Keywords
Political Economy
Marxist Framework
Environmental Justice
How to Cite
Abstract
India represents around 18 % of the world's population as one of the most populated countries, leaving behind China, and only 4 % of global fresh water resources for drinking water. According to the World Bank's estimates, around 163 million people face clean and fresh water availability for drinking purposes. In terms of the impact of polluted and unclean water, nearly 21 per cent of communicable diseases in India are linked to unsafe water, and around 500 children die every day due to diarrhoea. Thus, the water crisis in India is severe, and India's population is facing the worst crisis of water for drinking purposes as well as other purposes related to life and health.
Despite the Constitution of India being an egalitarian document that guarantees certain fundamental rights in Parts III and IV without these guarantees and their inalienability, the scarcity of availability of fresh water or clean water has become so acute in India that billions of people, especially the underprivileged and peripheral, are deprived of their basic need for water. Without fulfilling this basic need of water, the meaning of life is meaningless, and the concept of right to life, envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution and recognised by the judicial pronouncements, is of no practical use.
This paper will deal with the fundamental question of whether the water crisis in India is by design or just incidental. In this regard, policies and laws will be briefly analysed and why the judiciary interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution to recognise the right to clean water as an integral part of the right to life in its broader sense of term and meaning.
The Marxist framework of environmental justice will be adopted to unpack the political economy of the water crisis in India. The central focus of the analysis of the political economy of the water crisis will be the policies, laws, and programmes that are, by design, responsible for the water crisis, resulting in environmental injustice.
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