Why decentralized economy
Let me start with some questions.
Why cities have to bear the load of
the development?
Why prices are rocket high for real
estate in cities while there is ample land available in villages and
towns?
Why people are leaving their parents
in villages and other small towns in their old age and settle in cities
themselves?
Many cities are going through water
shortage and many are suffering with excessive water deluge?
Why are we trying so hard to increase
exports while we have such a large population, which can be consumer of those
goods?
Why we have to agree to uncalled
conditions laid by rich nations and we have to import their finished products,
killing our market?
Why are we facing industrial
slowdown even though we have such big consumer industry?
Why people are so dependent on
government for their development? Even the government’s Adarsh Gram Yojana,
one of the ambitious projects of Govt of India has not brought any significant
change. Down
to Earth’s report says, 78% MPs have not yet identified villages for the
development.
India is now a big country but there were many small kingdoms earlier and
people lived more happily. Every small
kingdom tried to achieve self-sufficiency by producing or manufacturing goods
in their own kingdoms. This led to better wealth distribution amongst
people where kings were good and India was known as golden bird (सोने की चिड़िया).
Should we follow the similar pattern of development of every state or
socio-economic units to make them self-sufficient?
Currently, the economy functions in centralized economic mode. Most of the raw materials are exported and being
used for centralized production and then finished
goods are imported from these centralized factories. The idea is to keep
the production cost lesser. But greed of huge profit margins, rising
transportation and other variable costs not only keep the price of the product
at higher end but kills the jobs at local level as well. For example; toys,
mobile phones, electronic items, textiles are being manufactured in China and
imported everywhere across the globe.
Decentralized Economy
PROUT, acronym for socio economic theory Progressive Utilization Theory, contrary to the existing
centralized economy emphatically advocates
for decentralized economy (विकेन्द्रित अर्थव्यवस्था). In decentralized economy, local people has control over
raw materials, production units will be established there and finished products
will be consumed locally or can be exported. The industries should be set up where the raw materials are available
rather than exporting them to industries set up at farther locations. To
achieve the balanced economic development, employment
to local people and a rational wealth distribution, economic democracy is a must. Locals
should have the right to utilize their resources rather than giving away
licenses to big corporates or crony capitalists. Kindly refer to previous
blog for more info on the subject.
I just talked about self-sufficiency. For self-sufficiency, we have to manufacture maximum possible products in our own socio-economic unit. We should also utilize and rotate the money in our socio-economic unit by employing local people on jobs and purchasing local goods. The fast rolling of money is very important in economic growth as well as keep increasing the purchasing capacity. Kindly refer to my previous blog for more info on the subject.
A socio-economic unit will be formed
based on common economic potentialities,
common economic problems, cultural legacy, language and customs of the people.
Within socio-economic unit, multiple blocks need to be identified.
One block will consist of around 1-2 lakh people population. Planning should be
done for development of those blocks and industries should be set up
accordingly as per the resources available there. We have to utilize the
resources judiciously and manufacture products required for consumption. When
the development will reach to every
block / villages, load on big cities will automatically decrease as people
will get jobs in their respective socio economic unit and need not to migrate.
No need to leave their parents in their old age.
Different states’ administration
will monitor the goods being produced in different
socio-economic units. Since it’s not possible to produce everything in
everyone’s economic unit, this administration
can suggest what goods should be produced in how much quantity in different
socio-economic units. How much
excess from local consumption should be produced in unit A such that it can
be exchanged with other socio-economic unit B for different products (which
can’t be produced in unit A). Maintaining
an equilibrium is important rather than production for the sake of profit. When the production will be balanced and
local consumption will increase due to better distribution of wealth, we need
not depend on exports.
Many people see India’s large population as deterrence to its economic growth but
Prout philosophy guides otherwise. PROUT says; more the people, more the consumption and more economic growth. It
also means more workforce to contribute
to growth. The world sees India as a big market but Indians themselves
don’t realize this potential. We need to judge our consumption or demand and
produce accordingly. Production for
consumption is important rather than production for profit. I will explain
this further in coming blogs.
Employment
With looming mechanization and
automation, many people are becoming jobless. PROUT encourages having co-operatives so that more people can share
the profit and wealth can be more widely distributed. It promotes automation and encourages that
human working hours should be reduced so that they can spend their energy
in mental and spiritual pursuits. Currently people work for 10 - 15 hours a
day. Applying Prout’s concept of cooperative a person might need to work 6 hrs
a day or lesser by leveraging machines and not firing the people. Extra labor
force can be utilized for producing other goods. Wealth will be widely
distributed bettering everyone's purchasing capacity. Current capitalistic
system believes in employing minimum number of people by using machines to
maximize their profits. They put pressure on government for relaxing labor
laws. PROUT’s vision of co-operative
only can solve the employment problem. I will discuss co-operatives in
forthcoming blogs.
Local Sentiment
For the success of decentralized
economy, employment to the locals should
be preferred. Local sentiment like; 'Be
local and buy local' should be encouraged. Buy goods that are produced
locally and the manufacturers also have to improve on the quality based on
feedback. Try to remove non-local
products (which can be produced in your own socio-economic unit) from the
local market. Production and
distribution should be managed through
cooperatives to keep check on price. Profits can be standardized for these
cooperatives. Many people complain it is difficult to employ local people
as they get into unions and create problems. In such cases, it is better to
have profit sharing on co-operative model.
Swadeshi, Desi, Videshi
There are 3 important terms
–“Swadeshi, Desi and Videshi”.
Swadeshi- Goods which are produced
locally or nearby.
Desi- Goods which are produced in our country.
Videshi- Goods which are produced
outside the country.
We should prefer Swadeshi for
promoting and strengthening decentralized economy. Online e-commerce website should also be allowed to sell only local goods produced in their
socio-economic unit.
In decentralized economy, minimum wages should be fixed in such a way that minimum requirements of the family can be
met. When everyone will have decent livelihood, then crime will decrease and
people’s thought level will increase. Society will progress together. Today
with online shopping and long commuting and working hours, we have been so
engrossed in our personal lives that we don’t bother to meet dear and near
ones. With reduced working hours, we will be able to visit our acquaintances,
nearby shoppers, know more people, to get more socially engaged with our
neighbors rather than merely social media engagement.
One of the recent examples of
non-judicious usage of money is Installation of Sardar Patel’s statue (statue
of Unity) in Sadhu bet. Around Rs. 3000 crore was spent on it. If government
would have spent around 3 crore for at least 1000 villages in various states to
set up industries based on local produce in partnership with local people, many
people would have got employment. Government could have withdrawn its capital
by selling the shares to those locals only later. Many people argue that statue
of unity is giving profit but first we need to meet the basic necessities of
one and all and then only we should think of beautifying. If we are sick,
first we need essential nutrients to make our body healthy, then only we can
move to beautification.
The concept of decentralized economy
is vast and, in my limited capacity, I have tried my best to explain it,
albeit in brief.
Please post your queries and views
in comment section.
