Panchali Banerjee, Author at Adamas University

“Pursuit of Happiness”: What we need to unlearn and learn post Covid-19

The pandemic Covid-19 has left many of us in house arrest, most people in the streets longing to go back home. Home, because out in the streets stripped of all dignity and security we want to be back home, possibly the perceived abode of utmost peace and security. In home, we long to go back to work because we need to earn to sustain ourselves. It is as if we are caught in a vicious cycle of perceived comfort and means of sustainability. When we are trying to access the means we need to be out and when out we need and want to come back home.

The Covid-19 phase has filled out television and smart phone screens with horror stories, newspapers with depressing headlines. Stories and news of people dying in the streets from hunger, exhaustion, dying on railway tracks, committing suicides from fear and depression and acute uncertainty. The daily updates that started with the mass exodus of migrant workers has only been consistently ongoing if not increasing. Despite government efforts the outcome remains largely humiliating which is evident from recent updates on workers dying in shramik special trains due to hunger and dehydration, kids losing their parents only to add to the incoming absolute unknown in terms of their livelihood. The possibly unavoidable lockdown has left in-numerous people jobless including both migrant workers as well as white collar job employees. We do not know what is waiting for us post lockdown, we do not know how soon things will go back to “normal” and most certainly we do not know what is waiting for us in fate called “employability” especially with the economy spiralling into recession. The year 2020 seems like a plot in one of those typical dystopian movies with unprecedented accidents piling up one after another starting with Covid-19 and then adding the cyclone, locust swarms and of course loss of lives due to sheer lack to access to resources owing to being literally on the highway.

Starting from 30^th January 2020 till 28^th May 2020, while a gradual rising curve of deaths due to Covid-19 virus challenges us in the face, there is also a rising curve of deaths during the pandemic but reasons barring the virus.

Figure 1: Deaths due to Covid-19 versus Non-Virus Deaths.

Source: https://thejeshgn.com/projects/covid19-india/non-virus-deaths/

The blue dotted line represents deaths due to Covid-19 and the red dotted line represents deaths not caused due to the virus. While unfortunately we do have a rising virus induced death curve, it is even more unfortunate to witness a slow paced but rising death curve during the pandemic phase which is in-fact not caused due to the virus which makes it all the more humiliating. To look deeper into the matter, an inspection of the cause of the deaths not caused by the virus reveals a scary picture.

Figure 2: Frequency of non-virus deaths by category Source: Same as Figure 1.

Some data collected from the source same as Figure 1 reveals the cause of deaths induced by factors during the lockdown other than the virus. Figure 2 reveals a disheartening picture where 205 people died in accidents while walking during the reverse migration, 114 people died from starvation and 120 people committed suicides due to apprehensions. Deaths induced by fatigue and lack of access to medical care remain relatively low. This scenario paints a picture of sheer failure of a nation to take care of its citizens.

The pandemic has ended up creating a bipartite disjoint world where on one hand half the sphere comprises helplessness, uncertainty and loss of life, the other half is trying hard to rise above the black waters by innovating using the age of digitization. Probably a perfect world would be one where there was an integration and co-existence of both, but reality is something hugely different. While we, the privileged middle class have the digital means to try and accustom ourselves to the “new normal” with work from home, online tutoring, online shopping and other transactions this digital life remains largely inaccessible to a majority of the Indian population. According to Census 2011 data 71 percent of households with three or more members have homes with two or less rooms. This comprises 74 percent in rural and 64 percent in urban areas. According to NSSO data 2017-18 only 42 percent of urban household has internet access and this figure is of course lower for rural areas at 15 percent. These statistics are quoted only to point out that the “new normal” of digitised living may not be normal at all for many and in taking any decision that governs lives of people, this needs to be paid serious attention.

In this context, how would be life post Covid-19? Are we going to be finally able to walk towards our perceptions of happiness? I do not really have an answer to that, and the data does not really paint a very hopeful picture.

Figure 3: India Happiness Index

Source: World Happiness Report

The Happiness ranking is part of the World Happiness Report. The country scores are based on a survey in which respondents evaluate the quality of their current lives on a scale of 0 to 10. The index scores have been consistently falling in India since 2013 and lowest in 2020 the year of the pandemic at 3.57.

The pandemic induced uncertainty revolving the livelihoods of many has left them bereft of their mental wellbeing evident from the frequency of suicides in figure 2. Adding to this, the stripping down of labour laws in some states in the guise of “labour reform” to sustain profitability of economic decisions is only likely to worsen the already scarred state of well-being. While about 90 percent of workers in India are engaged in the informal sector characterised by ill-defined or absent benefits, labour laws are a support system for labour welfare. While India has come a long way since independence with better health and education outcomes, more villages with electricity and tap water, GDP and PCI growing by 32.2 times and 8.2 times respectively since 1950[1] what we aspire for is the dignity of life. In words of Amrtya Sen’s theory of Capability, it not how much a person earns but rather what he can do with that income and the control over his material possessions that determines his state of well-being. His functionings or freedom to choose will determine his state of well-being which is in fact how well he is in terms of his personal, social and or community life. Surely we cannot expect a person to be happy with a lot of books if he cannot read them even if he has money enough to buy them all!

With the onset of the pandemic induced recession dilution of various labour laws have been initiated as an excuse to sustain the profitability of business. In states like UP, MP and Gujarat around 14 labour laws have been relaxed for three years which include the Minimum wages Act and the Industrial Disputes Act to attract investment. Relaxing the provisions of Factories Act will comprise the safety of workers and an extremely meagre sum of rupees 80 that enters the workers’ welfare fund will cease to exist in Madhya Pradesh[2].

These relaxation of labour laws will push towards greater informalisation of workers in the organized sector which in turn will lead to a drastic reduction in the security and benefits enjoyed by the workers in the formal sector. To sum up in a nutshell, a digitised world that is characterised by lack of access, reduced dignity of life, massive divide based on heterogeneity of human population, these decisions are a signal of the impending crisis that encroaches on welfare, mental health and hence happiness. Where will India stand on the happiness index scale in 2021? Probably far below 3.57 unless we learn to co-integrate, create a bridge to mend the disparate bipartite world, live close knit, unless we learn to stand up for each other, unless we learn to have our backs.

[1] https://thewire.in/economy/covid-19-pandemic-indian-labour

[2] https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/labour-law-changes-in-up-mp-a-bigger-pandemic-in-the-offing-bms-president-120050801134_1.html

Man, Economy and Nature: Why Study Environmental Economics?

With the onset of Covid-19 nature has once again reasonably pointed out the conflict between man and nature; that man is not indispensable and most definitely not beyond nature. Before the onset of the pandemic, it was not uncommon to find Delhi smog stories, air quality deterioration reports and reporting of consistent reduction in the quality of life in urban cities making frequent runs in almost all leading newspapers. However, with the pandemic in play, as much distress and disability it has caused to mankind, it has also initiated a cleanliness swipe of its own on the environment. The has been a significant improvement in the air quality globally including India. With the lockdown curbing the frequency of vehicles in the streets the nitrogen dioxide levels a pollutant generally emitted by vehicles have plummeted drastically as reported by European Space Agency. (Hindustan Times, 23.03.2020). Some other feel good news that have made headlines are:

Elephants spotted roaming the streets in Kerala
Nilgai spotted roaming the Delhi NCR regions
River dolphins have returned in Hoogly, Kolkata
Tiger sighting increased in Sundarbans due to decline the number of launches and steamers
Ganga is visibly less polluted with improved colour of water

The pandemic created isolation has worked as an opportunity to understand the robust power of nature, our heavy dependence on natural resources for our functioning, for the economy’s functioning. While it can be argued that the environment cannot flourish at the expense of the economy, the dependent relationship of the economy on the environment and vice-versa needs to be given its due recognition and we should agree to acknowledge that this environment-economy model will not be sustainable unless we appreciate our reliance on mother nature. And this brings us to the discipline of environmental economics and the necessity to learn this field of study.

The Environment- Economy Relationship

The economy of any nation is run by its agents, the actors which include producers, consumers, and the government. Each of these entities are dependent on the environment for resources and their actions in turn determines the impact of environment. For instance, a steel plant depends on the environment for iron ore and coal among others. The production in turn generates a pollutant called fly ash which is damaging for crops and hence human health. The demand for steel and steel products by consumers in turn decide how much would be produced and hence how much environmental damage would be created.

This relationship clearly points out the interdependency of environment and economy. This brings us to the question on sustainability. Since the economy comprises human beings who as per economic theories aim at maximization of their selfish interests, the resource extraction from the environment immediately raises questions as to what is left behind for the next generation. Since most resources used for production purposes are depletable, we need to ask ourselves: are we leaving behind sufficient resources for the future generation? Or are we consuming at the expense of their welfare? What should be the approach to ensure sustainable development without deteriorating the environment at a faster rate than the rate of economic growth?

Herein comes environmental economics to answer questions of this sort!

Why Should you Study Environmental Economics?

The core question is how to allocate the finite resources of earth to meet “the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Economics, combined with earth system sciences, is crucial for understanding both positive and negative impacts of alternatives and the trade-offs involved. The application of economic principles and empirical findings becomes imperative to meet the rising demands for a decent standard of living given the limited resources. Although economic activities generate pollution, it is not an inevitable consequence. The role of the government comes into play here. Governments implement policies to regulate the level of environmental damage and effluent through various command and control measures like tax or subsidies or pollution standards. The market can be used as well to maintain environmental standards through incentive-based measures such as tradeable pollution permits and Coase Bargaining. Generally, though, these measures will involve some costs there is a tradeoff between a cleaner environment and economic costs. The core questions in environmental economics concern this trade-off or conflict:

How much needs to be spent on pollution control? Can optimal pollution be zero?
How do we compare the environmental benefits and costs of adhering to environmental standards? Should everyone be equally proactive in working towards maintaining the environmental standard?
Do we need the government at all to reduce pollution?
Who owns clean air? How do we decide how much environmental good or service to be provided? Do we pay for environmental goods?
Why is there no market for environmental goods? If there is no market, who assesses the damages to environment?
Why are some companies rampantly violating environmental regulations and how do others follow them? How do we control externalities generated in case of environmental goods?

Courses in environmental economics will vary in the emphasis they give to these issues. Most will include some microeconomic theory, looking at how firms and individuals behave when production or consumption involves externalities. This course will teach you to apply economic concepts and quantitative tools to analyse, value and appraise a wide range of environmental decisions, policies, and problems. You will also learn to look at the methods used to measure environmental benefits, where you can implement your analytical skills. Environmental policy issues will be an important part of this course. With the help of this course, you will be trained to understand some of the especially important issues involving the socio-political economic scenario. Environmental economics is a highly interesting discipline to delve deeper into and I encourage you to take a taste of it!

A bit of Economics in Everyday Life

Many years back when I was in my school final years and deciding which discipline to pursue for higher education, my choice was clear. I wanted to take Economics and so I did. I was introduced to Economics in the ninth grade and gradually I fell in love with the subject and as we all know especially in these tough times, falling in love is a good thing!

But things may not necessarily be so linear for many. Students are advised to take up Economics for their graduate courses because it has great career prospects. And that is true indeed. An Economics graduate or a masters with good scores can build a wonderful career in the corporate sector with data analysis skills. A large part of Economics is about how money circulates in the economy and being trained accordingly maybe you will eventually find yourself to be the CEO of bank XYZ or a renowned investment banker frequently appearing on national television or perhaps even chairing the position of chief economist in RBI! It is a wonderful dream and we faculties will always be there to help you walk on that path that leads to that dream. The path will not be easy but with a little bit of perseverance you can and will land on the pedestal.

These skills will eventually help you land in a good research institute or bag yourself a social sector job where you learn to work with people in the field, implement your discipline trainings directly at the grassroot. Finally, you can always teach like I do. It is a daunting and a lovely task, something I enjoy every minute.

However, despite all these beautiful lucrative prospects many students find the discipline tough to cope with. It is a common concern. I see fresher students feeling flustered with apparently complicated words like “bargaining”, “strength in scarcity”, “opportunity cost” and so on. The feeling is very natural and there is nothing to be ashamed about it. My purpose of writing this post is to let you to know that Economics is not quite the teeth wrecking devilishly complicated stream that many misunderstand. Economics is all about understanding the rationality behind decisions that we take. Economics is there in our everyday life, in almost every choice we make, every decision we take. Today when we are all feeling a little blue in the tough pandemic, in this post I am going to try to bring a bit of humour by throwing a little light on some concepts that are extremely frequently talked about even by our parents sometimes (who might not be economists!) and to do that there can be no better platform than our very own Bollywood.

When you step in for graduation in Economics the list of words you will encounter most commonly are:

Choice
Opportunity Cost
Bargaining

These words will be the foundation stones of your entire course and even in future when you are some successful hotshot remembering us who mentored you, yelled at you and were mostly immensely proud of you. The first thing in Econ 101 is that we will teach you that we have scarce resources and that human wants are unlimited. We are obviously quite aware of that. We need a smartphone then want an iphone then ipad, branded Puma shoes, and it keeps growing. But most of us do not have the means to buy everything. Try asking for all of this from your mom or dad. It is too scary for me to even imagine! So, the problem is choice. How to choose from our unlimited list of wants. This is the basic question of economics: Choice in scarcity. So, if you have about 1000 rupees for spending the evening treating your friends you can either spend it on a movie or you can order pizza but perhaps doing both is expensive. So, you choose and in doing that you take a small mental note of what we have next, the opportunity cost. It is the next best alternative that you give up when you choose something. In this case you might have to sacrifice the happiness from the cheesy delightful pizza if you decide to go for the movie. Choice and opportunity cost are present everywhere in our lives, whenever we take any decision, whether it is about switching jobs or choosing between mangoes and watermelon in summer which is personally a very tough choice!

In the movie Udaan (2010) Rohan is an aspiring writer while his father pushes him to be an engineer. Probably a common problem in Indian households! Rohan’s problem is to choose between engineering and writing. Being an engineer means Rohan is giving up his passion and being a writer means he is giving up a quick road to an established career. Nevertheless, we are all happy at the end when Rohan manages to reach Bombay to become a writer!

Any decision involves bargaining. When I was in school my bargain with my mother in agreeing to finish the chapati and cabbage was to let me watch the cartoon Duck Tales. A nineties kid would not miss it for anything! As we grow up our bargaining spheres evolves too. We might bargain with our employers for salary that we take or with our domestic help for the salary that we pay. Bargaining strength lies in scarcity but remember we can bargain with few people in power, despite being less powerful if we have the collective strength. Nothing but Lagaan (2001) can be a better example of bargaining. Set in the British ruled India (Thank God that is over!) our favourite Bhuvan accepts Captain Russell’s cricket match challenge. It all started with a draught that severely affected the village and the villagers had requested for waiving off the annual tax or lagaan. The bargain came down to this. If the villagers lost the match, they pay “teen guna lagaan!”(Oh Man!) whereas if the British lost they waive off lagaan for three years. If the villagers had greater bargaining power probably the bargain would lead to a better deal. Like not having to pay the tax at all. Villagers being much less powerful could not possibly strike that deal but ultimately, we had all cheered our hearts out when they won the match and Bingo! no more “Tum humko teen guna lagaan dega”! It was the collective strength of the people that made them win through a tough situation even with much lesser bargaining power.

So, you see, there are wonderful ways to help you understand Economics. Our lives are dynamic enough to offer us examples, analogies and anecdotes that we can relate to the discipline. There are ample real-life examples that you can immediately relate to and all this will help you to sail through. You will no longer have to struggle to love your subject. Instead you will automatically learn to love it. We are there to help you with that so do not feel blue and share the blog if you like it!