Education for Development Education is the word one utters mostly while talking about school/ college. But other than school/college education a person needs to be educated on various issues. In the Northeast, people cultivate land once a year. But if you compare with other States like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan etc, farmers carry out agricultural activities two-three times a year. When I raised the issue with farmers from different parts of this region, they said, ‘‘Nobody does, that’s why we also don’t.’’ It is nothing but lack of awareness and education on that issue. In the same way people oppose development activities like industrialization, construction of dams etc. They think industrialization means pollution. But we all contribute to pollution in our daily life. For instance, we prepare food using firewood or LPG. In this process carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases are generated. This leads to pollution. Development and employment are the need of the hour. Everyone should ponder, discuss and decide on an acceptable level of pollution which does not harm human life, agriculture, environment and nature. The pollution control department has also fixed the limit at 50 mg/cubic metre In industry, during production, many chemical processes take place resulting in production of various gases and dust, some of which are visible and some are not. Now technology is available in the market to avoid pollution. In the past, technology was not so developed. Industries used to emit pollutants that could not be controlled. There was also this impression that ‘‘industry means chimney, and chimney means pollution’’. But now, thanks to advanced technologies, pollution can be controlled to a large extent. These days you can take money, go to the market and come back home with the latest, most efficient scooter or motor bike or car adding little to air and noise pollution. This is how technology has worked. It is necessary to educate the public on such new technology. There is a need to change the prevailing concept of industrialization. I take pride to note that in the Northeast too, environment-friendly industries are in operation. Public leaders, intelligentsia, heads of technical/non-technical institutes, universities and NGOs should visit, say, cement-manufacturing industries to check if there is any pollution. There you find colonies for workers and officers. There are also well-maintained garden, temple, school, hospital etc — which means there is no life-threatening pollution, neither in air nor in water. There are many other such environment-friendly factories in operation that do not pose any pollution-related threat to people residing nearby. But these people have to be educated on such matters. Time has come for public leaders, intelligentsia, heads of technical/non-technical institutes, universities and NGOs to educate the public on new and emerging technologies and create the right environment for industrialization in the region so that it leads to development, all-round progress and generation of employment opportunities — which are the main needs of the hour.
Dharmananda Sarma, Silpukhuri, Guwahati-3. (Letters to the Editor ,The Sentinel,Guwahati, Friday, September 10, 2010)
