As World Environment Day falls on June 5, Soni Sinha looks at how 70 per cent of work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act can actually be eco-friendly and benefit local communities in India's poorest districts C K Prahalad states in his corporate management book The Bottom of the Pyramid some years back: "If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up." The idea seems to have finally stirred political circles too. Schemes executed under NREGA, which guarantees 100 days of employment to the poorest people in rural areas, can be devoted to water harvesting, afforestation and land development, bringing relief to villages. The official who heads the 'Green Jobs' scheme of the rural development ministry says, "The anti-poverty project reduces the helplessness that the rural sector felt against climate change," thus waiver of farm loans was just one factor of the success story under 'green jobs'. Of course, NREGA alone cannot tackle global warming. Newly appointed environment minister Jairam Ramesh says his ministry is to remain focussed on increasing coal and power supply which would remain a priority for developing renewable energy by 2015 and bringing GDP to 9 per cent. He pointed out that India needed to act on climate change not because it was a global issue but because it was a critical local concern. He made it clear that he was not ready to accept any quantified binding targets for India, stating his stand on the Kyoto protocol. The environment ministry under the new dispensation priority must look to economic growth to lift millions out of poverty while gradually shifting to clean renewable energy led by solar power as well as increased wind turbine power. Indian environmental officials are of the opinion that the West must recognise the huge amount of benefits that have been achieved solely through projects such as the NREGA. "NREGA, an anti-poverty project along with RTI (Right to Information), put the cudgels back in the hands of the Congress-led UPA with maximum seats in the 15th Lok Sabha," says Prof. Subir Verma of Management Development Institute, Delhi. The Congress Party is aware that a third of India's 1.1 billion people live in abject poverty while more than 90 per cent work in the unorganised sector, says Verma. The party's former commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said in an interview that the government would continue its focus on "stimulating the rural economy" as a means to increasing growth. Climate expert organisations like the Greenpeace Foundation in India and the Centre for Science and Environment state that the climate benefits from rural schemes can only prove to be a supplementary effort to the main climate change plan :"It can be part of the whole project" says Sunita Narain. A better way out is to work towards a pollution-free environment. ? Jairam Ramesh, the new minister of state for environment, states, "We need to act on climate change not only because it is a global issue but because it is a critical local concern of the rural poor involved in their day to day task where health is also affected on account of the changes in their job pattern on account of climate change." Some examples of climate change affecting the health of workers who often change jobs on account of the changing climatic condition within the country are given below: MINING AND ROADWAYS: High incidence of blindness arising out of accidents in the mining industry as well as roadways in construction is reported where gunpowder is regularly used for blasting whereas the Government of India, in its Mines Regulations Act 1961, specifies that only trained certified blasters can be employed, but that is not so in the trade. ? TEA PLANTATION: Fgatal snake bites are fairly common among tea garden workers involving females mostly. The J overbearing presence of leeches in the rainy season proves to be a great encumbrance to tea pickers who often wear protection from rain by applying pesticide paste on their legs or wrap plastic sheets around their wrists to evade pests. ? BLOCK PRINTING: Sanganer hand block printing patronised by the royal family has become an export hub for hand block prints. Most of the work in Sanganer is done manually. Before being dyed and screen-printed, the cotton cloth is acid bleached. The worker adds acid to the water and mixes it with his bare hands. He wears no protection for his eyes, nose, hands or legs. ? PESTICIDE INDUSTRY: The pesticide legacy can be traced back to the Green Revolution of the 1960s. Pests such as the pink bollworm became increasingly resistant to chemical spraying, farmers reacted by blaming the government for its failure to change policies after the harmful side-effects of the Green Revolution began to show. ? COTTON TEXTILE INDUSTRY: Cotton workers are susceptible to various morbid health conditions ranging from chronic respiratory diseases brought by cotton dust inhalation, like anaemia, nutritional deficiencies and lower back pain because of their work posture. ?