The goal of the FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi)^[1] projects of the Śramani Institute is to restore the interconnected wellbeing of diverse humans and ecologies across all bioregions by (re-)establishing ecosymbiotic self-reliance^[2] for communities. Livelihoods are an important aspect of ecosymbiotic self-reliance.

Thus, it is important to understand what is meant by livelihood within the FiveBecomings Framework^[3]; livelihood is a set of activities undertaken by an individual or household unit to attempt to meet that unit’s basic needs (see Box 1). There are two types of livelihoods: monetary livelihood and ecosymbiotic livelihood. These two livelihoods together make up the combined livelihood for an individual/household unit. A Living Combined Livelihood (LCL) is a combined livelihood that enables an individual/household to actually fulfill all basic needs. 

Monetary Livelihood

A monetary livelihood is a set of activities undertaken in exchange for money, e.g., working as a teller at a bank in exchange for the bank’s paying a monetary income (or, simply, income), so that the money can be used to purchase the commodities and services required to fulfill basic needs. Most individuals living in urban areas depend almost entirely on monetary livelihoods to be able to fulfill their basic needs.

Ecosymbiotic Livelihood

An ecosymbiotic livelihood is a set of activities that depend on and use the ecological resources (soil, water, plants, microbes, insects, fish, animals, etc.) of the local ecological web (ecoweb)^[5] in which an individual/ household/ community live(s). These activities include agriculture, animal rearing, fishing, water management, ecological resource harvesting (e.g., honey), energy generation, and plant-based healthcare, and result in being able to regeneratively produce Commodities and Services (C/S) (like food and medicine) and services directly from the ecological resources in the local ecoweb. In other words, an ecosymbiotic livelihood bypasses money in fulfilling basic needs. Individuals and households that are part of ecosymbiotic communities^[6] do not need a monetary livelihood to fulfill their basic needs.

Combined Livelihood

Due to the worldwide decimation of most ecosymbiotic communities and the integrity of the ecowebs these communities relied on for centuries/ millennia to directly fulfill their basic needs, most communities now — even those in rural areas — need monetary income to fulfill their basic needs, even if they have ecosymbiotic livelihoods. Thus, most rural individuals/ households rely on combined livelihoods, i.e., monetary livelihoods and ecosymbiotic livelihoods, to fulfill their basic needs.

One of the main objectives of FiveBecomings projects is to reduce the monetary livelihood component — ideally to zero — of the combined livelihood of rural households by (re)establishing ecosymbiotic self-reliance for rural communities.

Living Combined Livelihood (LCL)

Within the FiveBecomings framework, a new economic indicator has been created, namely the Living Combined Livelihood (LCL). The LCL for an individual/household unit is a combination of that unit’s monetary livelihood and ecosymbiotic livelihood, which enables the unit to actually fulfill the unit’s basic needs. An LCL is geography dependent and is determined upon analyzing a region’s cost of living. For example, the Śramani Institute has determined that if LCL consisted of solely monetary livelihood, the monetary LCL equivalent (in 2025-2026) for most rural communities in India would be INR 20,000/ 25,000 (for vegetarians/ non-vegetarians) per month for a household of 5 (two adults, two children, one elderly parent), or about USD 235/300.

It should be stressed that the LCL is tied to fulfilling basic needs in a manner that affords dignity, security, and wellbeing to an individual/household unit. The LCL is not an indicator of a unit’s being able to fulfill wants focused on extractivist commodities (e.g., cell phones, motorbikes, solar panels, batteries), which cannot be regeneratively produced from local ecowebs and do not constitute basic needs.

A Positive Delta LCL (Δ LCL) Is Disposable Income

While LCL is tied to fulfilling basic needs, a positive delta LCL (Δ LCL) can be converted into disposable income. For example, if an individual/household unit has achieved LCL, that unit is able to fulfill the unit’s basic needs with dignity. Any surplus monetary income (or surplus regeneratively produced commodities/services that can be sold for money) over LCL is disposable income, i.e., it can be used to purchase commodities and/or services that fulfill wants beyond basic needs.

The concepts and indicators described above are among those that are used to assess the state of ecosymbiotic self-reliance (and interconnected wellbeing) of a beneficiary community of a FiveBecomings project.
 

[1] K. Mitra, Restoring the Interconnected Wellbeing of Humans and Ecologies Through FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-010 (26 Aug., 2025).

[2] S. Mukherjee & K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Fulfilling Basic Needs from Ecowebs, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-010 (11 Sep., 2025).

[3] K. Mitra, FiveBecomings: A Reimagined Ancient Indigenous Framework for Ecoself-Rooted Wellbeing, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh122024-004 (15 Dec., 2024).

[4] K. Mitra, Ecoself: Approaching an Intellectual Understanding, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh122024-003 (13 Dec., 2024).

[5] K. Mitra, Ecological Webs (Ecowebs): Collaborative Creativity Through Adaptation Feedback Loops, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-006 (3 Sep., 2025).

[6] K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Implementing FiveBecomings through Knowtep and Women’s Councils, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh052025-002 (6 May, 2025).