Tamil Nadu and Auroville: an enlarged cooperation

A new adventure has started in Auroville: a large scale cooperation between the state of Tamil Nadu and Auroville for promoting rural development based on the principles of sustainable development.

This is an area in which Auroville can contribute a lot as much research and experimentation has already taken place. Pitchandikulam Forest, for instance, has already completed several sustainable development projects in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. And it is Joss, founder and manager of Pitchandikulam Forest, who is the inspiration behind the Sustainable Livelihood Institute project.

Tamil Nadu’s advanced development of technology in urban areas is in stark contrast to its rural poverty, malnutrition, increasing unemployment, shrinking natural resources, loss of agricultural land and a steady decline in farming. These tendencies are made worse by globalization and climate change.

Sustainable livelihoods are able to provide the means for a healthy way of life, holistic development, and overall happiness for individuals and communities, without further destroying the fragile environment.

The people behind SLI believe that to create such livelihoods is not a utopian dream, but a necessity and a realizable aim. The Institute aspires to be a bridge between Auroville and rural South Asia, confronting the challenges of globalization through dynamic localization, evolving solutions for people in a rapidly changing world by drawing from the wealth of traditional sustainable knowledge as well as new approaches.

With Auroville as its wider campus, the SLI aims to provide a place of learning, growing, teaching, research, experimentation and exchange in all aspects of sustainable livelihood. It will offer regular training programmes for government servants and communities, and platforms where new and pioneering approaches can be conceived and shared between practitioners, policy makers, community resource persons, and all those interested in solutions for a sustainable tomorrow.

The background

The ambition is huge. Needless to say, the problems are also huge. India’s population will overtake China’s around 2030, adding four hundred million to its present population over the next fifty years.

The Indian government tends to rely on industrial development and foreign investment as prime drivers of prosperity. The latter is probably indispensable in view of the huge needs for development. Nevertheless, it might be a mistake to rely mainly on big corporations to provide the millions of jobs necessary, for these enterprises depend a lot on developing automation. In fact, a recent report showed that the organized sector creates far fewer jobs than the unorganized sector.

It would also be a catastrophe to let the exodus from rural areas to the cities continue to increase, as many of these cities are already collapsing under the weight of uncontrolled growth. To prevent this it is necessary to revitalize the rural milieu and give a new impetus to agricultural development.

Actually, India has great agricultural potential. One remarkable fact is that India, although three times smaller, has as much arable land as China. The famous Green Revolution of the sixties made India self-sufficient in rice but at the cost of a considerable degradation of the soils due to the use of chemical fertilizers.

In contrast, there have been many experiments in organic agriculture which have given back life to the soil. For example, Pebble Garden, one of Auroville’s experimental farms, has been a major source of inspiration for the ecological movement in India.

While agriculture is central to the reviving of rural sustainability, for a harmonious and sustainable development, the rural areas also need the addition of various sustainable activities and services in order to create a dynamic milieu in which personal and collective fulfillment can take place. In this context, the SLI wants to become a centre where those who have already made significant contributions in these areas can meet and share their experience of holistic development. The advice and inspiration of our close neighbours in South Asia will also be sought and welcomed.

Beginnings

SLI has started to function from temporary premises on the edge of Auroville. A team, under the direction of Ram Subramaniam, a recognized expert in this field, has already prepared and run some programmes.

From March to December 2015, programmes have been organized involving more than 700 women belonging to Women’s Self-Help Groups from 25 districts of Tamil Nadu. Some 80 civil servants from the Department of Rural Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, have also attended programmes. Another Indian state, Odisha, has shown interest and has already sent about a hundred officials here, while the Puducherry Government has expressed interest in the agricultural programmes.

The list of Auroville units which have participated so far in the activities of SLI (see box) gives an idea of the variety of areas studied. This list is going to get longer in future, as Auroville has much more to offer.

An example

Most of the women who come for these learning sessions want to increase their income. In the past, too many of them have been the beneficiaries, or rather the victims, of various programmes proposed by local authorities. They have been encouraged to undertake an activity, like growing mushrooms or making jewellery, only for the scheme to be abandoned, either because the official whose pet idea it was has been transferred, or because it has been belatedly discovered that there is no market for these items. The SLI programmes are largely based on direct contact with practitioners. For a whole morning, I followed a group of about twenty women who had come to Auroville for two days from the region of Tiruvannamalai. We visited Solitude, an organic farm of about eight acres close to the Visitors’ Center. The founder of the farm, an Englishman called Krishna who is passionate about nature and music, received the group and walked them through the vegetable/fruit garden. Even at noon, under a very hot sun, their interest did not falter, so convincing were Krishna’s demonstrations and explanations.

For example, he showed several different samples of soil. He explained that the key to healthy soil was the patient reconstruction of the soil through organic matter. He also showed them how the interplanting of certain vegetable species resulted in a natural synergy.

The session ended with a meal in the Solitude restaurant where the food, cooked in an imaginative, original and tasty way, consists only of what had just been harvested in the garden. The next day the women worked with Krishna in his farm.

At the end of their stay, some of the women spoke of the experience as having been “transforming”. Actually, most of the feedback received after SLI workshops is very positive.

The future campus

The setting up of such a big project in Auroville has not been without its difficulties. Some Aurovilians don’t like the fact that acres of precious Auroville land will be leased to the Tamil Nadu Government for the construction of the SLI campus. Others are afraid that buildings without soul or beauty will be constructed, as happens too often with government projects.

Actually, this is a point upon which the Governing Board (which enthusiastically supports the project, believing it is aligned with the deep vocation of Auroville in relation to Tamil Nadu and India) has insisted upon strongly: “We don’t want the current type of administrative architecture,” said the Chairman, Dr. Karan Singh. This is why Joss asked several Auroville architects to work together on imagining a novel and ecological type of campus. This process, known as “Dreamweaving”, has been going on for several months. The final plan will be presented soon to the Tamil Nadu authorities and one of the participating architects will take responsibility for executing the plan.

The unknown factors

Of course, an association with the government on such a project has its risks. Receiving government funds on time is rare and the support that one gets at the top is not necessarily reflected in that of lower level officials. Added to bureaucratic delays, key officials are frequently transferred. This is why the SLI would like an autonomous status with a guaranteed budget for the duration of the planned activities, and discussions are ongoing with the highest authorities to achieve this.

In short, this is an adventure into the unknown. But the positive experience of the last few months is promising and deserves Auroville’s support and involvement. For the SLI could make a tangible contribution to harmonious rural development while offering a unique platform for Auroville to interact with India and beyond.

(This is an edited version of an article that was first published in La Revue d’Auroville)

Several Auroville Units have been already been involved in SLI programmes. They include Auroville Village Action, Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants, EcoPro, Pebble Garden, Annapurna Farm, Solitude Farm, Upasana, Bamboo Centre, Eco Femme, Svaram, Discipline Farm, Earth Institute, Sunlit Future, KOFPU, Merville Trust, Naturellement, Ilaignargal School and Aurosoya.