Most armies of the world follow a version of the British Defence Doctrine that lays down Ten Principles of War, the first of which is “Selection and Maintenance of Aim”. If the national aim is to achieve quick economic recovery, then we need to remember that the second of the Ten Principles is “Maintenance of Morale”, without which no war, including the one against Covid, can be won.
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By the time the pandemic fades into memory, millions of Indians would have been infected and hundreds of thousands killed. But not a single citizen will remain unaffected. Each of us would have, with some degree of separation, lost a loved one, endured financial and social losses, and for a majority, suffered a decline in quality of life. Graduating students will encounter subdued hiring.
Financing ventures will become harder. Social instability indicators such as domestic violence, road rage and crime have started shooting up. This pent-up stress, anxiety and fear will channelise themselves into low tolerance and increased anger, especially against the haves. While India has handled the battle against Covid-19 well, we face a much bigger challenge in terms of bringing back positivity into the ravaged social psyche.
Morale, positive outlook and a sense of hope fuel economics, which reflects in the Gross Domestic Product. It is impossible for any organisation or nation to achieve its full potential when the mood is despondent. Entrepreneurship and innovation are a state of mind and, without the foundation of high morale, it is impossible to leverage concrete resource outlays. India needs to address the morale and mental state of our citizens on a war-footing for a faster recovery.
This is easy to understand at an individual level. A sad person cannot, just biologically, engage in any productive activity. We are driven by chemicals in the brain that propel us to achieve our goals. The capitalist who seeks to enlarge her empire, the soldier who dies for the glory of the battalion, the athlete who strives against excruciating pain for national pride or the employee who achieves the “ownership mindset” — all need the right chemicals firing in their brain.
A downcast person, far from being productive, even stops caring about his physical well-being. The behaviour of a sad and a depressed person is similar because the same chemicals cause these emotional states. Extrapolating the individual to a family, a company and the nation explains why the state of mind of the nation and its economic recovery are existentially interlinked.
This is a daunting challenge, primarily because mental health has remained largely ignored, though it is the largest national medical burden. The understanding of the subject is so rudimentary that most corporates believe band aids such as yoga, a few counselling sessions or company-sponsored offsites are enough to solve the problem. That’s about as useful as giving an aspirin to an acute heart patient.
This situation, however, presents a unique opportunity for corporate India. Indian corporates have always contributed towards health care in the form of the mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Apart from hundreds of hospitals run by corporates, many of them have occupied a mindspace in the niches of health. But the mental health space lies open and unoccupied.
There are three categories of stakeholders when it comes to mental health. First, the government — for which it is imperative that the citizen’s morale is uplifted. Second, corporates — whose success depends on the engagement levels of their employees. And finally, the pharma companies, because it is only an optimistic and concerned individual who will care about her own and her family’s health. All pharma companies (not just those who manufacture psychiatric drugs) are, therefore, invested in building a positive mental state among their potential customers.
More Indians, especially the young, will be affected by mental health than any other disease. This is an opportunity for all three stakeholders — for the government to amend CSR rules to channel more resources to mental health; for conglomerates to invest and occupy this mindspace; and for the Indian pharma industry to take a global lead in the domain of preventive interventions.
Most armies of the world follow a version of the British Defence Doctrine that lays down Ten Principles of War, the first of which is “Selection and Maintenance of Aim”. If the national aim is to achieve quick economic recovery, then we need to remember that the second of the Ten Principles is “Maintenance of Morale”, without which no war, including the one against Covid-19, can be won.
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- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
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Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.