India as World Leader in Eco-friendly, Low-tech, Low-cost Initiatives: Lessons for Advanced Nations

India as World Leader in Eco-friendly, Low-tech, Low-cost Initiatives

January 2016

In November of 2015 India’s Prime Minister Modi addressed world leaders at the Paris COP2 climate change gathering – a gathering which he and others hope will lead to changes that will help in our collective efforts to ‘save the planet’.  PM Modi stated that ‘India and other developing nations want developed countries like the U.S. [and Canada] to commit to greater reductions in the amount of greenhouse gases they emit, taking larger responsibility commensurate with the damage done to the environment over decades as they industrialized… . We hope advanced nations will assume ambitious targets and pursue them sincerely. It is not just a question of historical responsibility. They also have the most room to make the cuts and make the strongest impact.’ 

Mr. Modi stated that developing countries were looking at advanced nations to contribute 100 billion dollars annually by 2020 to help them ‘transition towards clean energy’.  Furthermore, ‘democratic India must grow rapidly to meet the aspirations of 1.25 billion people, 300 million of whom are without access to energy.’  And ‘developed countries must fulfill their responsibility to make clean energy available, affordable and accessible to all in the developing world.’   Clearly these are significant requests (expectations?), which will require developed or ‘advanced’ nations to tighten their belts, reduce their use of energy and other resources, clean up their acts, and set aside large sums of money to assist developing nations in their ‘transitions towards clean energy’.

Fortunately PM Modi had several suggestions for more eco-friendly and energy efficient practices – practices that he pointed out have been utilized in India for centuries – that advanced nations (ie. ‘the Western World’) could – and should – adopt to lighten their energy environmental footprints.  For example, PM Modi suggested that advanced nations could encourage people to stop using electric clothes driers, and instead do as the Indians do, and dry their clothes in the sun.  Certainly throughout India one sees clothes drying everywhere – on buildings, fences and walls, in fields and empty lots.  They add colour and texture to the landscape.  PM Modi also pointed to the widespread practice of burning dried cow dung instead of wood or gas for cooking.  Of course India has more cows in urban and residential areas, which makes this practice very practical in India, but advanced nations could perhaps consider introducing more cows to rural and even semi-urban communities, or commercial enterprises could be established to produce and distribute dried cow patties.  



Laundry in the city ...

And in the country.

Cow patties drying on a wall. Note the decorative effect.



We are currently traveling in India and have noted many other ways in which advanced nations could learn from the Indian ways of doing things.  Most of these practices are not only simple, low-tech and cost-effective, but also provide solutions to several of the other problems associated with development, including over-regulation, top-heavy bureaucracies, excessive use of resources, environmental degradation, and of course climate change.    

For example, many advanced nations are currently experimenting with the implementation of elaborate food waste composting initiatives in urban centres.  In India, the solution to the problem of food waste is much simpler and far more practical – and involves no expense, in terms of infrastructure, program cost, administration or regulation.  Almost food waste is placed on the street – sometimes in pots or bowls, or in plastic bags, but often just dumped out onto the dirt, or ‘pavement’, which serves as a communal platter.  This food waste is eaten by cows, pigs, goats, monkeys, dogs and cats, most of which are welcome co-inhabitants of urban areas, or even revered as ‘sacred’ animals, but are generally not fed anything other than waste food scraps.  Cows are essentially the Indian version of garburators – ‘cowburators’ if you will.  Chipmunks, rats, snakes, birds and insects also help to make short work of the ‘street food’, and on occasion poor or homeless people will also avail themselves of the fresh-daily deposits. 

Street greens

Cow browsing through offerings

Puppies nosing for goodies

Although most of the cities of advanced nations don't have urban populations of cows, pigs, goats and monkeys, most do have other scavenging animals such as raccoons and coyotes, in addition, of course, to dogs, cats and rats.  Given the predilection of coyotes – and dogs and cats for that matter – for meat, and the generally higher consumption of meat products in developed nations, the relatively larger populations of wild coyotes and domestic dogs and cats in advanced nations are just what is needed to deal with the higher proportion of meat waste.  Food waste from restaurants, hospitals and other larger facilities might present somewhat more of a challenge – at the very least more animals will be needed to cope with the larger amounts of ‘street food’.  But here also India does provide some useful examples of creative ways of meeting these challenges.  For example, while lunching at a beachside restaurant in India we noted that dishes were being washed on a cement patio just outside the restaurant’s kitchen.  At least one dog was on hand to lick the plates clean before they were washed.  This system also saves also on the need for frequent freshening of the wash water, as the plates are almost clean before they are washed.  It’s hard to imagine a more perfect system!   

Instead of relying on ‘native’ animals to deal with the food waste generated in advanced nations, communities could of course consider introducing cows, which in addition to eating food waste, also eat paper and cardboard.  They unfortunately don’t do well with plastic, however in India this has proven to be an effective way of limiting populations of cows – the ones who eat the plastic bags, or disposable diapers with plastic liners, soon die of obstructed digestive systems (although Indian cows are fantastically clever at emptying plastic bags,  or getting their noses inside them.  Goats and monkeys could also be introduced into communities in advanced nations as ‘living composters’, but would be much more difficult to contain than cows, who need only cattle guards or low fencing.  As rats are particularly helpful in dealing with food waste, advanced nations could realize additional savings by allowing their rat populations to increase, instead of trying to control them.  Indeed eliminating all programs of rat (and most other pest) control would add to the cost savings of the ‘street composting’ initiative.

Goats are particularly good foragers

Even small herds of cows may integrate well into urban life

‘Street composting’ clearly works best when dogs, cats and other waste-foraging animals roam freely, as they do in India.  It is helpful, but not essential, if the people living in the country regard these animals as ‘holy’ or sacred, and deserving of special protection.  While aggressive dogs or coyotes could be somewhat of a problem, residents of advanced nations would soon learn, as residents of India have, to carry sticks or throw rocks at aggressive animals.  Unfortunately there may be some losses of small dogs, cats, or even children, to packs of feral ‘street dogs’, as routinely occurs in India, but this is a small price to pay for a huge reduction in the cost of waste management.  Where children are attacked or killed, no compensation need be offered to their families, as the family should have taken more care, and not have left their children unattended in the first place.  Owners of ‘domestic’ dogs and cats would obviously want to keep them contained (in houses or yards, on leashes when outside the home) to avoid associations with their feral counterparts.  So in addition to the cost savings accrued by the ‘street composting’ program, further savings would be realized by the elimination of costly licensing systems and animal control agencies, which would no longer be required. 

The problem of paper, plastic, fabric and other mixed garbage is also simply and effectively dealt with throughout India.  Once again these items are deposited on the street outside the home, or wherever they were used.  Garbage items are seen everywhere in India – no location, except the inside of a temple, mosque or church – is unlettered.  From time to time the garbage on the streets is swept into big or little piles, and may be transported, in a dustpan, on a piece of plastic, in a barrow, or even in an actual garbage truck, to a central location.  This may be a bigger street, the ‘other side’ of a wall, an empty lot, or a ravine or river bed.  At some point most garbage piles, bit or little, are set afire, usually in the early morning.  The cost-savings associated with this system of ‘waste management’ is obviously considerable.  Everyone is responsible for getting rid their own garbage – this can be as simple as throwing it out a door or window – and anyone can sweep it elsewhere, or burn it.  So there is little need for garbage collection and disposal, which in advanced nations is an increasingly costly service.   The cost savings associated with a simpler, more individualized approach to garbage would surely outweigh the minor irritation associated with the burning of garbage and plastic.  One can also choose to stay indoors or burn incense to avoid being annoyed by the smell.

Another option for garbage disposal which we frequently witnessed in India, is throwing garbage into the river, lake or ocean.  Indians consider many of these water bodies holy, so any garbage thrown into them is automatically ‘purified’ and will therefore not degrade the environment.  Furthermore, the Indians to whom we spoke about this practice informed us that throwing garbage into the ocean ‘ feeds the gods’, and therefore satisfies the need for conducting a puja, or spiritual practice, while at the same time getting rid of garbage.  Obviously residents of advanced nations would have to be convinced of – or converted to – this system of belief and this practice.  But again as it reduces the need for, and cost of, other disposal systems, it is worth considering.

Beach garbage

Lakeside garbage

Larger waste items such as building materials, furniture, old cars, appliances etc. will present greater challenges.  However Indians have managed to find places almost everywhere – on city streets, in empty lots, in farmer’s fields, alongside highways and railway tracks, for almost all of these larger waste items.  They are often ‘mined’ for valuable parts or materials, or used by children as imaginative play structures.  (As they have not been specifically constructed or provided by any governmental authority, safety, accidents and liability are non-issues.)   Truly where waste is concerned, the sky is the limit for coming up with creative ideas – and India is the leader, partly because it generates so much waste and has almost no systems for dealing with it, and partly because it chooses to promote a more decentralized, indeed individualized, approach to waste management.




Construction waste as fill by fence

Or against a wall

Dealing with all of our waste – from household to commercial to industrial, from food waste to inert waste and even large items – in this more decentralized way, where individuals take more responsibility, and the state takes less, would save advanced nations millions, perhaps billions, of dollars in waste collection, disposal and administration costs.  All of this money would then be available to donate  to developing nations for climate control – and other – initiatives.

Advanced nations could also achieve tremendous cost savings by adopting the Indian approach to toilets, sewers, and liquid waste disposal.  There are far too many toilets in most advanced nations, using too much water, and requiring advanced – and very costly – treatment and disposal systems.  India can truly boast that it has far fewer toilets per capita, and as many of them do not actually flush, they use far less water.  Additionally, even when toilets are provided – as for example the communal toilet facilities in neighbourhoods where houses do not have toilets – most of the population prefers not to use them.   Indian men generally prefer to use a wall as a urinal, and have no compunction to emptying their bladder in public spaces such as roads and parks.  Indian women are often shier, but may squat and relieve themselves almost anywhere by availing themselves of the privacy provided by their voluminous saris.  As advanced nations have lots of walls, very few of which are used for anything other than holding up buildings or roads, or separating one space from another, using walls as urinals would be even more practical. 

Sign in Diu India to indicate a special 'no urinating' wall

The issue of what to do with number two is perhaps a little more challenging.  However in India, sidewalks, streets, parks and beaches are frequently used for making these more solid deposits.  Alongside railway tracks are even more sought after locations.  Unfortunately Indians appear not, as yet, to have found suitable uses for fresh or dried human shit, and the only animals that can be relied on to eat it are pigs, which are not ubiquitous.  However advanced nations have only to look at other developing countries, such as China, for ideas – ‘night soil’ is fairly widely used for growing vegetables there. 

Helping a child learn how to use the RR tracks for #2

Avoiding the use of toilets whenever possible will reduce the wasteful use of water, our most precious resource, simply to dilute urine and feces.  It will also reduce the need for costly sewage treatment and disposal.  The savings that will be realized by advanced nations could again be diverted to developing nations for climate control – or other – initiatives.

When it comes to reducing energy consumption, India may lead the way in simple, effective measures.  Perhaps the most effective strategy employed in India is simply to cut power to neighbourhoods, or whole towns or cities, for short periods of time.  As advanced nations are not used to this approach, it would be politic, and would reduce complaints and ensure some degree of fairness, if power cuts were kept short enough so that items in refrigerators or freezers were not affected, and if cuts were done randomly, so that all communities shared in the energy saving initiative, and none were affected more frequently than others.  Smaller scale strategies frequently used in India include simply not replacing light bulbs in public places (streets, parks, public buildings), not fixing electrical equipment once it fails (eg. traffic signals, air conditioning units and power outlets in public buildings, elevators, escalators, etc.).  Truly there is no end to the strategies that could be employed to discourage the over-reliance on electricity and the over-use of power that is so common in advanced nations.  

Considerable cost-savings could also be realized in the area of roads, road safety, traffic and vehicle licensing and administration.  Roads and bridges in India are frequently not finished, or once finished are not maintained.  This has the same effect as the more expensive ‘street calming’ measures employed by advanced nations.  Advanced nations could also save vast amounts of money by taking a leaf from the Indian approach to road safety and stopping the policing of traffic.  Let drivers figure it out for themselves.  In India, the larger vehicle has the right-of-way.  This is easy to understand and follows the ‘natural order’ of things.  Pedestrians would have to learn to watch out, as they are of course the smallest and least significant users of the road – or the sidewalk for that matter – but as most advanced nations do have elevated sidewalks, this should be less of a problem than it is in India, where there is no ‘safe zone’ for pedestrians.

Advanced nations could also learn much from India in terms of their approach to road safety issues such as the use of seatbelts, helmets, multiple riders on motorcycles, and children sitting on the laps of drivers or passengers.  In India, there are no rules about these issues, or where there are rules, they are not enforced.  Clearly the cost savings associated with abandoning enforcement of road safety rules would be considerable.  In cases where individuals are injured as a result of lack of rules or enforcement, they could be encouraged, if they have lost a limb, or suffered a head injury, but not a life-threatening injury, to consider life as a beggar.  Parents whose children have unfortunately been maimed because of having become human air-bags (by standing or sitting infront of them on motorcycles, or on their laps in cars) could likewise be encouraged to use them to evoke the pity – and financial assistance – of other members of society, and in particular rich foreign tourists.   This approach is far more cost-effective than trying to prevent accidents by regulation and policing.

Indeed advanced nations have so much to learn from India when it comes to all forms of regulation and policing that there is almost no end to the savings that could be realized.  For a start, advanced nations could dispense with most regulations and rely more on individuals to look out for themselves.  They could also, like India, simply not enforce the regulations we decide to keep.  And, perhaps most importantly, they could pay police, regulatory and security workers much less than they currently pay them.  Most of their salaries would instead come from on-the-spot fines and gifts offered by offenders who are caught.

Another cost-saving measure with truly unlimited potential, used throughout India, is the use of women to do labour-intensive jobs such as road construction and repair, land clearing, street cleaning, commercial (and household) laundering, etc.  A critical component of these jobs is to ensure, as in India, that a maximum number of women are employed by providing minimal tools, and preferably tools and ‘equipment’ that are as inefficient and ineffective as possible.  For example, Indian women use short-handled wispy brooms and dust-pans to clean streets, sidewalks and public areas.  This ensures not only that most of the dirt is just moved from one place to another, but also that only small areas can be done at any given time, and must be done repeatedly to achieve even modest results.  As the dustpans are generally emptied within walking distance of where the sweeping is done, it is guaranteed that the job will need to be re-done again and again. 




Women street sweepers.
Note male worker, holding dustpan.

Woman with rocks on her head.

Similarly, the laundering of clothes, bed-sheets and all fabrics in India generally is done using cold water (often a communal tap, a creek, river, lake or temple reservoir) and labour-intensive methods such as thrashing the fabrics against rocks, or sloshing them about in large pots (when they are not being used for cooking).  As nothing gets particularly clean using these methods, and only small loads of washing can be done at any given time, women are kept busy washing on a daily basis.  Advanced nations could adopt a similar approach to laundering to achieve tremendous savings in the use of water and electricity.  The expectation should be that women would do this work as part of their regular ‘housework’ (in addition to cooking and cleaning).  As is the case with Indian women, they would derive satisfaction from several aspects of this work.  First, it provides truly wonderful opportunities for physical exercise, so trips to the gym would no longer be needed (leading to less use of transportation to get there on a daily or thrice-weekly basis).  Second women would be able to work out their frustrations and angers through hard physical labour.  This would surely reduce the need antidepressant medications that are currently taken by so many women in advanced nations.  And third, as most of this work is, at least in India, done out-of-doors, it would   reduce the amount of time women spend in the home, thereby reducing the need for home heating.  And finally, keeping women busy with these tasks would result in huge savings to private and public enterprise, which would no longer have to pay women to do jobs which, in any case, would likely become redundant if even a few of the approaches above were put into practice. 

The above ideas represent just a few of the many strategies currently in use in India that advanced nations could adopt.  Instituting even a few of them would result in massive cost savings – certainly more than enough to free up large sums of money that could then be donated to India – and other developing countries – for their climate change initiatives. 

Obviously there are a few minor obstacles to the implementation of this agenda: 

First, the people of advanced nations are accustomed to considerably higher standards of living, and in particular standards of private and public hygiene, than the people of most developing nations.  Some thought would have to be given to how best to convince the people in advanced nations to not only accept, but to enthusiastically embrace, lower standards of living.  We can again perhaps look to India for examples of how this might be achieved.  Religion plays a major role in India – temples are more common than any other form of building.  And Indian religions, particularly Hinduism, places more focus on the after life than on one’s current life, or the conditions one finds around one.  This makes it easier to accept things as they are, as truly it doesn’t matter.  Advanced nations could perhaps change their more hedonistic focus on living the good life, regardless of its cost to the environment, to living more simply, frugally and sustainably.  The popular catch-phrase ‘Be Here Now’ could be rebranded as ‘Be There Next’ – or ‘Get There Next’.  One can imagine t-shirts, cards, posters, etc. with rainbow-coloured scenes of paradise or nirvana and the words ‘Be There Next’. 

Second, and possibly more challenging, the people of advanced nations might want assurances that the monies given to developing nations were actually spent on worthwhile projects, and that these projects are completed in a reasonable time-frame.  This could be a major issue: according to almost everyone who lives in India, works in India or has worked in India, or is traveling or has traveled for any length of time in India, there is wide-spread corruption at all levels.  In particular, Indian politicians are well-known for spending public monies on holidays and perqs for themselves and their families, or on pet projects that often have no social, educational or economic value.  Then there is the problem, so frequently encountered in India, of often grandiose projects started without adequate consideration or planning, and thus being either wholly dysfunctional or just not being completed.  Indeed large scale unfinished projects are more the norm in India than finished projects.  And of the projects that are completed, many of the materials are so substandard, and the work so slip-shod, that the project is falling apart before it is even completed. 

PM Modi may need to give a little more thought to these two issues before offering Indian practices and lifestyles as models for advanced nations to emulate.  He might also want to consider why so many of his people have no confidence in their government, and are uniformly critical of the ways in which it spends taxpayers’ money on useless projects rather than needed infrastructure.  And why if and when given the chance, so many Indians would and do choose to leave India for ‘a better life’ almost anywhere else in the world.