Abstract
In 2015, member states of the United Nations Organizations (UNO) pledged to achieve the goal of peace and prosperity for people and the planet, which became famous as the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development- a blueprint of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),' to achieve an inclusive and sustainable vision for the world. Governmental as well as nongovernmental organizations across the globe have embraced it as the new paradigm of development and have since been striving hard to achieve these goals for “The Future We Want.” This chapter talks about the application of competition laws in one such sector in the sub-Himalayan region of India and tries to project that how its applicability has helped in creating an alternative, sustainable and eco-friendly model of regulatory practices in the region- community based homestays.
TopBackground
In 2015, member states of the United Nations Organizations (UNO) pledged to achieve the goal of peace and prosperity for people and the planet, which became famous as the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development- a blueprint of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to achieve an inclusive and sustainable vision for the world. Governmental as well as nongovernmental organizations across the globe have embraced it as the new paradigm of development and have since been striving hard to achieve these goals for the “The Future We Want”. Institutions and legal-political bodies with and beyond the borders have vowed to pursue and accomplish such goals for a better future and one such platform is through the application and enforcement of a strong competition law, which seeks to curb down all form of monopolist trade tendency and promote indigenous and innovative sustainable ideas. This paper talks about the application of competition laws in one such sector in the sub-Himalayan region of India and tries to project that how its applicability has helped in creating an alternative, sustainable and eco-friendly model of regulatory practices in the region- community based homestays.
The sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal is well known for its 3-T-s: Tea, Tourism and Timber and for a very long time these industries, especially ‘tourism’. With the inbound of colonial presence and since independence these pristine landscapes have been monopolised and dominated by big private players leading to a wholesale exploitation of the natural resources and indigenous and eco-friendly livelihood patters of the region. From railways to dam, multi-storeyed buildings to malls over concretization and cartelised forms of control have totally dismantled the ecological balance and the innovative vigour of and within the region. One such sector which got severely affected due to such lopsided and monopolistic polices of trade and investment is the hotel and hospitality industry. As per a report published in Times of India, (December 8, 2017) the unfettered and unaccountable tourism policy of mushrooming hotels industries in the sub Himalayan region has not only affected the climate of the region but has severely impacted on the natural resources like tea and others. This has also invariably and indirectly affected on the question of employability, gender dichotomy, health, sanitisation, innovation and economic indifference with the native people in and around the region. This trend has gained momentum with the havoc created since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
In this backdrop, the present empirical research paper compiled by the findings received from filed work conducted in the Kalimpong District of West Bengal is an attempt to study the role of one such non-state institution (homestays), which believes in the principle of a community-based environment-friendly and balanced sustainable approach and has been off-late an increasingly important alternative strategy for achieving the SDGs, especially in the non-western country like India. The region has been selected due to two main reasons- firstly owing to its pristine biodiversity and landscape and sharing its borders with Sikkim and dooars off-late Kalimpong has been the most preferred tourist destination of the region after Darjeeling, making it a lucrative tourism economy site; secondly despite the high influx of tourist and visitors the manner in which the community-owned developmental projects like homestays have been flourishing in the district has discouraged over-concretisation and simultaneously proving as a potential actor to deliver its commitment in achieving the global goals like gender parity, poverty alleviation, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and ecosystem leading an example of our Prime Minister Modi’s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India. This paper seeks to evaluate the possibilities of introducing a circular economy (as promoted by OECD Competition Committee) in the hospitality and tourism industry flourishing in North Bengal, with reference to the Kalimpong District of North Bengal and putting the services provided by the local homestays in achieving the SDGs in perspective.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Homestays: Usually a private house offering accommodation to paying guests.
Completion Law: They mainly seek to prevent practices that may having adverse effect on competition, to promote and sustain competition in markets, to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets, in India, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Sustainable Development Goals: An aim to achieve an inclusive and sustainable vision for the world.