Animal power, key to economic revolution: 'Cartman' Ramaswamy

Animal power, key to economic revolution: 'Cartman' Ramaswamy
Jacinta D'Souza
Bangalore, March 8 (PTI) He is a vegetarian who has spearheaded a movement for modernisation of abattoirs; a Marxist who espouses the path of spirituality; a former director of IIM who has thrown to winds the conventional theory of management.

The 80-year-old Professor N S Ramaswamy, who was bestowed the Padma Bhushan this year, apparently appears a bundle of contradictions. He, however, insists that he is simply a philosopher, a spiritualist who seeks practical ways of implementing his ideas at the terresterial level.
Dubbed as the `CARTMAN' for his yeoman services in modernising the bullock carts, Ramaswamy says that the sobriquet has stayed since the 1970's "Earlier, the old harness meant that all the burden fell on the back of the beast, making pulling the cart a highly laborious process. However, the modernised one took the burden off the beast's back and made it possible for the beasts now to carry triple the load, thus boosting the overall productivity", says Ramaswamy.
The bullock cart prototype was adopted in India and various parts of the globe.
With a remarkable track record on animal rights, Ramaswamy's latest venture is ushering a `brown revolution' by harnessing animal power. This he intends to achieve through a multi-pronged strategy which includes modernisation of abattoirs, greater subsidies for animal rearing, investment in improvised agricultural implementes and setting up of animal power board.
"In India livestock contributes 10 per cent of the GNP which is equal to that of the foodgrain sector. 84 million draught animals supply about 40 million h.P. Providing energy to cultivate 100 million hectares of land and for hauling 15 million carts, saving six million tonnes of petroleum fuel per year", says Ramaswamy. "Inspite of their magnificent contribution, livestock are neglected, and treated cruelly ", says Ramaswamy who runs an NGO `CARTMAN' which fights for animal rights.
"We currently have 80 million bullocks in the country, which are engaged in just over 100 days of hard work during the sowing season. The rest of the year they lay idle", says the visionary who is keen on harnessing this idle power.
Proposing that the government should grant a subsidy annually for five years for the animals and invest substantially in improvised agriculture implements, he says that such measures could translate into transforming the idle animal power into tools of productivity, resulting in huge saving on precious fuel.
Setting up of animal power board which focusses on harnessing animal power could be an effective measure in propelling economic growth and overall productivity besides generating employment to nearly 10 million people, he says.
Raising donkeys could be another cheaper alternative since donkeys could be used to pull carts with heavier loads but at a lower investment.
Another issue close to his heart is the modernisation of slaughter houses. "There are 3000 municipal slaugther houses and 2,500 private ones but except for 10 model slaugther house, majority of them are unclean, unhygienic and use the most cruel methods of slaughtering the beast", he says.
Calling for setting up of nearly 5000 abattoirs in rural areas, he says the presence of rural abbatoirs could translate into employment for the villagers and reducing suffering for the animal by ensuring quick death." The meat could then be transported by using modern freezing methods to the city.
"After the white, green revolution, we can easily bring in the brown revolution through harnessing of animal power", he said adding that he is in the process of preparing a paper to be forwarded to the government on the issue.
A founder director of the IIM in Bangalore, Ramaswamy also has many pioneering concepts for the management of the government sector.
Currently the 820 management institutes were catering to just minor percent of the demand. The real management he says should be at the government sector.
The scores of government employees, who form a major chunk of the working population have simply no managment methods employed to boost their productivity.
The ever optimistic Ramaswamy, who proposes to submit a paper on the animal power concept to the government, said that despite the fact that his early reports, recommendations had not been translated into action, he is confident that his pioneering thoughts on these issues will one day find the light of the day, through enhanced public awareness.