THE beginning of a new year is a time when many of us promise to learn from past mistakes and take corrective actions, aimed at a better and sustained progress. It is in this spirit that the leaders and people of South Asia should approach the early days of 2026, as corrective actions are really needed in so many contexts and on so many fronts.
To help in this, a five-point plan for the true and sustained progress of South Asia and for the welfare and safety of the people of the entire region is suggested here.
1) There should be much higher prioritisation for justice-based, ecologically protective and climate resilient policies for sustainable development. While this is particularly important for rural areas, there is clearly a potential for lot of useful work in the urban context too. Both are related and if sustainable, broad-based, pro-poor development programmes prosper in rural areas, then the burden on cities is significantly reduced. Small farmer progress is best based on natural farming and diversification, with very creative integration of agriculture, horticulture, farm produce processing and animal husbandry.
It is amazing how much can be achieved even on very small farms in this way (and women farmers have been seen to be exceptionally creative in this) while keeping costs very low, important for small farmers. Farmers and particularly women farmers respond in amazingly creative ways when opportunities emerge with the right policies and programmes, as I have seen time and again. What is truly hope-giving is that a lot of this work can happily contribute a lot to climate adaptation as well as mitigation. Of course, in addition more specific work for disaster prevention and protection is also needed.
2) A related aspect is that the highest importance must be given to water conservation which as I have seen repeatedly can be the most important aspect of sustainability. While this is most often related to ending or reducing water scarcity, water conservation and rainwater harvesting in thousands of villages also contributes greatly to reducing harm from floods, as water stays where it is needed and does not arrive in excess in places where this is not welcome.
A very important aspect of planning properly for water is to take very good care of all rivers, big and small, and all natural as well as heritage water bodies, and protect them. Here lies the key to sustainability from the perspective of water. Instead of talking too much of the share of a river water one can get, we should be talking much more about how all should cooperate to protect all rivers in their entire flow, from place of origin to merger in another river and ultimately the sea.
3) In a region where so many learned persons and saints have preached the message of not just tolerance but also of inter-faith harmony, where inter-mingling of various cultures have produced such beautiful results, it must be clear that the path forward, the path of progress is that of promoting inter-faith harmony at all levels in all countries of the region.
4) A related issue is that all over the region protection of minorities should be ensured and they should be provided equal opportunities. In fact, how minorities are treated should be treated as a civilisation test. While it is true that taking an overview of the post-colonial period the record of Pakistan has been the worst and just now the situation in Bangladesh is most worrying, the overall reality is not at all good and protective in the entire region and instead of only pointing accusation fingers at each other, all countries of the region need to substantially improve their treatment of minorities, at the very least ensuring protection but in addition also aiming to ensure equal opportunities.
5) There should be absolutely no wars and war-mongering. All the governments of the region should aim to achieve some kind of an agreement to keep this entire region, which has two nuclear weapon countries, entirely free from wars. It should be clearly understood on all sides that a future of wars for this very densely populated region can only bring unprecedented destruction in this region at the time of availability of more and more destructive weapons from the military industrial complex of several countries of world.
A related fact is that all the countries of the region should also be very careful to entirely avoid fighting proxy wars of any great power, and to entirely avoid coming under the influence of any such countries in such ways as to get pushed towards wars or unethically motivated for wars on the basis of promises of weapons and other support. Leaders and people should move more and more towards a future that avoids any wars, and the actual wars should be against ecological ruin, increasing disasters and denial of basic needs to people.
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Bharat Dogra writes extensively on environment, development and welfare issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own, and Clarion India does not necessarily subscribe to them. He can be reached at: bharatdogra1956@gmail.com
