Drought, Deprivation and Sustainable Development: Why Are the Public Policies So Weak?

National capacity to deal with the deleterious consequences of the drought has certainly increased in the recent years. But the absence of death as an indicator of success of public policies for drought mitigation is not very dignified or creditable. This precisely was the claim of a national document on drought brought out by the Government of India in 1987. Why do we consider sustained social deprivation, ecological degradation, learned helplessness, lack of basic necessities, etc. as inevitable features of a drought prone region. National Commission and Development of Backward Areas (NCDBA), Planning Commission, (1981), went to the extent of suggesting that development efforts in drought prone regions should not check the out migration too much lest the supply of cheap labour for large infrastructural projects elsewhere is checked. It is not surprising that the social discontent is increasing in some of the backward regions particularly hill and forest regions) on account of such a definition of the developmental goals by the dominant elite. It may not be too long when people in drought prone regions also realise that the only available alter- native to attract the attention of the planners is to use agitational methods. Science and technology help in transforming the relationship between the resources and the people. Planners have not drawn much upon the indigenous scientific wisdom while developing the long range plan ( if any at all) to reduce misery of the affected people on account of the natural disasters. Links between people’s knowledge system about conservation and utilization of natural resources and formal R & D have continued to be weak. Only a few professional associations have so far come forward to organize full fledged sessions in their annual conferences on indigenous technological innovations developed by the people. Dialogue on sustainability has not yet included adequately the discussion on ethical and value dilemma on tapping local knowledge without maintaining peoples rights over the rent extracted from utilizing it. The linkage between post graduate education and emergent research needs for coping with stress in different disciplines continues to be of an ad hoc nature. Community of scientists may like to reflect upon such a situation in science management. The paper is divided into four parts. In part I, the conceptual framework linking micro and macro aspects of drought and consequent social deprivation are discussed. The socio- ecological paradigm for analysing development options in dry regions is described. In part II, the key issues for science policy for mitigating and preventing the effects of natural stresses like drought are identified. The inadequacies in the public policies for drought mitigation are discussed in part III. In part IV, the need for further research and action is identified.