"Fostering Scientific Temperament in Effacing Superstitious Belief"

   FOSTERING SCIENTIFIC TEMPERAMENT IN EFFACING SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF

“Scientific Temper” describes an attitude which involves the application of logic and not having blind beliefs. It is an antidote for superstitious beliefs prevalent in our society. It has been reflected in policy initiatives starting from the Science Policy Resolution 1958 to Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, 2013.  Fostering scientific temper is one of our Fundamental Duties enshrined in our constitution. On the other hand, superstitious beliefs are deeply rooted in our society which we witness in everyday life. Time and again scholars have suggested promotion of scientific temper for ‘logical thinking and reasoning’.

Reasoning is a part of ‘scientific temper’ is not new to Indians, at least methodologically, however we are not free from superstitious beliefs; hence, they clash with one another. The word ‘scientific temper’ was first used by Jawaharlal Nehru in his autobiography, Discovery of India in 1946. For him scientific temper was the temper of free man and ‘should be a way of life, a process of thinking, and method of acting and associating with fellowmen’. The fundamental feature of scientific temper was ‘the spirit of enquiry and acceptance of the right to question and to be questioned’. In a boarder framework, scientific temper should be the basis of our knowledge gathering. The scientific policy resolution (SPR) of the government of India, adopted be both the Houses of Parliament in 1958, reflected the national aspiration based on Nehru’s concept of scientific temper. Scientific Policy Resolution is an expression of Indian political leaders’ faith in science and the role technology could play in national development.

Superstition is based on belief systems and belief systems are structures of norms that are interrelated and vary primarily in the degree on which they are systematic. What is systemic in the belief system is the interrelation between several beliefs. Belief systems are the stories we tell ourselves to define our personal sense of reality. Superstition in India can be categorized in many ways varying from luck, auspiciousness, ghosts, supernatural beings, animals, witchcraft, sexuality, and reproduction. They often destroy our social fabric and create hurdles in development. There are superstitious prevalent in India. To see an elephant before a journey is considered to be auspicious. Breaking of glass is bad omen. People do not have a shave, haircut or cut their nails on Thursday, Tuesday and Saturday believing it brings bad omen. In Indian culture, one rupee note or coin is considered auspicious; on any auspicious occasion a one rupees note or coin is additionally given with bigger note like rupees50, 100 and 500. Furthermore, this country has witnessed the growth of numerous self- styled fake god men or charismatic leader.

The nature of superstitions in age-old society was different from today’s modern society. In earlier society, superstitions existed because of lack of knowledge about our surrounding environment, now it exists because of our ignorance and lack of critical thinking. There were many mysteries that were beyond common sense. So people started following superstitions to overcome puzzles and ambiguity in life. As knowledge grew overtime, human beings solved the puzzles of life, but superstitious beliefs are still dominant in our modern society. Our traditional culture is also responsible for promoting superstitions in our society. There have been elements of orthodoxy which forbid our society to question our traditional culture, belief and knowledge. This is the biggest fault of our society that it continues to propagate with the younger generation.

Superstitions are born out of ignorance of how Nature functions. Science is devoted to the unravelling of the mysteries of Nature. As one particular mystery is solved, we should expect the superstition based on it to vanish. But, this has not happened in practice because of lack of scientific outlook in the typical human being. While we live in a scientific age, there should be evidence of scientific temper in the people, community, and society as a whole.

It has been argued that such knowledge helps in protection of our environment and promotes awareness of climate change as it widens the scope for conservation and protection through knowledge of the environment. For instance, in some societies, there is a superstitious belief of ‘tree-worship’. However, if necessity arises people do not hesitate to chop it down. In such cases, scientific temper will act like an agent that encourages critical thinking which will help in conservation of nature. Even scientists who practice science do not necessarily have scientific temper. Scientific temper does not lead to liberalism or liberal intellectualism but it helps a person to train oneself with the tools required for liberal thinking. The most important of this tool is having an open mind and unbiased point of view.

In recent past, Raja Rammohan Roy contributed significantly towards India’s transition to modernity. Roy’s social reforms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries narrowed the gap in attitude towards science and technology between India and Europe. Roy paved the way for creating the need for a rational outlook on several occasions through his social reforms. Likewise, Rajendra Mitra the first modern Ideologist of Indian origin and a key figure in the Bengal Renaissance, took on the baton for promoting social reforms through rational thought.

After Nehru, there has been a consistent approach to foster scientific temper in our society. The Nehru Centre, Bombay issued a document titled ‘A Statement of Scientific Temper’ on 19^th July 1981 with an aim to generate a nationwide discussion and to create a movement for the much needed second renaissance in the country. In 2011, an attempt was made to revisit the 1981 statement of Scientific Temper.

Scientific temper offers solutions and counter arguments which should be promoted in our society. This would bring about rationality and critical thinking. Recommendations for promotion of scientific temper should be a part of our school curriculum syllabus. From the nascent stage, if school children are taught to embrace the rational approach in their lives then it will definitely encourage critical thinking in them. The educated parents should encourage their children to think critically. They should not impose their superstitious beliefs on their children. Parents should provide their children an environment for free expression, questioning and democratic atmosphere at home. There is a need to ask for evidence or proof so as to develop a critical mindset and encounter superstitious beliefs.

This may not be a concern for many people whether or not ‘superstitious belief’ is a product of Indian culture. However, narration of mythical stories has been the part of our culture, but there has been little or no prevalence of stories that promote scientific reasoning, critical thinking and counter superstitious beliefs. Hence, stories that promote rationality or at least creation of spaces for dialogues should be encouraged. Those who think ‘blind – beliefs’ should be eradicated must know that spread of education and knowledge is one of the ways to untangle the puzzled events.

Scientific temper develops analytical ability, reasoning and aptitudes. It encourages scientific explanation and validation of truth. There are many facets of education, for many of us getting jobs is considered as the ultimate goal of education and thus where the problem lies. Perhaps this is the reason why dogmatic beliefs are held even by educated people. The spirit of inquiry should be encouraged as questioning catalyzes critical thinking, and critical thinking leads to innovation and problem solving ability.

"Get the Hint, Don't Leave Your Footprint"

 

ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

Environment is a multifaceted of physical, chemical and biotic factors that acts upon the organism for its survival. It is the key of life on the earth. In the environment living and non-living things interact to form different ecosystems.

It plays a vital role in the existence of life on planet earth. Earth is the only home for humans and it provide us with all our necessities. It is important that each and every one of us should save and protect the environment as our entire life support depends on the well-being of all the environmental factors. Also, it is a source of natural beauty which is important for one’s health too. But are we all concern about our mother nature or just concerned with our selfish needs?

Are we truly breathing in a clean and green environment or it’s a reverie? Day by day increase in the level of air pollution due burning of waste in the discarding ground has caused serious issues and are impairing the human population.

The vicissitudes in the environment caused by the selfish deeds of the human have caused damage to the mother earth. Global warming, pollution, destruction of Forest, natural calamities (Floods, earthquakes etc.), different types of pollutions (air, water, sound), more poison chemical discharge etc. has cause damage to our environment. Thus, it is necessary to levy restraint on the cruel deeds of so called intelligent- human beings.

To combat the issues associated with the environment, environmental laws are introduced. Environmental law ensures that unscrupulous individuals, governments and cooperates don’t cause any harm to the environment or its ecosystems. It provides a tenet so that environmental issues can be taken care of in a defeating manner. Two basic aspects that come under these laws is conservation and management.

Some laws related to environmental protection and wildlife in India are:

1.The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

2.The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980

3.The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

4.Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974

5.Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981

6.The Indian Forest Act, 1927.

There are different legal organizations, NGO’s or other social bodies that take care of the implementation of the above rules and the others. They work to preserve the environment without being saddled by any human rights baggage. 

Also by taking small steps in our house and creating mass awareness among the people these issues can be solved. But first we need to be aware by ourselves. For that at household level we can have 3 bins for throwing waste which are marked as wet waste, dry waste and recyclable waste. The wet waste can be used for the preparation of compost which can be used to provide nutrition to the plants at our homes. The recyclable waste can be given to the scrap collector instead of throwing anywhere. Also, we can use the waste plastic bottles for making self-watering plant. 

By just taking such small steps we can go towards a clean and green earth with less amount of pollution.

  “Some people WANT it to happen,

Some WISH it would happen,

Others MAKE it happen”

Let’s It is to be remember that a clean and healthy environment is essential for the growth and development of the human race. So let put our hands together to make this a cleaner, greener and heathier environment. Remember that we have only one earth to live in!

Reference:

1. https://www.coursehero.com/file/76834632/environmentdocx/
2. https://faq-law.com/why-do-we-need-environmental-laws/
3. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/environmental-law-and-its-components.php
4. https://www.facebook.com/930942563730282/posts/e-stands-for-environment-our-environment-is-of-great-value-to-us-it-plays-an-imp/1705942372896960/

"Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and diligence"

 

“RELEVANCE OF NEW EDUCATION POLICY 2020 IN PROLIFERATING AND SHAPING HUMAN RESOURCES”

                                                                                                    

Education policy consists of the principles and government policies within the educational sphere as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. It is implemented through institutions for various purposes. Examples include early childhood education, kindergarten through to 12th grade, graduate and professional education, adult education and job training. Thus, education policy directly affects the education of individuals engross in at all ages.

People as human resources are important because they can make the best use of nature to create more resources by applying knowledge, skills and technology. In today’s world everybody is in need of fast technology and human resources and during this process education and health provides a key role in making people a treasured resource. Moreover, the human resource plays a notable role within the economy of a country by contributing to its productivity. The other resource becomes useful due to the input by the human resource. Thus, investment in human capital yields a return and it’s done through education, training, and healthcare.

The NEP aims to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GRE) to 50 per cent by 2035. It includes higher education, including vocational education from 26.3 per cent in 2018 to 50 per cent by 2035. The new Education Policy 2020 will play a key role in proliferating and shaping human resources and eventually an increase in the literacy rate of India. It aims to bring a reform in the higher education sector by providing a scope in all round progress of the children.

The main change that the new education policy can bring will be seen is that the teaching till class 5 has to be done in mother tongue or regional language .Moreover, this policy mainly focusses on the research-based teaching which is kind of contracting to the old teaching methods which are based only on the marks obtained rather than knowledge gained. The examination criteria will change from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment that will help the students to go in deep of each subject and gain knowledge instead of memorization.

Students will have to appear for examinations in grades III, IV, and VIII, which will be conducted by the assigned authority. A new National Assessment Centre, called PARAKH, which is short for Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development, will be established as a standard-setting body.

Now the main of multidisciplinary colleges and universities will be to have an outstanding education department offer BEd, MEd, & PhD degrees. In addition, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a four-year integrated BEd degree by 2030. A wide range of institutions starting from research- intensive universities to teaching- intensive universities and autonomous degree-granting colleges will be available that will provide a broader scope of study and research for all the students. Moreover, over a period every college will develop into either an autonomous degree-granting college, or a constituent college of a university. Also, more than 3.5 crore new seats will be added to the higher-education institutions.

 The main limelight of the scheme is that the Government also plans to bring back two crore out-of-school children into the mainstream. There will be open learning for classes III, V and VIII through the National Institute of Open Schooling and State Open Schools’ secondary education programmed equivalent to Grades X and XII. Moreover, multilingualism will be promoted in schools as well as higher-educational institutions.

The policy can help reshape the future of the students and help the emerging job seekers if it is implemented effectively. The policy says, “There will be no hard separation among ‘curricular’, ‘extracurricular’, or ‘co-curricular’, among ‘arts’, ‘humanities’, and ‘sciences’, or between ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ streams.” In case if the students get discontinued, they can still continue their learning process from where they have left as the NEP will permit students to accumulate and retain their credits. Additionally, the essential skills include vocational exposure and skills; digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking help in the versatile development of a student.

Thus, overall, the NEP 2020 is a really upright policy as it aims at making the education system holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, aligned to the needs of the 21st century and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and making the students future ready. Thus, the key to success will be the way how this policy is implemented and will help in shaping the human resources.

Reference:

1.               Education policy - Wikipedia
2.           https://www.hrkatha.com/news/union-cabinet-gives-green-signal-to-new-education-policy-2020/
3.    https://www.peoplematters.in/article/executive-education/impact-of-new-education-policy-on-employability-26554

" Believe in yourself. Your limitation—it's only your imagination"

     “Everything has inner brightness and also everywhere there is a ray of hope”

The light ray coming out of a small key hole enlightens it, as behind the darkness there is always a shine of hope or a silver lining is still present. The beam of light is thin and smooth as hair gushing through the imperfections of the door overpowering the beasts of darkness, bringing them a radiant smile.

To bring this inner brightness out an external effort is always required otherwise this inner brightness get evanesced. The efforts can be given in the form of creating opportunities or by coercing. We all need to know and should able to bring out our inner brightness by unlocking all the doors present as a barrier in front of us and lead the world in a productive way.

There will be days where will be happy and where we will said, practically we can say life is like a sine curve; sometimes we have are at the pick of positive half cycle of the sine curve which is period of jovial and immediately after sometime we are at the negative peak which is the period of despondent. But we shouldn't loose hope as where there is will there is a way. We should see life by a different perspective that whenever sadness comes it brings fortune and joy along with it. 

We must remember that “the difference between darkness and brightness is how we thrive on those moments and how we use such circumstances with goodwill in our spirit.”