Incorporation of Global Environmental Norms into Indian Legal Systems: Social and Economic Challenges, with Special Reference to Ship-Breaking

Abstract

Some of the significant issues in the emerging economies have been the fact that these economies thrived on compromises that they made with their environment and human rights. Right at the Stockholm Conference the rift between rsquo;Developed’ and rsquo;Un-developed’ nations was apparent, with the latter demanding more development to sustain and advance their economies. The demand was greeted by the advanced nations in form of technology that was being weaned off and industries which were potentially polluting. This benevolent dictatorship was acceptable to the receiving economies and they were now re-christened as rsquo;Developing’ as they too had access to the technology of Northern nations. Some countries including India benefitted from this approach due to availability of cheap labour and its willingness to have lax environmental norms to host such activities. One such industry is rsquo;ship-breaking’. Breaking down of vessels has always been a vexing issue for the developed countries. High labour cost coupled with unwillingness to work, human rights issues and stringent environmental norms makes this activity an extremely expensive affair. India harbours the largest scrap yard of the world at Alang. With minimal norms on paper and meager implementation of those, in this area India beats even China. Its competitors Pakistan and Bangladesh remain weak solely due to their size. However, the past-decade has seen awareness over these issues in India and the rsquo;NIMBY’ attitude is being loathed by social groups mounting pressure on the Government, to have stricter norms. Further, India may face a backlash in terms of business in rejection of its products due to their non-compliance with global standards. Domestic and international pressure for stringent norms has led to a peculiar situation. This paper investigates into the aforesaid issues with rsquo;ship-breaking’ as an example and further finds out the possible solutions to the problem.