Good morning!
Last month, Indian
Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC), of whom Samuchit is part of conducted
a youth conference at Paderu, AP on the topic Resilience to Climate Change
through Community-Based Development. Various partner organizations of INECC
came from all over India and discussions were held on
different community engagements and participation efforts. As part of the field visits,
we went to Badama village and met the Konda tribe who currently uses the water
filters and improved smokless chulhas of Laya resource center,Paderu which has made
their life easier and quality better. The conference was mainly on rural
initiatives of the partner organizations and how they are helping community to
adapt to the various climate change issues related to farming, rainwater
harvesting and other livelihood activities.
Badama Village |
After coming back to
Pune, one thing which kept occurring in my mind was how different we - people in
the cities and towns- live. Nothing is enough for us. We need more and more – of
everything. This trend of buying more
and more among the masses is relatively recent. Since the
last 10-15 years simultaneous with the growth of IT in India and rise of middle
income group, materialism has grown. We
are made to believe that whatever is advertised is necessary for us. In olden days, if something does not working,
we fix it; now we throw it and buy a new one.
A middle income family
now goes for clothes shopping minimum 4 times a year which used to be once
earlier. Now shopping is based on new arrivals and sale rather than the need.
Eating habits have also changed with the arrival of gourmet food and fine
dining. Now it’s a must to eat out with family or order food once a week.
Another section which has found prominent place in every one’s life is beauty and health products – irrespective of gender, everyone spends a significant amount on skin care, hair care, perfumes and other fancy
products. Also a must in family schedule is weekly entertainment – be it cinema
or adventure park or trips. A kid
growing in this era thinks they cannot live without the above and it becomes
their basic necessities. I am also part of this materialistic behavior - my definition of basic necessities has evolved
to include a higher level of material needs.
Conference participants with a caption for future. |
The result of such a trend is large waste
generation and more resource usage. We are depleting earth’s resource more than
it can rejuvenate. Lets try consciously to REDUCE CONSUMPTION and come out of the bubble that is put around us..
JUST THINK OVER - Can't we reduce our Consumption? - Aren't we blindly becoming more materialistic?
Anu K
anukuncheria@gmail.com
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