Today's win win game was really an eye opener. Why did we all end up loosing 760 points when we would have ended up scoring 1000?
The problem was probably in our lack of understanding that we cannot win only by defeating others. All the teams ended up thinking that they have to score the highest, be it at the cost of others. At the beginning, three teams chose rabbit, and one team went for rat. Had that team, selected rabbit too, all would have ended gaining collectively. But then, the incentive for sticking to rat was quite higher - there was gain always except when all the four teams chose rat . Most of the time, all the teams ended up choosing rat thus taking the score to negative. But this atleast ensured that all the teams were getting negative.
This was just a game so we could end up thinking that we all would have gained. But is it applicable in today's cut throat competetive world. Even the win -win rule can not be applied everywhere. Nature also follows the survival of the fittest rule. I would cite the simple case of tehri dam over here.
Tehri dam (2006) , in Uttarakhand is one of the highest dams in the world. The dam is at present providing electricity and drinking water to Delhi and U.P. and earning a huge profit for the newly built state Uttarakhand. But at whose cost? Yes... at the cost of the interest of the localites who had to evacuate their ancestral lands. Of course, the government ensured that these evacuated families be rehabilitated. Out of the many, some 100 families were rehabilitated on the outskirts of Dehradoon. Out of the frying pan, they are literally into the fire again. These people were given land in lieu of their homes in Tehri but the expansion of Jolly Grant airport is threatening to uproot them one more time. Needless to say, the dam resulted in the loss of rich fauna and flora of the area apart from the historical old Tehri and singori- the tastiest sweets of Garhwal region. Was the collective action really able to create a win- win situation in this case. What went wrong here ? We were able to quote many mistakes in the game but what went wrong in this real life situation and why we were not able to create a win- win condition here??????
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Power equations and self interst always govern the sacrifices given for undergoing any collective action. It is often the weak party that has to sacrifice more. People who are shifted in case of construction of dams are often poor and tribals. Do you think it would have been possible had they been rich and influencial people? Thousands of common people die in bomb blast but no one cares but even few bullet striked in corridors of power can initiatiate the fire against terrorist groups involved.
Government neglects the marginal section of the society for the benefits of the upper section of the population. We have many such cases where the interest of the poor section was not taken care of while implementing the projects. But the question here is can we avoid such projects in future; the answer will be a big no. with the increasing globalisation per-capita electricity requirement, need of irrigation water( to make farming more productive) and safe drinking water demand is increasing. People with high income are demanding better service and facilities. The upper section of the society for will always try to exploit the poor by showing them the rosy pictures of things they are going to get which never happens at most of the time.
In many such cases NGOs have tried to mobilize the poor section to revolt against the government but the question here is has it made any difference to the decision taken by the government? No, Government has gone with their own agenda of implementing the projects. Some time it has led to the violent protest which is not in favor of these poor people or the government as such. Then the question comes as what can be done to solve this problem; the answer would be collective action from the affected section of people not for the opposition of the project but for the better bargain. The NGO or the organisation responsible for organising these people should make it sure that people gets a fair deal. By this we can at least we can assure that these people don’t get cheated by these private player and government official. The government is highly biased in the favor of the private bodies and are in mad rush for the investment at any cost this would be a forward looking solution acceptable to both the parties.
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