ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON INTEGRATED RURAL ENERGY PROGRAMME AT THE MAHATMA GANDHI INSTITUTE OF INTEGRATED RURAL ENERGY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, BAKOLI CAMPUS, ALIPUR

DELHI, SUNDAY, APRIL11, 1993

I am very happy to be here at the inaugural ceremony of the First International Workshop on Integrated Rural Energy Programme at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Integrated Rural Energy Planning and Development.
 
It is indeed appropriate that this new Institute has been named after Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji would have welcomed the Integrated Rural Energy Programme. He was not against science and technology, nor against machinery. What he was against was "the craze for machinery" and the use of machinery for centralising power in the hands of a few and for the exploitation of the masses. You must be familiar with the fact that in his Ashram in Sevagram he used only a hurricane lamp for his reading and writing not because he was against electric light but because he held that he should use it only when there is electricity for all in the villages of India. The objective of IREP is to bring to the villages of India an alternative non-conventional source of energy for lighting, cooking and for small scale industrial purposes. In addition to bringing energy and light to the rural areas it has the advantage of decentralised supply of it to the people, utilising local raw materials and resources, and encouraging self-reliance among the people. Gandhiji would have approved of all these aspects of the work of the Integrated Rural Energy Programme. However he would have insisted that in the implementation of the programme not only passive participation by the people is required but their involvement right from the decision-making and planning stage of the programme. If I may be permitted to make an observation this is a crucial draw-back in most of the mass programmes we have undertaken. They are implemented paternalistically with the result that the hearts of the village people do not throb in response to them.
 
A few years ago I had the opportunity of visiting a bio-gas project at one block headquarters. The Collector who took me to see the project was excited about its success. It was indeed a successful project in regard to the gas generated and used for lighting and cooking. But I found that the cowdung needed for the project had to be collected every morning from the houses nearby and that the villagers themselves declined to bring it to the bio-gas plant even though they were the beneficiaries of the project. There is need for imaginative educational work among the people if they are to be sensitized to the need for active participation in projects of this sort. For the regeneration of life in rural India we need something more than mere physical output of energy in the villages; we must have it as a result of the spirit of self-reliance and of people's participation. This is where we have to introduce into our programme the Gandhian approach. Dr. J.C. Kumarappa, the first exponent of Gandhian economics, had argued, "Planning will have no life if the man in the street does not understand what we are planning for. We cannot call it national planning if the farmers do not comprehend the purpose of it and lend their whole-hearted support for the carrying out of the plan."
 
Shortage of energy is a critical infrastructural bottleneck in all Indian development. This is particularly so for rural development. There is an all round scarcity of fossil fuels, especially petroleum products. We do not have the financial resources, certainly the foreign exchange, for procuring petroleum based fuels from global markets. And our thermal, hydel and nuclear energy sources are not sufficiently developed to meet all our requirements. India requires all these conventional sources of energy and in addition all the non-conventional sources of energy that we can harness to meet our needs.
 
The conventional sources of energy are not only insufficient and too expensive, but have become a major cause of environmental pollution. International and national opinion is now alive to the environmental danger facing humanity as a whole. Indeed, it is now conjured up as an apocalypse. Developing countries which in the past have hardly utilised fossil fuel resources and even to-day use only a tiny percentage of world fossil resources, cannot be asked to cut down on their utilisation of such resources when industrialisation and the use of energy in agriculture are the only way they can enhance their economic production and eliminate mass poverty. And yet for the sake of the planet and for our own future we have to conserve energy and explore non-conventional sources of energy that are more environment-friendly. Indeed apart from the non-availability of fossil-based fuels, the environmental argument is the most powerful one for the need for extensive recourse to non-conventional and renewable energy resources for our development.
 
However, at present the energy used traditionally in rural areas is not environmentally friendly. The common sources of energy cause environmental destruction by cutting of trees, burning of cowdung and agricultural waste. We need, therefore, programmes which would help in bringing about a transition from the present traditional or non-commercial energy based rural economy which is environment destructive to an appropriate mix of commercial, and non-conventional, renewable energy. That would help in checking environmental pollution and in ensuring agricultural and rural development on what is now called a sustainable basis. Sustainable development is not merely a function of non-polluting energy. It is linked with the rest of rural life, to human and social factors like health, education, employment, population and the quality of living.
 
I am happy to note that we have taken up an integrated approach to energy, environment and development at the grass-roots level. I had the opportunity to know something directly about this programme when I was Minister of State, Planning and Dr. Chopra was working at it with diligence and enthusiasm. Indeed I had occasion to take one of the projects under IREP to my former Parliamentary Constituency in Kerala. It had evoked a good deal of response from the people in the villages there. I am glad to learn that the programme has been expanded to 300 blocks in India and that it is targeted to cover 1000 blocks under the Eighth Five Year Plan. This is a programme that is applicable to all developing countries for accelerating rural development and for protecting environment.
 
I am happy to note that the participants in this international workshop have come from all the developing countries of the world. They would have a chance to interact with their counterparts and experts from a number of countries and with leading institutions. I feel that this is a field in which countries of the third world can effectively carry out what is called South-South co-operation for achieving collective self-reliance.
 
Renewable source of energy like solar, wind, wave and tidal energy, while in their early stages of development and somewhat expensive to-day, hold great prospects for the future. They are probably the answer to the energy as well as the environment problem facing the developing countries. India has made quite some progress in tapping these new and renewable sources of energy. I am sure some other developing countries also have achieved successes in this field. There is scope for us to pool our scientific and technological resources and co-operate in a meaningful and substantial manner. That might well be one of the ways in which we can produce clean energy for our sustainable development and also reduce to some degree, at least in the long-run, our present over-dependence on the developed world.
 
I am indeed happy to be associated with this international workshop. I am sure that your deliberations will make a significant contribution to the solution of one of the most crucial development problems of our time. It is a problem that encompasses energy, environment and rural development in the entire third world. May I wish all success to this International Workshop on Integrated Rural Energy Programme at this Institute named after Mahatma Gandhi who had dedicated his life and work to the self-reliant development of the deprived masses of humanity.