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Your
Life, Your Classroom
What if your school decided to do away with textbooks and started
teaching you directly from every day life — your home, your town, your community.
That is a dream for us city dwellers but an organisation called Society for Integrated
Development of Himalayas, SIDH, believes in doing just that.
Based in Mussoorie in the UP hills, SIDH is presently implementing education programmes
in 35 villages.
SIDH realised that our education system, a legacy of the colonial rule,
does not teach ‘how’ to think but trains the student ‘what’ to think;
the result of which is a fragmented way of thinking and confusion in the minds of youth in
India. Young people thus get begin to lose confidence in their own selves and their
culture.
To impart effective and practical education, Bodhigram a residential
study centre was established. It includes innovative courses like Samvad —
interaction between thinkers from different parts of India working on creative ideas,
Sanshodan — a research programme, Sanjeevani — a long (residential) course for
youth, Sanmati — a short 7-day course for youth, and Sushiksha — village
schools.
The aim is not only to get youth to read and write but also to make them self-reliant,
self-confident and develop useful business and managerial skills. Respect for activities
like farming and traditional livelihoods so as to take them up as a vocation is
encouraged. Challenging the existing thought patterns and beliefs makes them receptive to
new ideas.
SIDH has developed Balshalas for rural children — a unique experiment that
has proved that that it is viable to set up primary schools in small, scattered hamlets in
remote mountain areas. And would you believe it, they have more girls than boys attending
school!
SIDH belives that education is the basis of all the development problems and challenges
that we face.
Contact:
Society for Integrated Development of the Himalayas.
Hazelwood Cottage,
PO Box 19
Landour Cantt,
Mussoorie-248179
Tel: 0135-632904 Fax: 0135-631304
email: sidhsri@nde.vsnl.net.in |
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Namaste Panditji...
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ASK ME, NO?
Pandit Gobar Ganesh
I am being too much happy that you are
asking me. I am thanking all you askers.
Here are my answerings. Only to good
questioning.I really wreck my brains for it.
You also wreck your brains. And send more
question. Anything on environment, kutta billi and air water...Write me in Gobar Times.
I am impatient waiting. For environmental question. Okay, no? |
I want to know how to dispose of pencil cells and batteries
safely.
Ramachandran Aiyyer
via email
Cells and batteries contain toxic
heavy metals like lead, zinc, cadmium and mercury. These can be harmful to living beings
if disposed of carelessly, as they can remain in the environment for a long periods of
time. Disposal of cells — should be ideally segregated and disposed in a landfill
lined with cement and also given a cement cover to prevent leaching of lead and mercury.
Unfortunately, there is no such landfill that
does not leak, even a cement lined one will finally leak. Besides, India does not have
even one proper-engineered landfill.
 The
only way to really dispose off batteries harmlessly is twofold, and neither is
instantaneous:
The producer should be responsible for them, as they contain toxic materials. Hence, there
should be a ‘take back’ scheme where the manufacturer must take them back and
dispose them off or recover some of the parts etc. This is now being done in some European
countries.
In the longer run, we need to have batteries which use less toxic materials because once
you have made such a product, the heavy metals etc. are there to stay in the environment.
So there is no easy way out of this, except to
use less of it and to lobby for this.
For more information on this and
other toxics contact:
Toxics Link Exchange
H2 Janpura Extension
New Delhi - 110014
email: etl@etl.unv.ernet.in |
‘Sustainable Cities’ is the need of time not
only for Delhi but for all the cities. I would like my city Lucknow too to have its
"Ecological Footprint" measured as all the major environmental problems are in
full bloom here too. Water is a scarce commodity though we are at the bank of Gomti. City
is becoming a dust ball because of a concrete jungle. We have many good schools and
enthusiastic students too.
Rashmi Gangwar
Lucknow
It was good reading of the current issue of GT. I would like to
talk about an amazing Step Well in Patan ,Gujarat known as" Rani Ki Vav,"
or The Queen’s Stepwell" a 12th Century AD creation, which I would consider one
of the most fabulous monuments in India. It has been preserved so well, because it got
submerged under the earth with a flood, and hence escaped the destruction of Alla-ud-din
Khilji. The historical fact is that the rulers of our country in the 11th and 12th
centuries in water scarce areas made the most elaborate arrangements for water supply to
its population. The stepwell was excavated less than 20 years ago, more or less intact,
with temple carvings on its walls that goes down 200 feet to the reaches of the water
source — the well itself. The well more like a temple is in dedication to the river
Saraswati, which legend says flowed nearby the surface, and where today on a dried up
river bank, are hundreds of Shiva Lingas, giving veracity perhaps to the belief about that
enigmatic
river.
These are sights that all school students must see for themselves, and schools must
arrange for trips. Patan, which is a Jain Centre, has a vault which holds ancient
Manuscripts and paintings rarely seen. We had the privilege of viewing these rare books
and illustrations. On their return, our students did a project on the stepwell, with
illustrations of what they saw there.
Gomathy
Venkateswar
Principal, Malpi International School
I wanted to tell you that I love reading Gobar Times. But
sometimes my friends or my neighbours’ children make a fun of the paper’s name
so therefore I want you to take out a issue only about the importance of gobar. I also
want you you to tell what would happen to mankind and the earth if there was no gobar. I
request you please give an issue about gobar. I wish the next issue you give is about
gobar.
Tanmay Bhatt
Class VI, Noida UP Editor replies:
What’s in a name like Gobar Times? Well…a lot of
sense!
Gobar or cowdung is one of the best examples of wealth from waste. Besides being
sustainable and cheap, gobar is inextricably linked with the daily goings-on of not
only millions of Indian lives but also people in different parts of the world like Africa!
The use of gobar in India teaches us certain important environment principles on
how to use natural resources in a sustainable way.
Besides being a healthy diet for plants — it is used as a fertiliser, millions of
poor Indians depend on gobar as source of energy for cooking and heating. It is
smeared on cattle and inside huts in rural areas and used as an insect-repellent. It is
also plastered on the floor and used to insulate and waterproof houses.
It is even used in traditional medicine. Read the first issue of GT dated May
15, 1998 or look it up on our website. The whole issue was on gobar and its many
uses.
So it's not just a funny name. Instead of only making jokes about it, maybe we, who
live in cities, should learn from rural India on how to lead our own lives. Of course,
that does not mean that we all start to use gobar from tomorrow, but atleast we
must learn how to use our resources in a sustainable manner in our modern lives and not
make ours and others’ lives miserable |
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A
Down To Earth Supplement
