No wonder, many of us in our Bangalore workshop (April 1999) found the draft of the Earth Charter a bit too remote to adress our immediate concerns. There were also the inevitable questions about how its lofty ideals would be implemented. As one of our members put it, "I took the text of the Earth Charter to some of the street children that I work with. Not only could they not comprehend what the charter was about, they laughed at me and said: ‘Ma’am, what we think about is our next meal. And after that about clothes and shelter. All this talk about saving the planet was incomprehensible to them." To most people in South Asia, what the street children said would make much more sense than the Earth Charter.

The pity of it all was that the central concern of the Earth Charter was precisely what the street children of South Asia were crying about –food, clothing, shelter, and much more, health, security, dignity, and peace for us all, plus a sustainable future for our planet, which is the only habitat that we have at present. Without something like the Earth Charter in place, the life of the street children, of the impoverished landless labourers, of the tribals and aborigines, of the poor and dispossessed– would not be worth living. To make this linkage between macro level issues as are enunciated in the Earth Charter and the micro level realities, we realized, was going to be one of the challenges for the Alliance in the days ahead.

At the same time, it was also clear that the charter, at least in its present form, did seem somewhat distant to us South Asians for one obvious reason. The fact is that South Asia contains the largest number of poor people in the world. These people, as we know only too well from our personal contact with them, are not idle, shiftless, dishonest, unproductive, or incompetent as many ‘experts’ have believed. Most of them are hardworking, honest, skilled, and pragmatic. Then why do they continue to remain poor and backward ? It is an inequitous and exploitative world economic order, which has grown out of centuries of capitalism and colonialism, which we believe is at least partly responsible for their condition.

True, the world has changed and there are many more opportunities for South Asians to redress the imbalances that have they inherited. For any real gains to take place, what we need is not just good, but innovative governance, democracy, and equal opportunities. But the world in which we live seems to be even more ruthless and competitive than ever before. Both economically and culturally, South Asians seem about to capitulate to the very global order which has condemned them to poverty. To many of us in South Asia, then, the Earth Charter sounds like the pipe dream of the privileged few who don’t have to worry about the basic necessities of life. What we find missing in it is a commitment to a more just and less exploitative world economic order. Perhaps this is a very unfair criticism of what is a wonderfully humane and visionary document, but given the pain of South Asia, some concrete gesture towards greater economic equality would have been welcome.

I would like to end on a personal note. I first read the Earth Charter draft seriously on a bus ride from Jaipur to Delhi. It was evening and the whole highway was clogged with traffic. The driver of our bus resorted to a number of stratagems, some of which were dangerous, to get us through. Periodically, I saw overturned vehicules or terrible accidents. Alas, modernity has caught up with India.

Right then, riding through such chaos and terror on a bleak and sultry night, the Earth Charter struck me as nothing short of a visionary and messianistic document, which had the potential to save us all from certain doom. It seemed to me like the work of very special and truly gifted men and women, who inspired by the forces of vertu and goodness, were working to secure our future. The Earth Charter seemed to me like an unprecedented gesture on the part of beleagured and benighted humanity to find a way out of the crisis that it had pulled onto its own head. Through all the noise, pollution, dust and frightful struggle on the Jaipur-Delhi highway, my spirit soared. Yes, perhaps, there was some hope after all; perhaps the Gods has not abandoned us entirely; perhaps, a few inspired men and women could work together to alter human destiny; and perhaps, the time has at last come for the tide to turn. I could barely contain my excitement but when I looked at the faces of my fellow-travellers, I detected nothing but weariness and anxiety. I restrained my impulse to get up, to shout to them that I had in my hands what could be the blueprint to change our lives. I did, however, utter a silent prayer both of thanks and supplication, thanks for those who brooded over the future of Earth and supplication for their –or should I say– our efforts to bear fruits soon.

Makarand Paranjape (India)

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