A Month of Living Dangerously

Dec 01, 2015
By Dr. V. Suresh

December, 2015 was a momentous month – filled with so many crucial events that are posing a challenge to humankind and nature everywhere. The month started with devastating floods in Chennai and surrounding
districts which caused numerous deaths and immense destruction of property and public infrastructure. The unrelenting rains of over 6 weeks reached a highpoint in all the water reservoirs feeding Chennai city filled to the brim and threatening major breach posing the possibility of washing away major portions of Chennai. Sheer indecisiveness, mismanagement and governance failure led to unannounced midnight release of huge volumes of water washing away people sleeping in their homes, livestock, animals and everything in the way of the water
deluge. The unseasonal rains in Chennai and the devastating floods are an indication of the threats posed by climate change and global warming. Disasters are not just a humanitarian crisis but also pose serious challenge
to the human rights movement as disaster relief and rehabilitation need to be foregroudned on rights approach to ensure that the poorest and marginalised sections are not doubly penalised. In December 2015 major global events occurred. The first was COP-21, Conference of Parties – climate conference – took place in Paris and ended with the adoption of the `Paris Agreement’ addressing the issue of reducing carbon emissions and to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius as measures to address global warming. This agreement hailed by many nations and criticised by environmental movements is going to shape future policies and directions of industrial growth worldwide. We shall be analysing the agreement and implications in future issues. From mid-December, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) met in Nairobi to finalise the Nairobi Ministerial Declaration (NMD) which was adopted by all member countries. This Declaration, signed by India also, has serious implications for the food security in our country as the legality of stockholding food grains in the PDS system has not been recognised in the international
arena. This Declaration, apart from having serious ramifications for our food security, also has adverse implications for the education sector and other crucial service sectors. It’s important for all of us in the human rights movement to examine the implications of these crucial developments on safety, security and well being of all social sections and on human rights. We plan to discuss these issues in future issues of the Bulletin.