International Hawkers' Day: Sustainable Consumption, Sustainability in Value Chain and Hawkers. By T. Vijayendra
International Hawkers' Day May 26
Sustainable
Consumption, Sustainability in Value Chain and Hawkers
T. Vijayendra
Life on earth can be divided in two parts – plant life and animal
life. The difference between the two is that plants produce their own food
whereas animals, humans included, live directly or indirectly on food produced
by plants. To sustain themselves,
humans consume goods and services not only from plant sources but also from
inanimate sources such as minerals. These are called renewable and
non-renewable resources respectively. Non-renewable resources are finite in
nature by definition; in other words, the more we use them, the scarcer they
get. Renewable sources, like plants, trees and agriculture, are by definition
renewed in nature; both by natural processes and helped by human efforts.
Now, a rough definition of
sustainability is that we consume resources in such a way the same level of
resources we enjoyed is available to succeeding generations and all other forms
of life. This issue was not important in history because our population was
small and levels of consumption per capita was also small. Today, both have
increased substantially.
So, for sustainable
consumption, the first requirement is that we reduce our per capita
consumption. Secondly, more of it should come from renewable resources. There is an interesting
fact about non-renewable resources. Be it fuel used in transport, chemical
pesticides in agriculture, cement used in our housing or plastic used in our
packaging industry, they almost always tend to pollute and add to global
warming. This is one more important reason for us to reduce the component of
non-renewable sources in our consumption.
Value Chain: What is a value chain? It is the chain of value [the term 'value'
used here is a business terms and not value in the normal sense] added to a
product from the source till it reaches the consumer. If we climb a tree and eat
its fruit, there is no value chain. Similarly if we live in a cave, go naked as
animals and as some 'primitive' people do, there is no value chain.
But most of us buy the
goods we consume. An apple is produced in Himachal Pradesh, picked, packed and
transported to Hyderabad. In Hyderabad you buy it either on a bandi (push cart) or in a super market.
So the 'value' gets added to the original apple in a chain consisting of
picking, packing, transporting and retail selling in Hyderabad. Now if this
apple was converted into apple juice, involving some processing, there would be
more links in the value chain and hence more value would be added.
There is a difference
between an apple sold on a bandi and
in a super market. It can happen that the price in the super market is lower,
but it is not difficult to understand that the value added to it in a super
market is more. This extra value is called a shelf rent – which can include the
rent of the place, salaries and air conditioning. You would also have noticed
that a big chunk of the difference comes from non-renewable resources, in
transportation etc., contributing to pollution and global warming. Hence, it is
less sustainable.
We can add some more
attributes to sustainability. Instead of an apple, suppose if it was a sitafal
produced in or around Hyderabad and sold in Sitafal Mandi or on the footpath?
It will have much less value added and it will be more sustainable.
We can extend this logic
to other sectors of our activity. Locally produced food is more sustainable as
we have seen above. Mud houses or brick and lime mortar houses or ecological
houses are more sustainable, not only because of the material used, but also
because less energy is used in lighting and keeping them cool. In fact, air
conditioning is the biggest guzzler of energy in domestic consumption. To
mention another example, neighbourhood schools can reduce transport costs and
so would more use of cycles for small distances. Similar is the case if we use
cotton in our clothing.
In many cases,
sustainable products are more 'expensive'. While 'value added' can be
calculated, price is determined by a variety of unpredictable factors, which
have a lot to do with politics and the present social order.
To conclude, for
sustainable consumerism, there are four principles we can follow:
1. Consume less.
2. What you consume should have a higher proportion of materials
from renewable resources.
3. The chain from the source to end user should be as short as
possible, so that 'value addition' is reduced. That is, consume local products
as far as possible.
4. The components of the chain should use as little non-renewable
resources as possible. For example, the transport can be done on animal carts
or bicycles or hand pushed carts. The packaging can be minimal. Consumers can
carry their own bags, paper or cloth bags instead of plastic carry bags and so
on.
Hawkers: Hawkers are those people who sell goods and services on the road
side or weekly markets. They do not have permanent shops. They can sell their
wares on grounds, on bicycles and on push carts. It is no longer common, but
some times it can even be on bullock carts, motor cycles and vans.
In the light of what we
have seen, by and large goods and services sold by the hawkers are more sustainable.
It is true that hawkers can and do sell plastic products, synthetic clothes and
chemical insecticides for cockroaches. While selling these unsustainable
products is undesirable, however, even here, the value chain is more
sustainable. Also the hawkers alone are not responsible for selling these
goods. We all share this responsibility.
Hawkers provide us
important goods and services at affordable prices and contribute to sustainable
consumerism. Yet they do not get the respect due to them. They are treated as
second class citizens, by the administration, police and by many people.
To protect themselves and
assert their rights, they have unionised themselves at the local, national and
international level. May 26 has been declared as the International Hawkers'
Day. So, on this day, let us lend our support to them and celebrate it along
with them!
May 26, 2017
Email: t.vijayendra@gmail.com
