Losing balance

 It is nothing short of a defining moment for a young nation like ours. A scientist, educational reformer and climate activist is on a hunger strike for 19 days for a just cause and the government is turning a blind eye to the problem being highlighted. 

Can we pause for a moment and keep aside our presumptions about Mr Sonam Wangchuk and think logically about the issue at hand? Or have we gone so past caring that unless the guy dies and a movie gets made on him, this time highlighting how Phungsuk Wangdu tried his level best to raise the standard of education in India, raise awareness about climate change and demanded statehood for Ladakh, only to meet the ire of the center and to be labelled as an anti-national and a Chinese agent (ahem...racism!) while the other idiots merely looked at the proceedings like some uninteresting reality show that only deserved a moments attention amongst the million other clickbaits and ragebaits that demanded more attention? 

The world is in the midst of a super el niño, the proportions of which have never been experienced before in our living history, all thanks to climate change. In the middle of July, India has barely received enough rainfall to even start the sowing of Kharif crop. We are already struggling and are likely to suffer for longer from the prolonged impacts of the Strait of Hormuz blockade. Himalayan glaciers are melting are record rates. Freak rainfall and cloudburst events in one part of the country and falling reserviour levels in another part are a becoming common sign of the El Niño phenomenon. Is the impact limited to certain regions? Absolutely not! An increase in the night time temperatures is causing the most vulnerable groups to lose hours of sleep, directly impacting economic productivity. Heat waves have already caused our cities and countrysides to declare holidays for schools and bans on outdoor work between 12-4 pm. 

Do we still not realise the impacts of climate change on our economy, livelihood, resource security and well being in general? 

Now against this backdrop, here's a scientist who has successfully found solutions to certain major issues faced by the high altitude regions of Ladakh and their surroundings. Right from creating an innovative ice stupa that serves as a source of water for the cold desert during summer to sustainable architecture that keeps Ladakhi homes warm during winter and cool during Summers to creating solar powered tents for our army that'll keep our soldiers warm in the extreme cold of Siachin. This is also the same guy who has used innovative practices to improve the standard of education in Ladakh and provide Ladakhi youth with vocational skills that make them employable and improve their general standard of living. 

Why is it then, that when this guy has been on a hunger strike for the past 19 days, demanding a simple dialogue with the government, so that they can repair the damage done by the NEET and CBSE exams fiascos, that the government isn't even willing to send a representative to hear him out? Have we become so out of touch with reality that the sufferings of lakhs of students (our future workforce, our demographic dividend) is deemed to be miniscule in front of other problems? 

Let's keep the political differences aside for a moment. Are we really saying that a government machinery that has time to make reels on the success of Dhurandhar and equate it with its own success in the field of defence, has no time to spare to even hear the concerns raised by an eminent scientist and reformer? Whether at the end of the day they take into account his pointers is another thing, but to not even hear him out, grudgingly even, and just to ignore him, while he fasts unto death, is cruel! 

If tomorrow, Sir David Attenborough, was to do something of this sort to get the world's attention to the manyfold planetary crisis, would we be simply ignoring him and letting him die while he pinpoints the obvious flaws in our current economic structure and rate of consumption? 

Then why are we doing this to our own scientists? Will we only feel bad for them when movies are made about how they were obviously mistreated by the then establishment and how people of their times did not believe in them because the system turned them into villains? 

The least the government can do is to have a dialogue. Otherwise, the message that goes out to the larger youth of the country becomes quite clear - we don't really care about how much time you spent studying, how much money your parents wasted on your education or even if you kill yourself because of the immense pressure we put on you as a result of the flawed educational system that we refuse to change because that would not only require a lot of ground work and policy level changes, but more importantly, it would mean that we did something wrong or we never bothered to correct the course.

Being in the educational system myself, I have seen the deplorable conditions most government and aided school and college teachers work in. Underpaid and overworked and forced to manage their teaching load with Census work, Election duties, SIR work and what not! Yet, every parent expects the best out of every teacher. They are expected to be excellent in their subjects, give undivided attention to their child, counsel their children, solve their issues, check their homework, ensure that the children are well fed, ensure that their children experience a safe and secure environment and obviously always get good marks, because otherwise, they become bad teachers! 

At the moment though, the government seems to be busy dodging this particular bullet. Taking swift action after a terror attack rightly wins brownie points, no doubt about that, and rightly so! But why don't we see the same urgency in this case? 

Why are we allowing a man of action to sacrifice his life for a cause for which he clearly has a solution? Why not allow him to guide you and work on the educational and environmental reforms that we so desparately need? Have we become so obtuse that we can no longer differentiate between the right and wrong? Or does the government only care about the Adanis and Ambanis who bring in truckloads of money and wreck havoc in ecosensitive areas in the name of development? We seem to have lost the balance here - progressing in many areas, but unwilling to accept and turning a complete blind eye to the areas which also need equal attention. 

#educationalreforms

#sonamwangchuk

#jantarmantarprotest

#climatechange