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Lessons Learnt During the Lockdown

In the last couple of months, for the first time in many years, the people of Delhi breathed fresh air! Thanks to the Covid-19 lockdown our overused lungs got a welcome break! T he chirping of birds replaced the horns and loud speakers.Delhi has also become less crowded. The Lockdown has given us time to reflect upon the changes that we need to make in our city so that we are better prepared for the future. It is time we take the Sustainable Development goals seriously. The   Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly are a collection of 17 global goals . These goals have been  designed to  ensure  a better and more sustainable future for all .  The  deadline that has been set to achieve these goals is  2030 .   I recently completed a very interesting online capacity building program conducted through the CHALKLIT platform, called “Introducing United Nations Goals in Class”. It is high time that we incorporate these goals in some way or
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The Fun They Had

"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."   Issac Asimov Students in India often find it hard to relate to the theme of the short story, ‘The Fun They Had’. The story is s et in the year 2157 whe rein  children learn at their own pace, at home . They are taught by  a mechanical teacher . In the wake of COVID19 lockdown, children are restricted to their homes. They are taught by their teachers through Teleconferencing Applications. Teachers also send them videos and PowerPoint Presentations through WhatsApp. ‘The Fun They Had’, revolves around two children Margie and Tommy . Tommy  find s  a ‘ real ’  book in the attic of his  house. The kids find it hard to accept that children could actually learn from a book which does not move! Initially, when I asked my students to download, e-books from NCERT’s website, they felt very uncomfortable. Especially, the younger ones. ‘Will we not get real books?’, they wrote on WhatsApp. The book in the
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Sense of National Identity and the Success of a Nation

When our sports-persons win and our national anthem is played don’t we struggle to hold back our tears? How do we get this feeling? Do our parents, relatives and other people around us keep giving us lectures about nationalism all the time? I don’t think so? Who has the time? In fact we keep lamenting all the time about the problems that India faces as a developing country. We see garbage everywhere, poor sanitation, shortage of water, load shedding, corruption, bad roads, rising crime etc. Yet, despite all this, we love this imperfect country and want to do something for this great nation. This, is the result of our nationality or national identity.  A nation is a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, language, inhabiting a particular country or territory. Nationality on the other hand, means the membership of a nation.  According to definition, nationality can be acquired by being born within the jurisdiction of a country, by inheriting it from par
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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND RELIGION

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"The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free." These words clearly reflect Swami Vivekananda's belief that 'Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in man'. Swami Vivekananda or Narendranath Dutta, was born in Calcutta, on the 12th of January 1863. His father Vishwanath Dutta was an attorney and was considered to be a generous man who believed in social equality. His mother Bhuvaneshwari Devi was a very religious lady and she was the one who initiated Swamiji into the world of religion. His boyish imagination was captivated by the life of Shri Ram. He started meditating playfully but sometimes he became so engrossed that he lost all awareness of the world around him. From a very young age he had a great sense of equality and interacted with people of different
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EDUCATION AND PROGRESS

“No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nurture and education. If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life. The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.” Plato In India Education continues to face stern challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 25% of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate. Women have a much lower literacy rate than men. Far fewer girls are enrolled in the schools, and many of them drop out. Concerted efforts led to improvement from 15.3% in 1961 to 28.5% in 1981. As of 2008, India's post-secondary high schools offer only enough seats for 7% of India's total college-age population. 25% of teaching positions nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors do not have either a Masters or PhD degree. World Bank statistics found that fewer than 40 percent of adolescents i
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Crane Bedi: Use education as key to empowerment

Crane Bedi: Use education as key to empowerment
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CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

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If the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution, then why are Indian women treated as second citizens in their own country? The Constitution officially grants equality to women and also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. However, the varied forms of discrimination that women in India are subject to are far from positive. It is claimed that from the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards, there has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development. Where is the development? Yes, the status of the urban woman has shown some improvement but the changes in their lifestyle were not coupled by changes in the general mindset of the people in our patriarchal society. Thus, some laws should have been framed for the protection of the newly emancipated and urbanized Indian women. What is the percentage of urban women in India , anyway? What about the rest? These privileged few
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