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Three Hands in India
Simon Hamilton reports on his latest trip to India where he saw how business can become involved in both urban and rural needs.
I recently returned from a fact-finding trip in India and learnt about the problems faced in both urban and rural areas as a result of the movement of people from the countryside to the city.
Most people know of Bangalore as the city leading India's IT boom, providing many services to Western businesses and receiving vast sums of foreign investment. It is also a city struggling to cope with the influx of hundreds of thousands of people from the rural areas hoping to find work in an already over-crowded city. Its badly undeveloped infrastructure struggles to support the business boom. The result, as in practically all India's major cities, is a huge social and economic divide between the have's and have-nots. As the shiny new offices spread, so do the slums.
While the cities expand, the rural farms and villages suffer from a breakdown in traditional farming methods caused by both labour reduction and the spread of patented seeds by multi-national companies. The sharing of traditional seeds amongst farmers has for generations sustained the many indigenous crops that have historically fed India's population. This ancient practice is under threat from the growth of GM crops many of which have failed to provide the economic boom promised for the rural areas. Hundreds of farmers have committed suicide.
The problems of the urban and rural areas do not exist in isolation. They are inter-connected, both exacerbated by a desire for massive economic growth. Businesses, especially those in the West benefiting from the expertise and relatively cheap labour, have a responsibility to understand and engage effectively and sustainably with all sectors of India's society.
These are just some of the issues we might focus on in linking companies and communities in India, and we've been building relationships with local community organisations that deal with these issues and many more. If you'd like to know more, please do contact me.