Exceptional Kerala: Efficient Use of Resources and Life Quality in a Non-Affluent Society

Abstract

The only large human population on Earth with both necessary sustainable behaviors, modest consumption and small families, the state of Kerala in South India, was studied, 1989–1993, by the Institute for Food and Development Policy supported by Earthwatch Expeditions. A research team of 81 amateurs from North America and Europe supported by an in country staff reached beyond the limitations of academic disciplines directly studying human behavior. In order to explain the regular improvement in the standards of quality of life at zero levels of economic growth, the steady-state economics of Herman Daly was applied. The third requirement of this economic language (after limited population and limited throughput) is limited inequality. The study shows limited inequality to be the necessary social condition for the politics which can implement and maintain a political agenda of limited throughput and limited population. The achievement of limited throughput and limited population in Kerala conditions (resources short and humans plenty) requires attention to the processes of efficient consumption in addition to efficient production. Efficient consumption involves the equitable distribution of limited goods and services utilizing the sophisticated behavior of the entire citizenship. More particularly the Earthwatch study validates the 1978 conclusions of Berkeley health scientist, John Ratcliffe. The Kerala experience refutes the communist and capitalist theses »that high levels of social development cannot be achieved in the absence of high rates of economic growth«. The Kerala high life quality successes »are consequences of public policies and strategies based not on economic growth considerations but, instead, on equity considerations«. Within the ecosystem of the Earth, sustainability is a strategic survival option for human behavior. Modest consumption of the Earth's resources is the essential behavioral requirement incorporating the necessity for small families. As our best example of sustainable human behavior, Kerala should be high on all scientific research agendas.