DEVELOPED INDIAN MINDS – THE ULTIMATE ROAD TO DEVELOPED INDIA

Let me first admit that the idea of this post is not conceived by me. In fact I have borrowed both the inspiration to this post as well as the Title from my blogpal “Phantom”. I am sorry Phantom, but this was required to keep up my promise. For the original source of inspiration please visit Phantom at : mayavi.blogspot.com and read the blog titled “Will our Attitude change ever” dated the 16th January, 2005.

It is about how much each individual can contribute by even small deeds and minimal abstinence, towards development of a country. In the context of a country it is highly misconstrued that development means only economic development. In fact it refers as much to social development, development of moral values, development of ethics etc. And every individual whether rich or poor can definitely contribute a lot towards each of these aspects of development, more so by abstaining from certain unethical habits which have adverse impact on the economy, society and health of the country.

In this post I am focussing on a particular unethical habit or say sin committed by passengers travelling by trains in India. Let me confess that I myself have been guilty of this sin and that is the reason I took it upon myself not only to abstain from this sin but also to do my bit in highlighting the same to others.

I am referring here to the simple act of throwing used tea cups, plastic bottles, empty food packets and all garbage that we produce while travelling, out of the window of the train and make both sides of the Railway tracks among the most unhygenic places. The Indian Railway has laid down more than 63000 kilometres (kms) of Railway tracks in India. Imagine the whole stretch of the 63000 kms. being littered with garbage generated by the passengers and the magnitude of damage it creates. The range of damage includes Air pollution, spread of diseases by decomposed materials, corrosion of the railway tracks by chemical reactions, harmful and unlawful use of plastic materials by villagers surrounding the tracks to name a few. And the worst of all is the crime of attracting small poor children who would be encouraged to pick up those thrown food packets to eat the left overs which is a shame on any civilised country.

Now imagine the expenditure to the Government in undoing all these damages created by our very much avoidable sin. Some of these damages cannot be prevented and results in long term depletion in health of human resources in the country.

On the other hand if we collect all the garbages generated by us during our journey and put it in dust-bin in the nearest Railway platforms it would be so much economical for the Railways to segregate the degradable and non-degradable garbage, clean them up fast, use materials like paper cups etc for recycling, use the organic matters for production of organic manure which can be in-turn be used for providing us with pesticide free vegetables and a more healthy human resources. Let us understand that in proper disposal of garbage there is not only lot to be saved, but there is lot to be earned too.

I hope I am able to convey how a small sin can have such a huge adverse impact and how its abstenance can do a world of good to us. The impact of this sin is no less than the Tsunami we faced only that the impact is slow and invisible. All it needs is development of our minds enough to realise not only the good that we as individuals can do to our country but also the grave impact of the bad that we individuals are doing to the country.

If you find substance in what I have just told please spread this word of abstenance within your circle of acquaintence and request them in-turn to continue this chain of awareness creation, I am sure with our little efforts India can develop much faster.

One more campaign is long due to be launched for which I solicit the help of our bloggers associated with media to make it stronger and far reaching. The trains of the Indian Railway is among the most unique in the world where we have toilets open to the track below. I do not think we can ask for a more worse environmental pollution than this. Do you know that maximum corrosion or damage to the Railway tracks and steel sleepers joining these tracks, are caused by these open toilets. Indian Railway imports special non-corrosive steel much costlier than ones used internationally, to overcome this wear and tear. In this era of civilised, educated, sophisticated and westernised society that we live in, is it not high time that we make vociferous demand to stop use of this uncivilised primitive form of toilets in the trains.