Human deprivation and under-development

Crisis in governance

Intra- and inter-state conflicts and violence

HIV/AIDS

Growing religious fundamentalism

Lack of human and organisational ecumenical potentials

Human deprivation and under-development
South Asia, one of the most diverse regions on the planet, is fast emerging as the poorest, the most illiterate, the most malnourished, and the most deprived region in the world. While the region contains nearly one fifth of humanity, just the increase in its population each year exceeds the total population of the fifty smallest UN member states.

The Human Development Report on South Asia, launched under the guidance of the late Mahbub Ul Haq of Pakistan, portrayed a devastating picture of colossal human deprivation in South Asia. Haq’s report highlighted the condition of the hundreds of millions of South Asians who carry the dehumanising burdens of poverty and despondency. Features of this dehumanisation in South Asia include the many vulnerable and neglected children unable to attend primary schools, millions of people lacking basic health care, the vast chasm between the rich and the poor that has further deepened over the years, and the eroding environmental conditions that destroy lives as well as livelihoods.

Human deprivation in South Asia is colossal in scale in the global context. Nearly one half of the world’s illiterate people and forty percent of the world’s poor live in South Asia: around 500 million people live in absolute poverty; more than one half of adults are illiterate and over one fourth of the total population, 350 million, is unable to access the daily necessity of safe drinking water. Eight hundred and thirty million people have no access to basic sanitation. Over 400 million people go hungry every day. South Asia accounts for 23 percent of the world’s total population, but its share of the global poor is 40 percent. Nearly forty percent of the world’s poor live in South Asia. The adult literacy rate in South Asia is only 48 percent, which is now the lowest in the world. South Asia’s share of world’s total illiterate population is twice as high as its share of the world’s total population. In 1998, forty million primary school age children were out of school in South Asia. There are more children out of school in South Asia than in the rest of the world, and two thirds of this wasted generation is female. According to a UNICEF study, the worst affected region for malnourished children is South Asia, not Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the much higher GNP growth rate and a more robust increase in food production in South Asia.

Despite numerous efforts by governments and non-governmental organisations in the region, the poverty in South Asia is increasing. Women are bearing the brunt of the region’s increasing poverty. In Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, poverty has been rising since the 1990s. In India, even though the proportion of people living in poverty has declined, the country still has the largest absolute number of people living below the poverty line in the world. The Government of India’s Economic Survey for the year 1999-2000 observed: "The incidence of poverty expressed as a percentage of people below the poverty line is observed to have declined from 54.9 percent in 1973-74 to 36 percent in 1993/94. However, the number of poor in the country remained more or less stable at around 320 million due to the rise in population."

The per capita GNP of South Asia (US$ 309) is lower than that of any other region in the world. While South Asia contains 22 percent of the world’s population, it produces only 1.3 percent of the world’s income.

The extent of widespread human deprivation in South Asia contrasts with the large armies, modern weapons, and expanding military budgets present in the region. Two of the largest armies in the world are in South Asia. The region spends twice as much each year on the purchase of high-tech arms as does Saudi Arabia. South Asia is the only region where military spending as a portion of GNP has gone up since 1987, although it has declined substantially in all other parts of the world after the end of the Cold War.

The health situation in South Asian countries, notwithstanding considerable advances in life expectancy, reduction in mortality and fertility and the improved condition of very significant segments, remains on the whole a matter of acute concern and anxiety. Investment in the health sector has remained inadequate in all South Asian countries. The governments have failed to allocate enough resources for public health. While the enormous gaps in public health systems have been identified, the shifting of emphasis to the private health sector in the name of efficiency is only serving to further deplete and undermine public health capabilities. The private health sector - largely geared - to curative action and commercial profits rather than the prevention of disease - is not at all helpful for the poor sections in South Asian societies. The fast spreading of HIV/AIDS is posing another serious threat to South Asian society.

Environmental problems in South Asia are analogous to the region’s population problem, apart from having several negative socio-economic and politico-security implications. The dependence of the poor regions of South Asia on the natural resource base, such as soil, water, forests, and fisheries is self-evident. Yet environmental abuse is rampant. Deforestation, soil erosion, droughts, floods and urban pollution have undermined economic growth, depleted food supplies, and caused socio-political instability in South Asia.

Crisis in governance
South Asia has a fairly good track record of democratic institutions, but the history of South Asia’s democratic polity in the past five years or more reveals that the democracy nurtured by South Asians in their respective countries has not contributed much to change, and is not at all conducive to the welfare of the people.

The 1999 South Asia Human Development Report of the Human Development Centre, Islamabad, highlights a crisis of governance in South Asia, and deals with a range of issues like poverty, corruption, governance, economies, military spending, gender discrimination and social injustice. The report says that the region remains divided between the hopes of the rich and the despair of the poor: the richest one-fifth earns almost 40 percent of the region's income, and the poorest one-fifth makes do with less than 10 percent.

South Asia is facing a crisis of governance that, if left unchecked, could halt the region's democratic progress and the economic social wellbeing of its teeming millions. From weak coalition governments in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, which are unable to guarantee a full term in office; from political demonstrations, violence and strikes that force Bangladesh to regularly shut down, and from urban chaos on the streets of Karachi in Pakistan to the war waged in the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, almost all South Asian countries face the pernicious evils of endemic corruption, social exclusion and inefficient civil services which hinder the progress of development. According to the HDC report, South Asia is one of the most poorly governed regions in the world, with the exclusion of a voiceless majority, unstable political regimes and poor economic management. The systems of governance have become unresponsive and irrelevant to the needs and concerns of the people.

Corruption is another stark problem hindering good governance in South Asia. Examples pointed out from the South Asian situation show the gravity of the corruption that exists in certain countries in South Asia. "If corruption levels in India were reduced to those in the Scandinavian countries, investment rates could increase annually by 12 percent and the GDP growth rate by almost 1.5 percent. If Bangladesh were to improve the integrity of its bureaucracy to Uruguay’s level, its yearly GDP growth could rise. And if Pakistan were to reduce corruption to the Singapore level, its annual per capital GDP over the period could have been much higher."

There are a number of issues that affect South Asian people and their society. However, the ecumenical family should take the initiative in responding to some of the pertinent issues through an ecumenical platform.

Intra- and inter-state conflicts and violence
The history of South Asia over the past fifty years is replete with political complexities, ethnic and religious conflicts and interstate warfare. While British colonialism brought most of the South Asian countries under a common colonial system, it simultaneously sowed seeds of discord that continue to plague inter-state relations in South Asia today. The differences between India and Pakistan over the two-nation theory, and between Sri Lanka and India over the nationality of plantation workers of Tamil origin in India, are just two of the most outstanding examples in this regard.

The final hasty retreat of the British Raj and the ensuing bitterness generated between the ruling elite of the two major South Asian states gravely disrupted the traditional, complementary cohesion. Pakistan and Bangladesh have been described as the severed limbs of what was once a united India under the British Raj, presenting a unique intricacy to the whole region.

All these factors contribute to intensifying tensions, and South Asia continues to be one of the most volatile regions of the world. South Asia is known for its security complexes, primarily due to the fact that most of the South Asian states are gripped by varying levels of inter-state disputes and conflicts.

Regional security continues to be affected by the long-standing conflict between India and Pakistan and internal security problems of constituent countries in South Asia – Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. The terrorist campaign in Kashmir waged by fundamentalist Islamic groups, and the growing militant Islamic groups within Pakistan remain two great threats.

Nevertheless, growing civil strife and ethnic conflict, religious fanaticism and trans-border terrorist activities affect the peace and security of all the countries in South Asia in varying degrees. The escalation of armed conflict in Sri Lanka, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh, the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, proliferation of small arms and weapons, and the menace of drug-trafficking and narco-terrorism all cause concerns. Endemic ethnic conflicts in all the countries in South Asia pose serious threats not only to stability of respective countries, but also to inter-state relations, as many of these conflicts transcend beyond borders and spread over neighbouring territories.

Internal security problems in South Asia and their ramifications for regional security are influenced by a host of international and internal factors. Terrorism has assumed a new role, and is at the very heart of this new international conflict. The activities of international terrorist organisations carrying the Islamic label, based in South Asia, have exacerbated antagonisms.

A series of unresolved problems, stemming from internal as well as external sources, exist in South Asia. These include ethnic tensions, secessionist demands, subversive activities, border disputes, religious fundamentalism, and so on. Civil violence has in recent years emerged as a more serious security issue in South Asian countries. India has been variously preoccupied with quelling conflicts in the streets. Conflicts and insurgencies persist in its north-eastern states - Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram. Communal violence and religious conflicts occur in many parts of the country. Left-wing extremism in Andhra Pradesh and caste war in Bihar are causing growing concern. The Indian government spends about nine million dollars per day to maintain about half a million-security forces in Kashmir.

Maoist insurgency waged by left-wing extremist groups in Nepal continues to add problems. The Maoists, fighting to establish a republic in Nepal, have waged an insurgency for six years in which more than 2,000 people have died. Maoist insurgents are reported to be running a parallel government in some districts under their control. A state of emergency was declared in Nepal on 26 November 2001 after Maoist violence left more than 200 people dead. The proclamation empowered the government to use the army for the first time to tackle the Maoists. It had earlier desisted from taking such a measure, fearing that it would set off a civil war.

Religious orthodoxy is evident in Bangladeshi society, manifesting itself in attacks on minority religious groups and on women’s organisations. Although Bangladesh remained largely peaceful in 2000, the year 2001 witnessed terrorist violence, with bomb blasts in Dhaka and other parts of the country.

In Sri Lanka, religious chauvinism, intensified by the corrosive effects of years of civil war, is powerful and erodes the tolerance that is imperative for maintaining a country’s democracy. The ongoing civil war and ethnic conflict over the past 18 years have killed more than 63,000 people. Hundreds of thousands have been left internally displaced. The truce between the new government and the LTTE, which came into effect on 25 December 2001m gives hope once again for peace and reconciliation. However, peace, reconciliation and reconstruction of the war-torn northern provinces in Sri Lanka will remain a Herculean task.

In Pakistan, society faces sporadic bursts of violence emanating from ethnic, sectarian and religious differences in its diverse community. For instance, the conflict in the Sindh province between ethnic Sindhis and those residents who migrated from India following partition has made the province, especially Karachi, ungovernable. Fundamentalist Islamic groups are active and powerful in Pakistan, leading to tensions and conflicts over religious extremism, which has also played a major role in sustaining the Indo-Pakistan altercations over Kashmir.

In Bhutan, the problem regarding Bhutanese of Nepali origin who are now in Nepalese refugee camps, and the anti-government demonstrations in border areas of Bhutan, cause security concerns. Indian terrorist groups operating in the country compound Bhutan’s problems.

In the Maldives, there are internal political pressures stemming from the peculiar situation where a president has been in power for along time.

The problems arising out of divided communities across South Asia are particularly intractable when open borders encourage constant interaction between populations. Such interaction often becomes the source of misunderstandings between states. In addition to the major dispute between India and Pakistan, there are a host of other factors also contributing to tensions in South Asia. For example, Indo-Bangladeshi relations have suffered due to persisting disputes such as the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh to India, and the demarcation of boundaries involving fertile islands and enclaves. Both countries frequently accuse each other of supporting insurgency and militancy in their respective troubled territories. Indo-Nepalese relations have also been occasionally strained over the form of government operating in Nepal and trade-related and transit problems.

A wide range of other issues have also been creating a multitude of problems in South Asia. These problems collectively boil down to a crisis of legitimacy, welfare, and order in the affected areas. Some of the contentious issues that hamper co-operation include those resulting from colonial legacies, issues of political and ideological character, issues of strategic conflicts and military balance, and issues that crop up from the spill-out effect of internal conflicts and disorder in a given country on its neighbours.

A disturbing consequence is that South Asia is moving against global disarmament trends. Global military spending declined by about 37 per cent from 1987 to 1994, from a peak of US$ 1200 billion in 1987 to around US$ 800 billion in 1994. However, military spending in South Asia during the same period went up by 12 percent from US$ 12.5 billion in 1987 to US$ 14 billion in 1994, while it declined by 41 per cent in the industrial world and by 13 per cent in the developing world.

The same scenario surfaces in the case of total armed forces personnel. South Asia is expanding its standing armies when other nations in the world are reducing theirs. Globally, standing armies have been reduced by 16 per cent since 1987, by 24 percent in industrial countries, and by 10 percent in developing countries. But in South Asia the size of these armies has increased by 7.5 percent between 1987 and 1994. Both India and Pakistan enjoy the distinction of belonging to that exclusive club which boasts the ten largest armies in the world. India is fourth in this league, with a standing army of 1.3 million, while most members of this league have reduced the size of their armies since the end of the Cold War - Russia by as much as two million and China by one million. India maintained and Pakistan increased the strength of their respective armies.

No wonder then, that South Asia is one of the most militarised regions in the world. At a fairly prohibitive cost in foreign exchange, the countries in this region are acquiring a range of modern weapons, particularly jet fighters, submarines, and missiles. Again, recent trends in South Asia are totally contrary to those in the rest of the world. Since 1987, military holdings, combat aircraft, artillery ships, and tanks have declined by 1.5 percent globally, but have increased by 43 percent in South Asia. Even in poverty stricken Bangladesh, the increase is 56 percent. It is 49 percent in Sri Lanka, which is torn by ethnic strife. (OJPPCR, August 1999).

The most prominent security quandary in South Asia stems from an escalating arms race, particularly between the two major military powers India and Pakistan. "The fact that India’s freedom struggle was jeopardised in the end by a demand for the partition of the country, the fact that India’s independence was greeted by an unprecedented Hindu-Muslim holocaust, the fact that India and Pakistan were engaged in armed conflict over the Kashmir issue almost immediately after independence, the fact that the raison d’être of Pakistan not only differed from that of India but also tended to thrive at India’s expense, and finally, the fact that India has fought three wars with Pakistan – have all made Pakistan a crucial factor in Indian (power) politics." (OJPCR)

For the past 54 years, the two neighbours, India and Pakistan, have been living in perpetual conflict. At the same time, India has brought almost all South Asian states, except Pakistan, within the confines of its regional security framework. In the case of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, formal treaties, accords and arrangements have connected these countries with India’s conception of regional security. The Indo-Bangladeshi agreement, the Indo-Bhutan Treaty, the not-so-successful Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement and various Indo-Nepalese treaties are examples of this. As regards the Maldives, India’s ready assistance in foiling a coup d’etat in this tiny island in November 1988, and shared common interests in the Indian Ocean, provide justification for co-operation between the two countries. Good relations existed between India and Afghanistan until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 1996.

However, in South Asia, endemic tensions, mutual distrust and occasional hostilities all still exist largely due to varying perceptions and contradictions of security perceptions among the South Asian neighbours, and also to certain psychological misgivings on the part of the smaller states fearful of their powerful neighbour India.

It is a common phenomenon in international relations that a small neighbour suffers from a fear complex with regard to its larger neighbour, especially if there are unresolved and complicating factors in their bilateral relations. This is particularly true in the case of South Asia. The formation of SACRC in 1984 and its function as a regional inter-government organisation could not achieve the target of solving some of these misgivings and become an effective vehicle of co-operation among the member countries replete with discords. The SACRC met in January 2002 at a time when Indo-Pak tensions were at their height, and could not do anything to ease the tension.

In this situation, peace and reconciliation measures need to be addressed by the people’s movements, non-governmental organisations and churches in South Asia.

The HIV/AIDS problem
The spread of HIV infection, which has taken root in South Asia, poses a threat to development and poverty alleviation efforts. The trend of increasing HIV infections, combined with heightened social and economic vulnerabilities that are fuelled by extensive commercial sex, drug use, and population movements such as cross-border rural urban migration and trafficking, highlight the need to act quickly and effectively. While overall prevalence rates remain relatively low, South Asia has about 5 million HIV-infected persons of the world’s 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS. Since the region has large populations, a rise of a mere 0.1 percent in prevalence rate, for example in India, would increase the national total of adults living with HIV by over half a million persons.

Bangladesh, with a population of 130 million, had about 21,000 adults and children living with HIV infection at the end of 1999 according to UNAIDS. The HIV prevalence rate among adults, between the ages of 15 - 49, is still relatively low at 0.03 percent. Rates are higher in specific groups, such as injecting drug users and commercial sex workers. Although, the overall HIV prevalence is low, behavioural patterns and extensive risk factors that facilitate the rapid spread of the infection are widespread, and make Bangladesh highly vulnerable to an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The risk factors include: a large commercial sex industry with roughly 36,000 workers; significant prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among sex workers; a substantial population of injecting drug users with a high rate of needle-sharing; a largely unscreened blood supply; low awareness of the dangers of HIV and STDs among the general public; and contact through shared borders with India and Myanmar, countries with higher HIV prevalence.

According to WHO, numbers of those infected with HIV in India are among the highest in the world. Latest figures released by India's National Aids Control Organisation show there are four million HIV-positive people in India, as 23 million people across the country are being infected with the virus. It was reported that in India, there are already localised epidemics within high-risk groups, and the virus is spreading to the general population. Nearly one percent of the adult population is estimated to be infected with HIV. In five states, more than one percent of the general population is HIV-positive. 90 percent of cases reported a fall within the most economically productive age group of 15 to 44. One in four cases of HIV in India is among women. India is second only to South Africa in the number of HIV cases in a single country. The World Bank reported that the HIV virus has started spreading to the general public and moving from urban to rural areas.

There are many risk factors that put India in danger of experiencing an epidemic if prevention and control measures are not adequately implemented. About 60 percent of commercial sex workers in the city of Mumbai are HIV-positive. Migration of workers from both within and between states is a major risk factor. In the north-eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, the epidemic took off quickly among drug users. Infection rates among women in India are also rising, as are the number of cases of HIV-positive infants.

In Nepal, though the absolute number of HIV/AIDS cases is comparatively low, there are already signs of prevalence of the epidemic within certain high-risk behaviour groups. According to UNAIDS, Nepal has entered the stage of a "concentrated epidemic", with HIVAIDS prevalence constantly exceeding 5 percent in one or more high-risk groups, such as sex workers and injecting drug users. There are several risk factors which put Nepal in danger of experiencing a spread of the epidemic: an active sex trade and high rates of girl trafficking to India for sex work. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Nepalese are engaged in commercial sex.

It was estimated that in 2002, about 70,000 to 80,000 persons, or 0.10 percent of the adult population in Pakistan, was infected with the HIV virus. Although the prevalence rate is currently low, the country is highly vulnerable, because of the presence of significant risk factors, which place the country under a formidable threat of a widespread epidemic. Most cases of infection are in the age group of 20-40 years old. Several risk factors have been identified: injecting drug users, commercial sex, partial blood transfusion screening and professional donors, sexually transmitted diseases, low levels of literacy and education, special vulnerability of women due to social and economic disadvantages, etc.

UNAIDS estimated that the HIV infection rates among adults between the ages of 15 and 49 is 0.07 percent in Sri Lanka, with a population of 19 million. It is estimated that about 30,000 women/girls and 15,000 boys work in the commercial sex industry, and 45 percent of them are HIV-infected. The country has a limited capacity for Voluntary Counselling and Testing, and there is a prevailing stigma and fear of being identified or detected as HIV positive.

Bhutan and the Maldives also have nascent epidemics, but with a relatively moderate level of risk compared to other South Asian countries.

Governments, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, etc., have made various efforts in this regard. The ecumenical development agencies have the mandate to give prime emphasis to addressing this menace. Some churches and NCCs in South Asia have also initiated certain attempts. The WCC Asia Regional Group meeting meeting in Colombo in 2001 spent substantial time evolving a common strategy for church involvement. However, South Asian churches, although keen to be involved in advocacy and awareness-building, have not taken the appropriate measures to initiate a concrete action plan or give importance to the agenda of the churches’ mission to deal with HIV/AIDS.

Growing religious fundamentalism
Christianity, a minority religion in South Asia, faces innumerable problems in recent times. In Pakistan, Christians are about 2 percent of a total population of 140 million; in India they are about 2.5 percent of the 1.1 billion population; in Sri Lanka about 7 percent of 19 million; in Bangladesh about 0.3 percent of 128 million. Nepal, with a population of 19 million is the only Hindu kingdom in the world. The country has only a total of about 400,000 Christians. In all South Asian countries, Christianity is a minority religion, and as a resurgence of Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist fundamentalism is emerging, the very existence of Christianity has been under constant threat although it has existed in the Indian sub-continent since the first century.

The communal riots and conflicts in India over the past two months have again created a fear psychosis among minorities . The resurgence of Islamic militant forces in Bangladesh poses a serious threat to minority communities there. The killings and shootings in churches perpetrated by Islamic militants in Pakistan also bring uncertainties and anxieties for Christians. In this situation, the most important need for Christians today is to find ways to nurture inter-religious co-operation and mutual confidence-building measures in order to overcome religious intolerance and religious fundamentalism. The churches and National Councils of Churches in South Asia need to be equipped to address this matter with urgent priority.

Lack of human and organisational potentials
In South Asia, Christian communities are in a minority; and in some countries they are a microscopic minority. Most of the South Asian churches are the product of missionary-colonial expansion. Today these churches face a series of problems. An alarming factor is a lack of leadership and a dearth of prospective candidates for future leadership roles in churches and ecumenical councils. This weakens the position of churches in society too.

Almost all South Asian NCCs lack potential staff and leadership. Although this is a common phenomenon in several other Asian NCCs, the deficiency is much more visible in South Asia, which has been neglected for a long time by the ecumenical family in terms of capacity-building efforts. One of the basic problems in countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh is the lack of good quality personnel who opt for church ministry or ecumenical work. As globalisation and technological advancement progresses, most people prefer to work for multinational companies or in highly-paid jobs in NGOs. The churches and ecumenical bodies pay meagre salaries, which are not enough to attract young, qualified people to work for them. For example, in Bangladesh an average NGO worker gets a salary of about US$ 400 – 500 whereas a church worker or NCC Bangladesh staff member gets about US $40–80. The same is the case in Sri Lanka and Nepal, where people working with NGOs and in the private sector can earn five or six times more than a pastor or a church worker.

This situation warrants our attention to the need of identifying committed people to work for churches and ecumenical bodies, and developing human resources in South Asian churches and ecumenical councils. The churches and councils in South Asia need encouragement from ecumenical/church partners to overcome these leadership crises. The WCC Asia Desk has undertaken certain measures over the past two years to organise capacity development programmes in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Albeit, these initiatives have started a process of a more systematic approach and long-term planning. Mechanisms need to be developed to follow up these efforts, which will produce good results in the long run.

The South Asian NCCs tried to set up capacity-building and exchange programmes with the assistance of the WCC Asia Desk in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In 2001, the Asia Desk and the WCC Ecumenical Education Team assisted a Colombo workshop on ecumenical formation and capacity-building. Proposals from South Asian NCCs indicated the urgency and need for developing a more systematic programme to enhance organisational strengthening of the staff capacity of NCCs and churches.

The South Asian NCCs, with the exception of the NCC India, have not for various reasons been in a position to undertake responsibilities and implement programmes in a systematic way. At this stage, accompaniment of the ecumenical family to fulfil the responsibilities of South Asian churches is to be considered as a priority for common involvement in South Asia, especially to work together on a common ecumenical platform with better co-ordination and commitment.