maximise individual health and social
safety and well-being.
Programmes operating among users of addictive drugs should focus
upon harm minimisation and increasing their life options.
5.2 Goals
We will work towards:
a) more appropriate classifications for drugs based upon their
effects upon health;
b) wide availability of relevant information about drugs;
c) decriminalisation of drugs;
d) making the connections between addictive drug use and wider
issues such as suicide, unemployment, homelessness, lack of hope for
the future; working towards solving these problems; removing the
focus on excessive drug use which is a symptom rather than a cause;
and
e) widely available community-based counselling and support services
for drug-users without condemnation, including adequate follow-up.
5.3 Short term targets
5.3.1 Illegal drugs
We believe that softer, less addictive drugs should be more freely available as research shows that such availability mitigates against the use of hard drugs.
5.3.2 Regulated drugs
We will work to immediately set in process the following:
a) independent research into the effects and addictive properties of
drugs commonly prescribed by doctors for a wide variety of causes
from hyperactiveness in children to stress and depression in adults,
with a view to greater restriction and regulation of those;
b) mandatory labelling and verbal advice by doctors as to the
effects and potential for addiction of prescribed drugs; and
c) continued independent research into food additives to ascertain
their health effects, both short and long term, and ensuring the
publicising of results.
5.3.3 Freely available drugs
We will work to immediately set in process the following:
a) taking all possible steps to reduce the image tobacco and alcohol
have, especially for young people; this will include banning
advertising of tobacco and alcohol products and restricting
opportunities for sponsorship;
b) ensuring that smoking does not endanger the health of others;
c) disallowing the use of drunkenness as an excuse to avoid
retribution in crimes of violence and negligence;
d) restriction of sale of alcohol to people under the age of 18.
5.3.4 Treatment of people with drug addictions
We will work to immediately set in process the following:
a) freely available treatment programme with adequate follow-up;
b) treatment programme and facilities which sensitively cater for
individuals within different groups, women and men, including older
people, parents of children and the young.
c) involving NGOs to locate drug addicts and bring attitudinal and
behavioural change among them with a view to advising them to stop
taking drugs.
d) bringing such drug addicts to the main stream by providing them
suitable training for making them social activists in the areas of
social justice and empowerment.
d) organising deaddiction camps by inviting medical experts
belonging to modern medicine as well as alternative, complementary
and energetic medicinal areas.
Environmental Protection Policies
1.1 Principles
We recognise that the Earth's life support systems are fundamental
to maximising human welfare.
In pursuit of our goals, the we will ensure equity and social
justice, and that those sectors of the community least able to bear
the cost of redressing environmental degradation will not be
disadvantaged.
In formulating an Environment Policy, we are striving for ecological
sustainability through:
a) the protection of biological diversity and the maintenance of
ecological integrity;
b) the use of material resources in accordance with the Earth's
capacity to supply them and to assimilate wastes arising from their
use; and
c) equity within and between generations.
Where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental
damage, decisions should err on the side of caution, with the burden
of proof resting with technological and industrial developers to
demonstrate that the planned projects are ecologically sustainable.
To become ecologically sustainable, our society must change over
time from one which recognises no physical or ecological limits, to
one which lives within the capacity of the Earth to support it and
allows for the Earth to sustain the diversity of living things. This
means that ingenuity must be used to do more with less, the trend to
more efficient use of physical resources and energy must be
accelerated, and the limits within which society and the economy
function must be explicitly recognised. To enable targets to be set
and progress to be measured, these limits must be defined as early
as possible. We set the following goals and limits as essential for
the achievement of ecological sustainability in our country.
1.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) achieve an ecologically sustainable society, both in India and
globally, which lives within the capacity of the Earth to supply
renewable resources and to assimilate wastes;
b) ensure that human activities maintain the biological diversity of
all named organisms at the level of subspecies and of all other
organisms, through the adequate protection of the ecological
communities of which they are part;
c) hold the amount of water captured for human use from surface
aquatic systems and provide environmental flows to all river systems
and their dependent ecosystems;
d) limit the amount of water drawn from groundwater systems to rates
not greater than they are replenished;
e) reduce emissions of Carbon Dioxide as well as other greenhouse
gases;
f) eliminate human-induced release of ozone-depleting substances in
the upper atmosphere;
g) reduce the total quantity of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes
(including those from non-point sources) annually disposed into the
environment;
h) maintain or restore the natural diversity and productivity of
soil in agricultural and pastoral areas;
i) reduce the total amount of land occupied by human infrastructure
(transport, buildings, roads) and agriculture (grazing, cropping);
j) facilitate closer liaison among rural, urban, tribal and
indigenous peoples in India, such that all might benefit from
indigenous knowledge of our land in order to further its management
in ways which are sustainable;
k) provide for increased participation by local communities in
planning and implementing strategies to protect the environment;
l) increase environmental awareness leading to a desire by all
Indians to protect the environment; and
m) apply the principle of intergenerational equity in all
environmental programmes.
1.3 Short Term Targets
1.3.1 Biological Diversity
We will work to:
a) ensure funding and enforcement of habitat recovery plans for
endangered species;
b) implement, as a matter of urgency, national legislation to
control the clearing of native vegetation, with complementary
provisions at state and/or local level; and
c) establish a comprehensive and viable system of terrestrial and
marine protected areas managed primarily to protect biodiversity;
the system will include all remaining areas of high wilderness
value, and will also protect wild and scenic rivers which remain in
essentially pristine condition;
d) prohibit automatic mining rights and mining exploration on
agricultural land.
1.3.2 Forests and Wood Production
We will work to:
a) end logging of old growth and other high conservation value
native forests immediately, and over time complete the phase-out of
most logging from native forests, including regrowth forests;
b) adopt a Wood Products Industry Plan that will accelerate the
transition from native forests to plantations by encouraging the
fullest possible domestic processing of wood from plantations, and
increased recycling. As a complement to the plan, we will provide a
package of retraining and other assistance for workers facing
displacement from the native forest-based industry;
c) integrate commercial wood production into diversified
agricultural enterprises, as well as providing marketing mechanisms
to facilitate this; and
d) support the development of alternative fibre industries where
they are more ecologically sustainable.
1.3.3 Mining and Mineral Exploration
We will work:
a) to prohibit mineral exploration and mining as well as extraction
of petroleum and gas in nature conservation reserves, including
national parks, wilderness areas and other areas of outstanding
nature conservation value;
b) to ban all new sand-mining operations in the coastal zone.
1.3.4 Marine Environments and Fishing
We will:
a) work to establish a comprehensive system of marine reserves in
Indian waters; and
b) for existing fisheries, work to immediately prohibit an increase
in level of harvest, and determine as a matter of urgency the
requirements for ecological sustainability and regulate the catch
accordingly, with a substantial safety margin to ensure
sustainability
1.3.5 Climate Change and Ozone Depletion
We will work to:
a) reduce emissions of Carbon Dioxide as well as other greenhouse
gases and to have clear national, regional and local energy policies
adopted to enable this target to be reached;
b) support an international protocol that makes these greenhouse gas
emission targets binding for all industrialised countries; and
c) phase out production of carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform,
CFCs and halons immediately, and HCFCs and methyl bromide by 2020.
1.3.6 Machinery of Government
We will work to:
a) legislate to establish a Commission with independent funding to
examine and report on the environmental performance of public
authorities;
b) strengthen the Environment Protection Act 1986.
c) ensure the development of publicly accessible, well resourced,
compatible, coordinated networks of data monitoring and data-based
legislated State of Environment reporting at local Government,
state/territory or regional, and national levels;
d) ensure the Government maintains and exercises those
constitutional powers which are applicable to the environment, with
State environmental policy to be supervised and subject to a minimum
set of stringent national standards.
Coastal Zone Management Policies
2.1 Principles
Our policies for the management of our coasts are based on the
following general principles which underpin ecologically sustainable
development:
a) the protection of biological diversity and the maintenance of
ecological integrity;
b) the use of material resources in accordance with the Earth's
capacity to supply them and to assimilate wastes arising from their
use;
c) equity within and between generations; and
d) public participation and involvement.
2.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) increase ecological, economic and social awareness of the
importance of coastal and inland waters and of human impacts on
them;
b) protect coastal ecosystems;
c) allow the replenishing of stocks of depleted aquatic and coastal
life;
d) reduce the harvest of all coastal resources to well within an
ecologically sustainable limit;
e) protect fish breeding areas;
f) reduce marine and other aquatic pollution, including from diffuse
urban and agricultural sources;
g) increase the involvement of local communities in the management
of coastal, onshore and aquatic resources;
h) ensure an integrated approach to management;
i) improve local, national and global coordination of coastal
management policies;
j) locate activities that are not coast-dependent away from the
coastal zone; and
k) develop long-term strategies to contain urban and tourism
development.
2.3 Short Term Targets
We will work to:
a) establish a comprehensive national system of marine reserves in
Indian waters by the year 2020;
b) for existing fisheries, immediately prohibit an increase in level
of harvest, and determine as a matter of urgency the requirements
for ecological sustainability and regulate the catch accordingly,
with a substantial safety margin to ensure sustainability;
c) work with the States and Union Territories and/or directly with
local Governments to complete an environmental audit of the coastal
zone by 2020 and an action plan by 2022;
e) implement a national legislative / planning regime to control
land use and development in the coastal zone, including a moratorium
on new subdivisions until completion of the coastal action plan;
f) ban all new sandmining operations in the coastal zone and inland
rivers.
Water Management Policies
3.1 Principles
Our policies for water are based on:
a) adopting a total catchment approach to the management of water;
b) preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity;
c) recognising that the restructuring of the water supply in India
by introduction of free market competition is likely to be
accompanied by a severe loss of social and environmental
accountability and responsibility; and
d) equitable allocation of water amongst all users.
3.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) decrease per capita consumption of fresh water by increasing
efficiency of water use, and expanding opportunities for re-use;
b) stop the discharge of sewage into aquatic systems;
c) maximise the capacity to reuse sewage treatment by-products by
reducing pollution at source, minimising waste, and phasing out the
discharge of toxic chemicals to sewerage systems;
d) hold the amount of water captured for human use from surface
aquatic systems and provide environmental flows to all river systems
and their dependent ecosystems;
e) draw water from groundwater systems at rates not greater than
they are replenished;
f) ensure equitable access to adequate supplies of clean water for
human consumption;
g) apply the principles of least-cost planning to the provision of
water, drainage and sewerage services;
h) reduce erosion, sedimentation and pollution of watercourses,
wetlands and estuaries, by protecting and restoring native riparian
vegetation and improving catchment management;
i) maintain public ownership and control over all major water
supply, distribution, drainage and disposal systems;
j) maintain and where possible increase the area of water supply
catchments that are free of logging, agriculture and other land uses
which degrade water quality
k) provide for full public participation in decisions about water,
drainage and sewerage; and
l) provide information and low -interest loan incentive programme to
assist rural residents to adopt water conservation practices for
domestic and farm use.
3.3 Short Term Targets
We will work to:
a) establish a major new national programme to restore environmental
flows to all river systems and improve water quality and implement
the programme through national agreements between Central / State
and / or local Governments;
b) use all available powers to maintain major water supply,
distribution, drainage and disposal systems in public ownership;
c) cancel all plans to build large-scale new dams; and
d) ensure that drinking water supplies meet or exceed WHO (World
Health Organisation) standards, and that their quality is publicly
reported regularly.
Energy Management Policies
4.1 Principles
Our energy related policy is based on these premises:
a) the price of energy should fairly incorporate the full social,
health and environmental costs of production and use;
b) there is a finite limit to non-renewable resources available for
energy production;
c) the most commonly used methods of energy production have serious,
deleterious effects upon the planet, most notably air pollution and
contribution to greenhouse gases;
d) energy problems will not be solved by additional conventional
power generation capacity;
e) transition to ecologically sustainable energy systems will be
achieved through long term planning, research and development,
demand management, increased energy efficiency and conservation, and
greater reliance on renewable sources of energy;
f) given the environmental impact of large scale dams for
hydro-electric schemes, and the high costs and risks to the
environment and human health associated with nuclear energy, we do
not consider that these systems form a viable long-term basis for
putting the energy sector on an ecologically sustainable footing;
and
g) achieving sustainability in the use and production of energy will
have ramifications for every sector of the economy.
4.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) take a lead role internationally in promoting policies to reduce
the impact of climate change due to the enhanced green house effect:
b) assist other countries to develop and meet greenhouse gas
emission targets through technology transfer and other forms of
assistance;
c) apply integrated resource planning principles to the provision of
all non-transport energy services. This is a systematic way of
providing energy services to society at least cost;
d) provide for participation by local communities in planning and
implementing strategies to provide energy services sustainably;
e) exercise restraint in use of non-renewable fossil fuel reserves
in order to leave adequate supplies for future generations;
f) reduce dependence on fossil fuels by
٭ supporting the phase-out of coal and oil-fired power stations and
the development of renewable alternatives;
٭ decreasing reliance on private motor transport; and
٭ increasing energy efficiency;
g) address regional equity impacts of making the transition to
ecologically sustainable forms of energy production and use, through
long term planning and specific development programme for affected
regions. Some regions which are currently heavily dependent on the
extraction of fossil fuel and the development and maintenance of
power generation facilities which use fossil fuel will suffer
employment loss in the transition;
h) establish strong national regulation over energy production,
distribution and supply to ensure that integrated resource planning
is implemented, to control economic, social and environmental
impacts in the public interest and to ensure full community
consultation;
i) provide incentives to encourage consumers to promote alternative
energy technologies;
j) introduce a comprehensive carbon levy; revenue from this levy is
to be used to fund public transport as well as the development of
alternative energy techniques such as solar thermal power, photo-voltaics
and wind power; there will also be compensation for any regressive
impact of this levy on low income earners.
4.3 Short Term Targets
We will work to:
a) introduce a carbon levy;
b) use all available mechanisms to optimise electricity generation,
distribution and supply infrastructure;
c) introduce tight enforceable regulation of the electricity supply
industry to protect the public interest and the environment;
d) reduce emissions of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases and
adopt clear national, regional and local energy policies to enable
this target to be reached;
e) support an international protocol that makes these targets
binding for all industrialised countries;
f) introduce national legislation to give effect to climate change
controls;
g) establish a Sustainable Energy Authority to coordinate and
oversee programme for research, development and adoption of energy
efficiency and renewable energy in India;
h) adopt mandatory energy labelling, and mandatory minimum energy
performance standards for all commercial and domestic appliances,
equipment and buildings;
i) oppose any new coal-fired power stations and large-scale
hydro-electric dams;
j) provide information and low-interest loan programmes to encourage
rural residents to choose renewable energy systems for domestic and
farm power supplies;
Waste Minimization and Management
5.1 Principles
Waste management is a growing issue. The accumulation of rubbish
presents aesthetic, social and environmental problems and is
representative of inefficient resource use. Recycling technology,
and profit from the resale of recycled materials, are improving and
this is to be encouraged. More important, however, is the
encouragement of avoiding waste as well as reducing and reusing at
both the manufacturing and consumer levels. A comprehensive waste
reduction strategy should be developed addressing each stage of the
production and consumption cycle.
When it comes to implementing the strategy Governments have largely
relied on voluntary measures, which have proved insufficient,
particularly as far as the industrial sector is concerned. We are
proposing legal measures as well as economic incentives to encourage
waste minimisation.
5.2 Goals
The disadvantages of landfill disposal of waste are obvious to most
people. The loss of various resources is accompanied by water
pollution, odour and vermin. We support measures that will reverse
such a procedure. We want to be part of building a society where:
a) individuals are aware of the importance of reusing whatever can
be reused and refusing whatever will eventually go to landfills when
another choice is available;
b) manufacturers move towards a whole life cycle approach to
resource management and ultimately toward closed loop production
systems;
c) in the short term, levies are imposed on non-recyclable
containers and other plastic and metal items, with a view to the
long-term phase-out of these items;
d) material that can be recycled is collected and then actually used
in the production of new goods; and
e) departments, offices and private citizens are given financial
incentives to use recycled material and disincentives against their
use are examined.
5.3 Short Term Targets
5.3.1 Non-Recyclables
We will support the phasing out of non-recyclable plastics through various means, including the imposition of levies on their use.
5.3.2 Encouraging Reuse of Containers
We will:
a) propose container deposit legislation to encourage the reuse of
glass containers; and
b) propose a levy on disposable plastic carry bags in shops; this is
to be paid by the customer, as a means of discouraging wasteful
plastic packaging as well as for encouraging recycling of old bags.
5.3.3 Increasing Recycling
We will:
a) ensure the Government gives preference in purchasing contracts to
recycled products or products that can be re-used (for example,
recycled paper and the re-filling of computer printing cartridges).
The preferred purchasing will be extended to low energy rated
products such as equipment that has energy saving features;
b) propose mandatory recycling of waste paper from Government
departments and other big paper users;
c) investigate what happens to material collected as recyclables to
ensure they are in fact being recycled;
d) propose special facilities for the collection of heavy metals
contained in fluorescent tubes and non-rechargeable batteries;
e) implement a levy for non-rechargeable batteries to make
rechargeable batteries more cost competitive; and
f) propose the establishment of tyre recycling facilities.
5.3.4 Composting
We will:
a) encourage home composting;
b) support local Government provision of composting bins both for
collection and for on-site usage; and
c) examine mechanisms for removing disincentives.
5.3.5 Disposal of Harmful Substances
We will
a) support measures to collect, and whenever possible recycle,
material for which dumping can be harmful to fauna or flora;
b) work to establish a National Waste and Pollution Inventory and
legislation requiring companies to report any roxic substances
released into air, soil or water, with details about when, where and
how emitted. The data base should be accessible to the public; and
c) require industry to work towards elimination of toxic waste.
Agricultural Production and Quality Control
6.1 Principles
Our policy for land management and agriculture is based on:
a) recognising the need for flexibility and diversity in agriculture
for environmental and economic reasons;
b) recognising the central role of ecologically sustainable
agricultural production to regional economies and the nation;
c) preventing significant or lasting negative impacts on soil and
water quality and biodiversity;
d) recognising India's national and international moral
responsibilities as a food producer;
e) supporting trading patterns and local controls which enable
environmental and food quality standards to be maintained and
improved; and
f) concern for the welfare of animals used in agriculture.
6.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) build on participatory processes which improve land and water
catchment management;
b) ensure that economic viability does not force exploitation of
labour;
c) ensure that agriculture takes full account of the need for water
management as an input to farming and as a resource vital to others;
d) encourage forms of primary production and rural land-use that
conserve soil and water, maintain biodiversity, and use minimal
amounts of non-renewable energy, agrochemicals and water;
e) encourage the development of value-adding and quality
agricultural products;
f) encourage agricultural systems, enterprises and processes which
are resilient and diverse;
g) introduce policies to reverse land degradation (erosion,
salinity, acidification, nutrient loss, soil structural decline,
loss of native vegetation) and ensure that land management practices
are compatible with programmes to restore degraded ecosystems and
habitat;
h) reduce the dependence of agriculture on chemicals, and provide
accurate information about them to farmers and consumers;
i) ensure that the use of genetic engineering is strictly
controlled, particularly the transfer of genetic material between
species, with the onus of proof on the proponent;
j) require food that has been produced as a result of genetical
engineering to be labelled accordingly;
k) improve the welfare of animals used in agriculture;
l) ensure that responsibility for sustainable land management is
shared by businesses which process and sell produce, or supply
inputs, and by consumers, as well as by landholders and all levels
of Government;
m) encourage systems which maintain socially and economically
diverse and vibrant rural communities;
n) encourage the revitalisation of rural companies and ensure
adequate services for physical and social needs;
o) provide for participation in planning and implementing strategies
for ecologically sustainable agricultural production;
p) facilitate dialogue between conventional and modern farmers to
assist the exchange of land management skills;
q) move towards regional levels of planning and organisation for the
management of natural resources;
6.3 Short Term Targets
We are working to establish a clear regulatory environment for agricultural businesses, through national legislation, complemented by state and/or local provisions. Areas to be regulated include:
٭ clearing, management and restoration of native vegetation;
٭ importation, propagation and movement of exotic plants and
animals; and
٭ mandatory notification, assessment and monitoring of all genetic
engineering proposals, including environmental impact assessment.
We will work to:
a) introduce enforceable national standards for the licensing and
use of agricultural chemicals. Such standards shall be compatible
with or better than the most rigorous standards for specific
chemicals with related use-paths elsewhere in the world;
b) ensure the adoption of national, legally enforceable codes of
practice to ensure that animals used in agriculture have the ability
to satisfy their natural physical and behavioural needs;
c) target direct funding and other forms of economic assistance to
enhance achievement of ecologically sustainable land management;
d) propose changes in the taxation structure for chemical
fertilisers and pesticides with the aim of supporting a change to
ecologically sustainable farming methods. Levies on these products
will be redistributed to the farming community through education,
information and other appropriate programmes on integrated and
non-chemical pest management and sustainable farming practices;
e) systematically and regularly review the efficacy of existing
agricultural assistance as well as rural land management programme;
f) significantly enhance funding for research and programme which
provide control of environmental weeds and environmentally sound and
humane methods for control of feral animals;
g) monitor land degradation and biodiversity on rural private land
at a national level;
h) initiate a comprehensive, uniform national mapping of land
systems and biota, and their condition, as a base for preparing
regional plans for sustainable land management;
i) ensure comprehensive review and restructuring of the arid lands
pastoral industry;
j) propose research, promotion and training in farm practices
including effective forms of biological pest control that reduce the
use and impact of chemicals;
k) immediately transfer responsibility for land protection to the
Environment portfolio; and
l) implement an action plan for the retirement and/or conservation
covenanting of land deemed ecologically unsuited to continuing
agricultural use, or of significant ecological value.
Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship
7.1 Principles
We hold that:
a) India must find creative solutions to the urgent global problem
of developing products and processes to meet an increasing
population's material needs while protecting the natural environment
on which all economic activity and social well-being ultimately
depends;
b) Governments should provide a clear national regulatory framework
for environmental protection, and adjust economic incentives
accordingly, to encourage industry to commit to major, long-term
ecologically sustainable projects;
c) strong regulation can assist business to become more competitive;
d) Governments should play an active role both in mediating negative
social and economic effects which may result from a shift to
ecologically sustainable industries and in developing new
opportunities;
e) clean production technology which seeks to minimise potential
problems at their source is preferable to costly and often
ineffective clean-ups;
f) industry has a crucial role in advancing sustainable development
through the adoption of appropriate technology and practices;
g) industry can become more efficient and competitive by adopting
Green objectives to reduce raw material consumption and reduce
pollution;
h) investment in education and training at all levels and
maintenance of the nation's research facilities at world best
standards will provide the human and intellectual capital required
to compete in high-skilled, high value-added and innovative green
industries; and
i) decisions relating to the impact of industrial activities on the
environment are complex and must be supported by accurate, detailed
and timely data.
7.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) phase out tax breaks, subsidies and other Government policies
that encourage resource waste, pollution and environmental
degradation;
b) offer positive incentives like tax deductions, rebates and
enhanced depreciation allowances to businesses investing in
technology or capital expenditure which reduces resource use, waste
and pollution;
c) phase in price adjustments for energy, water and landfill that
equitably incorporate the social, health and environmental costs of
production and use;
d) promote environmental auditing procedures and best practice
management to utilities, Government enterprises and private sector
businesses;
e) encourage unions to pursue environmental improvement plans in the
context of enterprise bargaining to enable all employees to
participate in and benefit from workplace environmental performance;
f) press manufacturers to move towards a whole life cycle approach
to resource management and ultimately toward closed loop production
systems;
g) encourage industry to take maximum responsibility for the
reduction, sale or recovery of by-products so that external waste
treatment becomes the instrument of last resort;
h) incorporate the polluter-pays principle into national
legislation;
i) assist consumers to make environmentally conscious evaluations of
goods and services by providing accessible, practical, comparative
information, including whole of life cycle assessments, and by
further strengthening the National Eco-labelling Scheme to define
green products;
j) institute preferential purchasing by Governments for so defined
"green" products;
k) give top priority to research that facilitates the achievement of
Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD), with particular emphasis
on energy saving technologies and renewable energy sources;
l) fund research into the linkages between threats to biodiversity
and ecological integrity and particular industries or industrial
processes;
m) implement a national approach to environmental monitoring and
reporting;
n) phase out the exportation of toxic and putrescible waste to
landfill; and
o) encourage environmental performance reporting in accounting
information and company annual reports. Guidelines need to be
established for environmental data labelling on goods and services,
including such information as depletion of resources, emissions and
waste. All spheres of Government should make mandatory the inclusion
of environment performance and environment data labelling in tenders
from the private as well as public sector.
7.3 Short Term Targets
We will work to:
a) establish a National Ecologically Sustainable Industry Assistance
Programme with funding derived from directed superannuation
investment and national industry partnership funding;
b) announce a Sustainable Industries Plan, setting out directions,
targets, benchmarks, time frames and funding;
c) establish uniform national environmental regulatory standards for
air and water quality, including waterways;
d) establish uniform national legislation to ensure clarity and
enforcement of environmental protection legislation;
e) implement national strategies for the treatment of hazardous and
intractable wastes, with appropriate funding;
f) establish a National Waste and Pollution Inventory and
legislation requiring companies to report any toxic substances
released into air, soil or water, with details about when, where and
how emitted. The Inventory will include transfer data (i.e.
statutory authority emissions such as sewage, waste, etc.). The data
base will be accessible to the public;
Population Education and Stabilization
8.1 Principles
Neither the planet, nor any country, can sustain continued human
population growth. Four Earths would be required for all human
inhabitants to live if population grows as the present rate.
However, the relationship between people and environments is a
complex one, not reducible simply to carrying capacity, but mediated
by economic, social, political, cultural and technological
considerations. The Indian Government should consult with the widest
possible range of interest groups to arrive at a population policy
which respects human rights.
The basis for India's population policy, both domestic and global,
must be ecological sustainability, intergenerational equity and
social justice. A precautionary approach is required in order to
take into account the consequences of human impact on the
environment.
In order to achieve a sustainable population, action must be taken
on consumption levels and technology use as well as population size.
We must generate less waste and implement technologies, such as
those based on renewable energy, which are more environmentally
benign.
The consumption patterns are contributing to global as well as to
local environmental problems and we have a responsibility to current
and future generations to ensure that we do not knowingly degrade
their world. As Indians we also have a responsibility towards
non-human species, many of which have already become extinct or
endangered. Government policies and taxation systems are tools which
can be used to change consumption patterns over the medium to long
term, and to protect and manage ecosystems vulnerable to human
activity.
India must contribute towards achieving a globally sustainable
population and solving the macro aspects of demographic transition
of civilisational regions as part of international responsibility.
We should set an example by:
a) managing our own population growth in accordance with more
equitable consumption patterns in relation to the international
context; and
b) redirecting the bulk of aid towards eradicating poverty and
towards those programmes which empower women.
In attaining a sustainable population India must shift its
involvement in a competitive world economy to a more cooperative,
regional, self-sufficient economy based on equality and human
rights.
8.2 Goals
An Indian population policy should consider the distribution of human settlements rather than just concentrate upon population size at the national level. The continuing de-settlement of rural areas must be considered in the light of ecological and social sustainability and efforts must be set in place to reverse it in those areas where settlement is ecologically benign. The ecological and social viability of ares expected to experience great growth needs to be safeguarded, and appropriate planning processes set in place. Human settlements should be designed and built to minimise environmental and maximise social well-being. Investing in the social well-being of the entire population should be the main aim of Government, so that there are publicly provided services of the highest possible standard. These services should include education, infrastructure, health, employment and income support.
8.3 Short Term Targets
We will work towards:
a) ensuring that Indian family planning programme, deliver services
in the context of reproductive health programme which increase the
power of girls and women to determine their own reproductive lives,
and increase the understanding of men of their reproductive
responsibilities
b) envisaging a marketing approach to family planning policies.
c) evolving a new communication strategy for family planning and
population control for reaching the diverse committees in different
States and Union Territories of India.
Constitutional Reforms
1.1 Principles
We believe that:
a) Parliament is the central authority of representative and
responsible Government;
b) each person should have one vote, that all votes should be of
equal value, and that proportional representation best reflects the
wishes of the electorate in the composition of Parliament and State
Assemblies;
c) each citizen has both the right and the responsibility to
participate in the processes of Government;
d) India's constitution and democratic structures should help to
build an ecologically sustainable and socially just society, with a
global consciousness and a long term perspective;
e) India's constitution should express our aspirations as a
community and define our rights and responsibilities as individuals
and as members of the community, as well as establish the powers and
duties of Government; and
f) India's constitution and public institutions need some changed,
which should be brought about through an ongoing participatory
process.
1.2 Goals
We propose that the following areas be enshrined in the constitution more clearly:
a) Civil and Political Issues
٭ life, liberty and security;
٭ legal recognition and equality;
٭ voting and standing for election;
٭ privacy;
٭ police custody;
٭ that relating to an alleged offender;
٭ standard of criminal procedure;
٭ that relating to the victim;
٭ property;
٭ procedural fairness;
٭ that particular to a child;
٭ freedom
٭ of religion;
٭ of thought, conscience and belief;
٭ of speech and other expression;
٭ of association;
٭ to peaceful assembly;
٭ of movement and residence;
٭ development.
٭ from discrimination;
٭ from slavery; and
٭ from torture, experimentation and treatment;
b) Economic and Social Issues
٭ education;
٭ adequate standard of living;
٭ work;
٭ legal assistance;
٭ freedom of family structure; and
٭ adequate child care.
c) Community and Cultural Issues
٭ living in a safe society;
٭ collective and individual development;
٭ culture;
٭ environmental protection and conservation; and
٭ ecologically sustainable
1.3 Short Term Goals
We will:
a) propose the development of an international Framework Convention
on Sustainable Development which is made more precise by the
addition of protocols, for example dealing with environmental health
and environmental due process;
b) oppose attempts to undermine the domestic implementation of
India's international obligations arising from the ratification of
treaties, whilst working towards a process for domestic ratification
of international treaties;
c) support the right of people from the age of 16 years to vote and
to hold public office, in recognition of the increasing awareness of
and responsibility towards current issues of young people;
d) introduce rules such that people who are found to have acted in a
corrupt way be barred from ever holding public office again and as
well, that they forfeit any superannuation payments they may have
made while holding that office and that they lose the right to any
termination payments for which they would otherwise have been
eligible; and
e) work for appropriate and adequate consultation to better gauge
opinions on issues of concern.
Local Self-Government
2.1 Principles
We believe that fundamental changes to the structure of Government
are vital if we are to achieve true democracy in this country. If
Government is to be of, for and by the people, it must start at the
local level and it is at this level that the power must remain.
Whatever the final shape of the reorganisation of the Indian system
of Government, we support the preservation of a system of local
Government which reflects the desire for local community identity
and self-determination. We believe that power should reside in the
most localised sphere of Government that is able to deal with the
issue.
2.2 Goals
While we support local autonomy, we also acknowledge that giving
unbridled power to local councils could lead to further problems,
especially irreversible environmental ones.
We propose:
a) a Code of Ethics and a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities based
on green principles to ensure that, among other things, local
activities are socially advantageous and environmentally benign;
b) a review of local Government electoral processes, with a view to
recommending proportional representation;
c) a review of the revenue base of local Government; and
d) better coordination with other levels of Government to avoid
duplication and unnecessary waste of resources.
2.3 Short Term Targets
In recognising that local Government must play an expanded and more
autonomous role while maintaining its accountability if we are to
achieve a truly democratic system of Government in India, we
propose:
a) financial support for those elected to local Government, in
recognition of the part they must play in decision-making;
b) increased involvement of local Government at other levels of
Government;
c) that State of the Environment reporting include criteria for
measuring the environmental impact of developments;
d) that those people who are found to have acted in a corrupt way be
barred from ever holding public office again and as well, that they
forfeit any superannuation payments they may have made while holding
that office and that they lose the right to any termination payments
for which they would otherwise have been eligible;
e) that local councils require all new buildings, subdivisions and
developments to conform to Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD)
principles;
f) a regular flow of information to the community via community
radio, newsletters and noticeboards to give equal voice to a range
of ideas and to encourage community participation in local
Government;
g) that all spheres of Government take immediate steps to
familiarise all citizens with their rights and with all aspects of
the present electoral system; and
h) that there be appropriate and adequate consultation to better
gauge opinions on issues of concern.
Community Participation in Government
3.1 Principles
We are working according to these principles:
a) the legitimacy of community participation in the making of law
and policy should be established as an underpinning principle of all
actions of Governments;
b) all individuals and community groups should be given the
opportunity to participate in decisions which affect them;
c) the contribution of diverse groups provides a valuable addition
to available information;
d) the needs of future generations should be recognised in
contemporary decision-making;
e) decisions should be made at the most appropriate level; in some
cases this will include groupings not currently given
decision-making status, such as the neighbourhood;
f) policies, strategies and frameworks should be developed which
enable civic infrastructure to facilitate community participation in
the business of Government;
g) every effort should be made to give marginalised groups
opportunities to be effectively involved in decision-making. This
will entail longer timelines and the introduction and strengthening
of community development practices. Outreach beyond written
submissions and public forum techniques will be required;
h) involvement in community consultations should be recognised as
work. Support should be provided to community organisations to
participate in consultative processes;
i) community participation in decision-making should be an ongoing
process, rather than a one-off event which leaves communities out of
reviews and changes to policies;
j) the ability of community groups and individuals to gain access to
information which will empower them to participate effectively is
crucial to meaningful participation; and
k) Governments, of all spheres, should produce and follow guidelines
to ensure that the community representatives whom they consult on a
day to day basis reflect accurately the views of their
constituencies.
3.2 Goals
The following goals are set by us:
a) In the long term, wherever possible, decision-making should be
based on bio-regional considerations and patterns of social
interaction;
b) because of the importance of everybody taking part in political
life, the we will work for the principle that leave without pay is
automatically granted for anybody standing in an election for public
office;
c) community services and local environmental policy should be
provided by the closest possible sphere to the consumers of the
services;
d) the central Government's domestic role should be to ensure
equitable distribution of resources and information, to coordinate
services which cut across state boundaries and to ensure that
principles of ecological and social sustainability are followed by
local Governments; and
e) less formal organisations at the level of neighbourhoods country
towns, particular interests and issues, etc, should have access to
all spheres of Government through formal and informal consultative
and review procedures.
3.3 Short Term Targets
We set the following targets:
a) the move towards a new form of Government should be based on wide
information-sharing and consultation with all constituencies of
India's population;
b) processes of policy review and decision-making by Government and
its institutions should be made more open and accessible to the
public;
c) Freedom of Information legislation should be widened to make
relevant information more accessible and to reduce the cost of
attaining information by community groups;
d) those public servants and journalists, etc, who publicise
sensitive information of benefit to the community should be
encouraged rather than disadvantaged for efforts to inform the
public of actions which are not in the community interest;
e) democratically constituted groups which work on behalf of the
wider community, or identified constituencies within it, should be
adequately resourced to enable them to fulfill their functions;
f) consultative periods should be well advertised and of sufficient
length to enable all those interested to participate;
g) relevant documents should be available in places accessible to
all members of the public; shopfronts should be set up for this
purpose;
h) public meetings should be held at varying times in appropriate
places to enable attendance by all affected. In many cases it will
be important to provide childcare and transport, as well as access
for the disabled for maximum involvement of all constituencies; in
some cases, it will be preferable to talk to people in their homes
or habitual meeting places rather than to set up a meeting and
expect them to attend;
i) information should be presented clearly, graphically and free of
jargon;
j) the development of a free-access citizen information and
governance participation facility on the Internet should be
promoted;
k) existing community networks should be identified and strengthened
through community development.
Economic Understanding
1.1 Principles
We are committed to four pillars of Green Economics:
1.1.1 Ecological Integrity
We affirm the inherent worth and interconnectedness of all living
things. Biodiversity is an essential component of human welfare,
yielding both utilitarian and existence values. The intrinsic value
of biodiversity, in its own right, is also emphasised by us.
Society needs to uncouple the traditional relationship between
economic growth and increased resource use, so that irreparable
damage to nature is avoided and the depletion of the natural
resource base is slowed. The impact of economic activity must be
kept within environmental limits, particularly the capacity of
ecosystems to process wastes.
Integration of economic, social and environmental imperatives must
replace the narrow pursuit of economic growth as currently defined.
Many environmental problems are global in scale, therefore the
maintenance of ecological integrity requires the adoption of a
global perspective.
1.1.2 Equity
Social responsibility implies that people should contribute in
proportion to their ability and resources, and that the community
should ensure that no-one is forced to go without the necessities of
life. The phasing out of unsustainable activities should not further
deprive people who do not have sufficient means to live. These
responsibilities apply at the individual, local, national and
international levels.
In ensuring equity within the current generation, we must treat
future generations equitably. This implies solidarity with deprived
groups in our country as well as with disadvantaged countries and
nations elsewhere. It also implies solidarity with future
generations. Each generation should receive an endowment of social
and environmental assets that allows for human needs to be met and
development options to be pursued. Because the negative consequences
of human activity on the ability of future generations to meet their
needs are not fully understood, the precautionary principle should
become an important decision-making tool.
1.1.3 Empowerment and Choice
Social, political and economic institutions must allow individuals
and communities to determine their own priorities, while ensuring
that we have the ability - as a wider community - to meet our
national and international obligations.
We also recognise that the market does not provide sufficient tools
for informed rational choice which would maintain a long term
perspective and lead to equitable outcomes.
1.1.4 Caring and Cooperation
The fulfillment of human potential and the enrichment of lives are
best achieved by people living and working together, and guided by
common goals. These goals should respect and enhance the integrity
and diversity of human and ecological communities and recognise
their global linkages.
Economic activity involves the cooperation of many different
individuals and groups in the production, distribution and
consumption of a wide range of goods and services. The focus of
activity should be on cooperation and opportunities for mutual
benefits, rather than on competition and control that typically
benefit powerful minorities. Cooperative principles should also
apply to the protection and management of the global commons and
resources.
1.1.5 Provision of Services by the Public Sector
We believe that a strong public sector is a prerequisite for a
healthy civil society and that some services, because of the
community service obligations required of them and the essential
nature of the services, should be undertaken by public sector
agencies. Ownership by the Government does not preclude some such
agencies being run on a corporatised basis, but does mean that
fulfilling of community service obligations may mean that their
profits would not be as great as they would be without such
obligations. This reduced revenue is accepted as a necessary cost in
a civil and equitable society. These community service obligations
may include providing services at reduced rates to the disadvantaged
in society, for example, the aged or sick, and providing services to
rural and remote communities.
Such services, which are often natural monopolies because of the
efficiency of having a single or well coordinated distribution
system, include, but are not necessarily limited to, water supplies
and distribution, electricity services, employment services, social
and cultural services, phone and postal services, education, health,
judiciary, town planning, environmental management, policing and
custodial services, the radio and television services, public
transport and interstate rail services, national parks, and defence.
Of course public services should continue to provide and to extend
its services to the public and to the Government executive, with
increased public involvement in Government decision making and
provision of services as an important mechanism for ensuring the
appropriateness and effectiveness of Government policies and action.
1.2 Goals
We aim to:
a) keep natural monopolies and other essential public services under
public ownership and re-establish such ownership as necessary;
b) ensure the level of services in rural and remote communities is,
as far as practicable, comparable with those provided in
metropolitan areas and such as to ensure the vitality and
strengthening of rural communities and the quality of life in those
communities.
At a national level we should be working towards a sustainable
society in which quality of life is considered to be of the utmost
importance. To this end, policy priorities are:
a) better distribution of work and income;
b) a more equitable taxation system; and
c) an improved social safety net.
An imperative is the adoption of a set of policy guidelines for the
costing of environmental impacts and for the movement of the economy
towards the sustainable use of India's renewable resources.
We support continued public ownership and control of public sector
enterprises especially services such as power, water and
telecommunications.
At the same time, we emphasise the importance of an international
approach to addressing social and environmental problems. Global
cooperation must be directed at:
٭ implementing the principle of intergenerational equity in
considering social and environmental conditions;
٭ bringing an end to the profligate use and pollution of the unpriced global commons (atmosphere and oceans), and scarce
resources; and
٭ addressing the problems of poverty and imbalance in resources.
At the same time, however, it is recognised that national
sovereignty is important in enabling effective global cooperation.
1.3 Short Term Targets
We are committed to the following:
a) the abandonment of economic growth (as conventionally measured),
as the principal index of welfare, in favour of alternative indices,
to be developed and integrated at national, state and regional
level, and that regularly show:
٭ changes in the quality of life of the population;
٭ changes in the distribution of income and wealth; and
٭ changes in inventories and flows of environmental resources.
b) the adoption of taxation policy as a principal tool for achieving
sustainable economic development.
c) focusing on taxing natural resources (ecological taxes) as a
necessary departure from the emphasis on the taxing of incomes and
labour. These policies include:
٭ the internalisation of the massive external costs associated with
India's industrial economy; and
٭ the need for a fair distribution of national income and wealth.
d) the targeting of spending policies to:
٭ meet the basic needs of all Indians;
٭ provide incentives for the substitution of renewables for
non-renewable resources;
٭ support the restructuring of industry; and
e) that trade, and trade agreements, entered into by India, are
subject to the priorities of human welfare and ecological
sustainability.
Tax Reforms
2.1 Principles
Our taxation policies constitute an integral part of economic
policies. We call for the Indian Government to focus on particular
principles to guide taxation policies:
a) the need for a fair distribution of national income and wealth;
b) the fact that environmental resources are community resources;
c) the adoption of incentives for sustainable use and penalties for
unsustainable use of natural resources;
d) adequate provision of resources for public services;
e) the support of full employment,
f) the double benefit of reducing taxes on labour and increasing
taxes on resource use and pollution; and
g) the discouragement of speculation.
2.2 Goals
We aim to use taxation as an efficient tool for achieving objectives
relating to social equity and environment. This can be carried out
either by using tax revenue to finance beneficial reforms or by
applying taxation as a steering instrument in itself.
It should be a responsibility of the Government to educate the
community about the social benefits of the taxation system and the
citizens' responsibility to contribute through the taxation system.
2.2.1 Taxation as a Revenue Instrument
We reject the regressive fiscal policies of the old parties. We see
fiscal policy playing a vital role in reconstructing the Indian
economy on a socially and environmentally sustainable basis. It is
important that the revenue share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
raised.
Our fiscal policy aims to raise a sufficient revenue base to:
a) create a sustainable economy with appropriate levels of
development in environmentally sound industries;
b) create sustainable communities based on principles of social
justice, and ensure equal access to community services such as
schools, adequate health care, safe streets and reliable public
transport;
c) provide a strong financial basis for effective management of
public sector expenditure and debt;
d) provide revenue for a budget that can sustain healthy programme
for third world aid and for nature conservation; and
e) provide a platform for ethical capital investment in community
amenities and infrastructure.
2.2.2 Taxation as a Steering Instrument
A Green economy implies that taxation be used as a steering
instrument in the following ways:
a) ecological taxation for the protection of nature so that our
generation can leave a healthy ecological system to future
generations. The tax system should encourage environmentally
positive behaviour and penalise environmentally destructive
behaviour. It should provide incentives for sustainable use of
natural resources;
b) progressive taxation as part of a policy for national equity;
c) the burden of taxation should be levied on the consumption of
scarce material resources and financial speculation rather than on
labour;
d) tax should provide a mechanism to limit foreign debt and foreign
speculation; and
e) tax should encourage domestic savings, employment and productive
investments.
2.3 Short Term Targets
We will support tax increases sufficient to support a strong budget with environmental and social goals.
2.3.1 Personal Income Tax
Marginal tax rates for individual income earners need to be made
more progressive. At present, the tax payers on low to middle
incomes pay more tax in proportion to their income then people on
high incomes having a fairly better knowledge and planning skills
for tax savings. This is not favourable for the majority of Indians.
We recognise that the taxpayers have not been generally responsible
for the avoidance of tax which has led to the erosion of India�s
revenue base.
We also believe that the number of tax payers can increase
exponentially if proper education regarding paying income tax is
provided to all persons having some earning. This includes
individuals, business organisations incorporating proprietary,
partnership, cooperative, private as well as public limited
companies. There should be simple procedures for paying income tax
so that anybody can put the right amount of tax in the Government's
bank accounts for developmental work. People have a fear that if
they pay income tax even at the standard slab fixed by the
Government, they will be harassed by the tax authorities and that
they will have to pay more taxes in the long run.
2.3.2 Indirect Taxation Reform
We propose a reform to improve the existing sales tax system so as to:
a) incourage more efficient resource use eg. by the reuse of
material and equipment;
b) increase the efficiency and transparency with an emphasis on
taxes with an ecological component; and
c) make taxation more progressive through higher rates for luxury
items;
2.3.2 Eco-taxes
We regard ecological tax reform as the key element of a tax reform
package.
Eco-taxes seek to incorporate the costs of resource use and disposal
into prices to encourage efficient resource use and to reduce
pollution.
We support the introduction of eco-taxes, although we acknowledge
the fact that environmental values cannot be reduced rupees and
paise alone.
Eco-taxes aim to address:
1. the problem of many resources being consumed at an alarming rate;
and
2. the problem of increasing pollution, causing deterioration of
air, water and soil.
We believe that the application of appropriate tax rates and tax mix
will encourage intergenerational equity.
We will work to develop a package of levies to provide incentives
and penalties for individuals and industry, to encourage the
adoption of waste minimising technologies and the production of
recycled and recyclable goods. These include:
a) resource levies to be applied to primary commodities including
minerals, coal and timber. Those levies should be calculated on
volume of resource extracted rather than on profits sometimes
generated;
b) levies on the extraction of forest and water resources to reflect
their critical environmental values as well as other, including
intrinsic, values;
c) pollution levies on the emission of poisonous substances such as
sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and heavy metals into the
environment;
We will also
a) offer tax incentives for the transition to non-polluting
processes and technologies;
b) eliminate subsidies and tax exemptions for ecologically damaging
activities such as resource consumption and pollution; and
c) ensure that ecotax revenues are used to offset taxes on labour in
order to maximise the double dividend obtainable from ecological tax
reform and encourage employment and productive investment.
2.3.3 Transport
We will:
a) work towards a change of the current indirect tax system for cars
and trucks to favour more energy-efficient vehicles;
b) propose changes to the system of fringe benefits taxation so that
driving of employer provided vehicles is appropriately and equitably
taxed;
c) propose a shift of charges for motor vehicle registration and
compulsory third party insurance to a fuel tax, so that car owners
only pay in relation to the amount of travelling they do, with
compensation to be assessed on the basis of income and place of
residence; and
d) maintain excise on fuels but substantially reduce the rebates to
the mining and forestry industries.
2.3.4 Energy
We will propose changes in the taxation structure in the energy
sector to support the aims described in the Energy policy framework.
a) improve and expand public transport;
b) develop alternative energy techniques such as solar thermal
power, photovoltaics and wind power;
c) reduce taxes, such as payroll tax; on employment;
d) compensate low income earners for the regressive impact of the
levy.
2.3.5 Agriculture
We will propose changes in the taxation structure for chemical fertilisers and pesticides with the aim of supporting a change to ecologically sustainable farming methods.
2.3.6 Urban Planning
The growth of our cities is often haphazard, with negative
consequences for people and for the environment. We will support:
a) tax incentives for environmentally-sound residential
developments; and
b) removal of hidden and explicit incentives for urban sprawl.
Finance, Debt Management and Inflation
3.1 Principles
A deregulated financial system is incompatible with social and
environmental sustainability. In order to address social and
environmental needs, the Indian Government must interact with the
international financial system on its own terms. This will require:
a) national economic sovereignty (ie democratic control of the
economy, not market control;
b) domestic funding of Government deficits;
c) an effective system of foreign exchange management;
d) reduction in foreign ownership and debt; and
e) movement towards a sustainable financial system which enables the
real economy to be maintained decade after decade at its full
employment potential without recurring inflation and
over-indebtedness.
3.2 Goals
The objectives of the policy include:
a) reduction of foreign ownership of Indian enterprise;
b) more equitable employment and income distribution;
c) control of interest rates and debt;
d) low inflation;
e) full employment underpinned by a Guaranteed Adequate Income;
f) well funded public infrastructure;
g) appropriate economic monitoring, measurement, and accounting
practices;
h) reduction of private and public sector debt.
3.3 Short Term Targets
a) detailed monitoring and regulation of foreign capital;
b) investment of foreign capital in import replacement industries
and enterprises consistent with national environmental and social
priorities; and
c) strict monitoring of export and import prices to reduce transfer
pricing by multinationals.
We will support the establishment and use of community controlled
investment facilities which direct investments to eliminate reliance
on foreign borrowings by both the public and private sectors.
Investments in ethical enterprises which emphasise both social and
environmental sustainability will be encouraged. We will explore a
range of opportunities to assist these measures and support:
a) campaigns encouraging citizens and organisations to place their
savings in ethical investment organisations;
b) the right of credit cooperatives to invest in productive
enterprises;
3.3.4 Inflation
We will support disaggregating the causes of inflation so that distinctions can be made between cost increases which are socially and environmentally beneficial, such as including the real costs of natural resources like water, and those which are not.
Global Trading and Investment Relations
4.1 Principles
4.1.1 Objectives
We support a policy of managed international trade and foreign
investment based on the general recognition that nation states have
a right and a duty to ensure that their consumption and production,
including both imports and exports, is sustainable.
These principles, which are fundamentally different to the those of
the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), require
that international trade and foreign investment support the
following objectives:
a) protecting local employment and labour conditions;
b) reducing economic and political vulnerability;
c) endouraging diversification of industry;
d) permitting the development of local technologies; and
e) protecting the environment.
4.1.2 Benefits of Trade
We recognise that foreign trade and investment are beneficial in terms of:
a) transferring skills and technology not normally available in an
economy;
b) allowing the importation of strategic goods and services;
c) encouraging innovation and the adoption of new practices and
higher standards;
d) encouraging efficiency through the adoption of 'international
best practice' and the importation of technology which makes the
local production of new goods and services possible; and
e) giving developing countries in particular, fair opportunity to
trade with developed countries.
4.1.3 Problems with Trade
We, however, are wary of the possible negative influences of poorly regulated foreign trade and investment such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which may include:
a) loss of national economic sovereignty, particularly with regard
to employment, taxation, inflation, tariff and wages policy;
b) a reluctance by nations to take unilateral environmental
initiatives for fear that they might unduly erode a nation's
economic competitiveness;
c) making an economy less diverse and more vulnerable through
encouraging it to specialise in those industries in which it has
competitive export advantage while abandoning those industries that
cannot compete against foreign imports;
d) erosion of local culture in the face of imports that have a
strong cultural element such as films, electronic media, music and
food;
e) forcing countries to adopt environmentally unsus-tainable or
socially unjust practices which damage the global commons in order
to be able to earn foreign exchange;
f) forcing many countries, including India, into ever-increasing
foreign debt leading to spiralling overseas interest payments;
g) inducing a global increase in transport use which is both
inefficient and destructive to the environment;
h) allowing transnational corporations to increasingly dominate
global trade and investment which in many cases is anti-competitive;
and
i) leaving many developing countries at the mercy of IMF and World
Bank required restructuring, often resulting in social polarisation.
We support international trading systems and associated institutions
in which nation states work to maximise global equity and ecological
sustainability. We also encourage exchange which will enhance the
development of economies and societies that are ecologically
sustainable, diverse, self-reliant, and therefore less vulnerable to
external political and economic pressure.
4.2 Goals
We recognise that trade and investment issues must often be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Given the diversity of social and environmental costs and benefits that can apply to each trade and investment issue, and recognising the risks and benefits of foreign trade and investment, we will pursue policies to achieve the following goals:
a) to limit trade in goods and services that are produced by methods
that are environmentally unsustainable or socially unjust;
b) to promote trade associations and participate in international
trading systems in order to enhance the achievement of this goal;
c) to increase India's self-reliance by limiting net foreign debt
and current account deficits; and
d) to promote the regulation of transnational corporations.
The achievement of these goals will be facilitated not only through
international trade policy but also by supporting the following
short term targets.
4.3 Short Term Targets
4.3.1 International Context
International trade and investment can be positive in terms of
countries benefiting from the initiatives and lower production costs
of other countries and generally promoting greater global
cooperation, but they can be negative in terms of fostering economic
vulnerability and consuming a large amount of global transport and
communications energy. Countries like India should never be
isolationist in their global trade and investment policies and
should always be prepared to negotiate at international forums. But
countries like ours should not negotiate from a position of
weakness; they should not be so dependent on the global economy that
they will take whatever terms are offered. Instead they should
negotiate from a position of strength where, if needs be, they can
be economically self-reliant. We believe that international trade
and investment should always be transparent and fully accountable
and should not be controlled by trading blocks.
We also believe that international trade and investment should
generally be carried on within a global environmental imperative to
make the consumption of resources sustainable. Trade liberalisation
should never be allowed at the expense of the environment.
4.3.2 Fair Trade and Reform of the WTO
We support reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Labour Organisation to ensure:
a) full recognition of the overriding necessity of environmental and
social agreements;
b) the modification of multilateral trading agreements to allow
nation states to impose internationally acceptable environmental and
social practices;
c) the promotion of moves at the WTO and other relevant
organisations which increase the food security of poorer countries
and help them stabilise and improve prices for their commodities;
d) the support of poor countries for growing their own food as a
priority over growing tobacco and other products for export to
industrial countries;
e) trade agreements on Intellectual Property Rights that support the
right of developing countries to acquire the technology they need at
a cost they can afford and receive fair remuneration for the genetic
resources found in their territory or developed or conserved by
their people;
f) a revision of WTO processes and procedures to ensure transparency
and include participation by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
as well as other representatives of civil society;
g) the encouragement of the use of counter-trade in the form of swap
arrangements between two or more countries that do not have
sufficient foreign exchange to pay for imports; and
h) the development of preferential trading status based on
principles of ecological sustainability and social justice and aid.
We will also support:
a) a comprehensive ban on the movement of hazardous waste (including
nuclear waste) and hazardous waste recyclables;
b) the development and transfer of technologies needed to achieve
this; and
c) a review of agriculture subsidies in developed countries, in
terms of their adverse social and environmental impacts on other
developed and also developing nations.
4.3.3 Transnational Corporations
Transnational corporations now control about two-thirds of all international trade and most international investment and with the introduction of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment their power domination would further increase. They have become a powerful force in the world economy, and often play one country off against another to secure maximum financial advantage.
We will:
a) promote the regulation of transnational corporations in terms of
environmental impact and sustainability, social impact, labour
relations and democratic participation;
b) promote the import of only those goods from developing countries
that satisfy basic criteria of decent wages, working conditions,
sufficient food supply and environmental sustainability in the
country of origin;
c) support the prohibition of the import of goods that are produced
through the exploitation of children and;
d) investigate means through which both the Government and the
United Nations can improve the business practice of transnational
corporations including regulation through anti-monopoly legislation
in India;
4.3.4 National Context
We believe that the current liassez-faire attitude to international
currency transactions needs to be reformed and that the Government
has a role in limiting national foreign debt for having a better
image of India. Researches should be conducted with the help of
universities as well as institutions of national importance for
having a national policy of development without taking international
loan with a view to reducing the foreign debt. We will institute an
inquiry into the means available to achieve a regulated limitation
of the national foreign debt which may include the following:
a) tighter control by the Government of India, including the
establishment of an independent regulatory authority that would
scrutinize all foreign investments with a clear mind for assessing
such investments and their different types of consequences;
b) the introduction of import taxes and customs duties; and
c) work to be done at the international level to achieve reform of
the financial system;
Human Rights and Duties Education
1.1 Principles
We believe that it is essential to:
a) ensure that basic human rights are respected in all countries;
b) avoid compromising on human rights for economic or political
expediency;
c) recognise democratic institutions as a fundamental human right;
and
d) work towards the sovereignty and self-determination of entities
with historical, cultural and ecological identity.
1.2 Goals
We will pursue policies that:
a) restrict cooperation with governing regimes that violate human
rights;
b) actively engage with other countries to promote human rights;
c) bring diplomatic and commercial pressures on regimes that violate
human rights, to ensure that they respect the basic rights of their
citizens;
d) keep the interests of disempowered communities foremost in all
dealings with countries in which human rights violations occur;
e) support the end of colonialism and press for resolution of
colonial conflicts through the UN framework;
f) develop a more distinctive and effective role for the
International Court of Justice in the field of human rights; and
g) support, through the UN framework, democratic and economic
reforms in countries coming out of totalitarian control.
Environmental Sustainability
2.1 Principles
We support the conservation of the Earth's environment and its biodiversity, both as a value in itself and as essential for human survival and happiness.
2.2 Goals
We will:
a) support international and national moves to halt deforestation in
India as well as the rest of the world and help reforestation; this
involves both cessation of unsustainable logging and more efficient
use of land for human activities by encouraging the reduced
consumption of meat and dairy products, especially in the richer
countries;
b) support international moves to limit land degradation;
c) support international conventions to stop over-fishing in the
oceans;
d) support international moves to reduce pollution of the seas and
the atmosphere;
e) support moves to end trade in hazardous waste;
f) support moves to end exploitation of and trade in endangered
species;
g) support the transfer of environmentally sustainable technologies
to developing countries; and
h) promote the establishment of an Environmental Council at the UN
with similar decision-making powers to the Security Council, but
dealing instead with environmental issues of global significance.
2.3 Short Term Targets
We will support:
a) urgent measures to stop the exploitation of rainforests, which
has resulted in both the loss of a rich biosystem and the
displacement and possible extinction of the native peoples of the
forests;
c) efforts to end the dumping of nuclear waste in the oceans;
d) effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use of
ozone-depleting substances;
e) legislation to require Indian companies, Government agencies and
business enterprises, operating overseas to observe social and
environmental standards no less stringent than those required in
India.
International Debt Crisis
3.1 Principles
We recognise that repayments of past loans have so outstripped new loans that the net transfer of money is from the developing world to the developed.
3.2 Goals
We will intensively lobby to:
a) cancel all debts of developing countries;
b) achieve radical reform of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund or establish a new international lending institution
that would take over the responsibilities of these institutions, to
be governed by a board with gender balance as well as equal
representation from both developing country debtors and western
lenders; and
c) encourage developing countries to pursue strategies of economic
development which are highly self-reliant and which prioritise the
production of goods and services from local sources.
Peace and Security
4.1 Principles
We are committed to:
a) developing fair and just international relations with other
countries, peoples and regions;
b) building positive peace into our international security
relations;
c) resolving conflict rather than merely deterring war through the
maintenance of traditional military structures;
d) ensuring the greatest possible transparency in India's foreign
and security relations, domestically as well as internationally;
e) working with individuals and organisations which openly and
democratically work for such an objective at a local, regional,
national and international level;
f) working towards a policy framework of sustainable international
relations, strongly supported by nonviolent strategies of
international cooperation, conflict prevention, international
mediation and conflict resolution, and which recognise the local,
national and international dimensions of conflict in our region;
g) capability for the foreseeable future, subject to eventual
regional-wide demilitarisation;
h) reforming the Indian Defence Forces to ensure that they are
trained and equipped for more sustainable national and international
security roles aimed at ensuring peace; and
i) invisaging an ecologically sustainable post nuclear "New Intenational Political Order" on the matrix of Civilisational Homes
(like EU) superceding the present nation - state arrangement.
4.2.1 Working towards Regional and Global Demilitarisation.
We will:
a) participate in global regime initiatives to monitor and reduce
the manufacture and export of biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons technologies;
b) support a global nuclear weapons Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT),
with particular reference to nuclear weapons testing in the
Asia-Pacific region;
c) support global nuclear non-proliferation, and comprehensive
measures to dismantle all nuclear weapons and their target systems,
through convening a UN-sponsored International Peace Conference on
general nuclear disarmament;
d) support a global ban on the militarisation of space.
4.2.2 Combating the International Arms Trade and Provision of Military Assistance.
We will support policies to:
a) ensure that India will not produce weaponry or components for
export;
b) compile a register of all dual-use (civilian-military) technology
which may be exported from India, and restrict the trade with
reference to a broad range of security considerations (such as the
human rights record of our trading partners);
c) encourage other states to phase out external military aid in the
Asia-Pacific region;
d) end arms trade fairs in India and coordinate with neighbouring
states on similar measures; and
e) establish a realistic, comprehensive register of the arms trade
in the Asia-Pacific region, and work to develop alternative regional
and UN-sponsored disarmament initiatives with a capacity for binding
verification.
4.2.3 Regional Confidence-building and Peace-building
We will support policies that:
a) develop regional security relations which build peace and
confidence, and work towards resolving conflicts before they evolve
into violent international disputes; and
b) recognise that the basis of regional peace and security is a
sustainable framework of human rights protection and promotion, just
and equitable regional trade arrangements, generous and appropriate
overseas aid programme and strong multinational environmental
safeguards; and
c) ensure that the Asia-Pacific states, and their constituent
peoples, have open access to dependable international legal dispute
mechanisms.
4.2.4 Regional Conflict-Prevention
We will encourage:
a) the development of an inter-related set of global security
campaigns through the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs and
Education;
b) effective diplomatic intervention in potential conflict
situations, through India's network of regional diplomatic ties, and
through regional institutions and the UN where appropriate; and
c) conflict-preventive peacekeeping deployments for interceding in
potential conflict situations, wherever appropriate, in the form of
monitors, police, aid and assistance personnel or peacekeeping
forces, with all-party support managed through relevant regional
organisations or the UN.
4.2.5 Linking Peacebuilding with Peacekeeping and Peacemaking
We will support policies which:
a) manage India's foreign and security relations in ways which recognise that peacebuilding and peacemaking are crucial elements of
any regional conflict management framework, and that peacekeeping
has the potential to operate at an interface between the two;
b) develop an integrated strategy linking peacebuilding,
peacekeeping and peacemaking approaches to conflict management;
c) establish an appropriate peacekeeping strategy to be developed
both nationally and through the UN; and
d) respond to the urgent need to comprehensively develop
international peacemaking capabilities, both in new regional
institutions and through a reformed UN.
4.2.6 Sanctions Enforcement Action
We will work to ensure that trade embargoes:
a) are only conducted within a UN mandate;
b) are closely associated with an appropriate strategy of conflict
resolution; and
c) are rigorously enforced in order to achieve their goals as
rapidly as possible.
4.2.7 Military Enforcement Action
We support a comprehensive strategy of nonviolent conflict management as the most effective means of promoting peace and security in the international arena; in which military enforcement action is only seen as appropriate in securing effective UN sanctions against states which seriously violate international peace.
4.2.8 Establishing an Agency for Monitoring Demilitarisation
We will support policies to:
a) establish an Agency for Monitoring Demilitarisation.
٭ monitoring and/or coordinating regional arms control and
disarmament measures;
٭ monitoring and combating the arms trade;
٭ monitoring weapons testing and military exercises;
٭ coordinating regional arms conversion strategies; and
b) develop a culture of nonviolent conflict management and peace
education throughout the world.
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