Where has the sharing economy disappeared?

NEW DELHI: I’ve been thinking of the slow but sure death of the sharing economy in urban India, at a time when we need it the most.

Slicing up a watermelon in the kitchen, I want to give away one half, but it’s awkward to call a neighbour and ask if one can send over half a watermelon, because I can only finish half before the giant fruit goes bad.

So instead, I don’t buy a large size fruit even though it is usually sweeter.

But I do know, that if I need to buy my own mini-idli steamer which I use only a few times a month, instead of borrowing it, then we are all doing something wrong. We are burying the sharing economy.

One of the reasons is the nature of our relationships with our neighbours.

Increasingly, despite more Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs), our relationships with each other are formal, difficult to mutate into informal, warm friendships.

How can you then expect the person’s ego not to be hurt when a formal acquaintance, if that, offers half a watermelon? They feel like they are dumped upon, not gifted. And if you borrow their stuff, you seem like a parasite.

Yet, sharing is key to a green lifestyle, which requires us to buy less, and de-materialise, conserving resources and preventing devastating activities like mining.

To do that, we have to learn to re-frame the people nearby as green allies, with good intentions rather than eccentric at best and annoying at worst. (The writer is founder and director, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group)