Of water, population and plastic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the course of his Independence Day speech delivered from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Thursday, has flagged off a number of very important issues pertaining to healthy growth of the country. While he dealt at length on issues like revoking Article 370 and 35A, Jammu and Kashmir, bringing about a law against Triple Talaq to protect the rights of our Muslim women, making major amendments in laws to counter-terrorism and to make it more stringent and powerful, the changing scope of war, and so on, he particularly underlined three issues that definitely stand out and require to draw more attention of the people of this country. One, that of water. As he has pointed out, though every government since Independence has done a lot of work on their own way, yet it is a fact that today almost half of the households in the country do not have drinking water. Families, whether in rural or in urban India, have to struggle to get drinking water. Women, irrespective of age, are still compelled to travel several kilometres carrying a load of water on their heads. A large part of the lives of people is thus spent in struggling for water. With climate change really happening, water sources in cities like Bangalore and Chennai are beginning to dry up. Given this situation, Prime Minister Modi has not only declared a ‘Jal-Jeevan’ Mission to ensure availability of water in every house, but has also called upon the citizens to use water judiciously. Taking over as Prime Minister for the second consecutive term, Modi had only 75 days ago promised to spend more than Rs 3.5 lakh crore on this Jal-Jeevan Mission in the coming years. He has rightly called for serious work on water conservation, irrigation, rain-water harvesting, sea-water or waste-water treatment, underlining the need for mounting a strong campaign for water conservation. The Prime Minister has particularly called for arousing the sensitivity of citizens so that they understand the importance of water, apart from urging that children too should be taught about water conservation as part of their curriculum in their childhood. The second very important issue the Prime Minister touched upon during his Independence Day speech is population. Pointing out that rapidly increasing population has posed various new challenges for the country and for the future generations, he very tactfully indicated that certain sections of people in this country are yet to consider family planning as socio-economic necessity. Relating giving birth to more children to an unhealthy and uneducated society, the Prime Minister has clearly stated that those with small families express patriotism, and need to be honoured and emulated. And the third most important issue that he flagged during the course of his speech is making India free from single-use plastic. Asking people to form teams and move out from homes, schools and colleges and move out of home collecting single-use plastic from homes, streets, chowks, and drains, he has also asked municipal bodies and gram panchayats to make arrangements to collect single-use plastic. Determined to leave no stone unturned, Prime Minister Modi also appealed to shopkeepers to put a signboard asking customers not to use plastic and polythene bags and instead encourage them to bring cloth bags. Going another step forward in his typical way, Modi also asked companies to give away cloth bags as New Year and Diwali gifts instead of diaries and calendars and sweets. As he has said – “If you give a diary or calendar, nothing will happen. But if you give a bag, that will be a medium of your advertisement. It should be a jute bag. It will help farmers. The cloth bag will help farmers. These are all small things. It will help poor widows who are into sewing. Our small steps can change the lives of ordinary people and we have to work towards that.” Very important food for thought indeed, and that too from a Prime Minister.

Also read: Government Going Full Tilt With ‘Spasht Neeti, Sahi Disha’: Narendra Modi