By Our Reporter
Shillong: One of the famous quotes of Mahatma Gandhi, Be the change you want to see in the world, has gained prominence in the minds of the youth of Shillong which is evident from their enthusiasm to restore this pine city to its former glory.
Hundreds of young people of Shillong, mostly college-going students gathered at U Soso Tham auditorium here on Tuesday to discuss on some burning issues — conservation of water, reduction in the use of plastics, helping people to maintain their physical health and saving the Umkhrah river from being condemned to a drain.
A learning experience for the youth, this one-day sensitization programme co-hosted by Initiatives of Change, Panchgani and the Meghalaya Institute of Governance has stoked the feeling of oneness among the youth who have resolved to become agents of change to prevent the slow destruction of this city.
Prof R Rajagopalan, who had taught at IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, Dilip Patel, National Coordinator, ‘India I Care!’ Movement, and prominent intellectual from Nagaland, Niketu Iralu inspired the youths to play a role in saving this city.
In the morning session, Prof Rajagopalan made a powerful presentation of the horrific impact of climate change and the rate at which it is happening. “Our ecological footprint has exceeded the size of the earth and if we are alive today it is because we are borrowing from our tomorrow which belongs to the future generation,” Dr Rajagopalan said adding that anyone who believes that exponential growth is sustainable is either a fool or an economist. Dilip Patel, exhorting the young audience said, “To remake any change, we must resolve to start with ourselves. He got the youth into a number of interactive exercises and raised three critical questions for their group discussions. The first set of groups focused on water related issues, the second on energy and plastics and health.
The youth came back with live issues stating that there is need to completely ban plastics if Shillong is to survive in the future. They proposed that more people should use public transport or walk to their destinations. Nearly all the groups made one common point – stop encroachment on the Wah Umkhrah and “lets restore it into a river,” was their call. Those looking at health issues felt that smoking and consumption of tobacco was a major concern and said they would spread awareness by starting with themselves. Some groups suggested that the youth should clean their localities once a month.
Meanwhile, prominent intellectual from Nagaland, Niketu Iralu appealed to the youth to fight issues on the basis of principles while asking them to realize that each person’s conviction will infinitely gain only if other souls also believe in it.
‘Initiatives of Change’ (IofC) formerly known as the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) is a global movement of people who believe that change starts from self and who dedicate their lives towards spreading this movement around the world. In India, IofC is head-quarted at Asia Plateau, Panchgani, Maharashtra where professionals, intellectuals, manager, administrators, politicians, young people from across the globe congregate for various courses throughout the year.
IofC will collaborate with ICARE in their endeavour to restore the Wah Umkhrah
It is learnt that the first cleaning exercise of the Umkhrah will be organized on April 21 (April 22 World Earth Day being a Sunday) followed by a similar activity on June 5, World Environment Day.
The youth have also been made to realise that the process of restoring the Umkhrah is not a one-day affair but it will take at least one decade but it requires the convergence of hearts and minds.
Meanwhile, sharing their experience on their involvement in introducing the unique concept of ‘zero waste’ in the city, the North East Educational & Development Society (NEEDS), a city-based NGO mentioned that schools and localities are being taught the practices of vermi-composting, recycling, and other environmental preservation techniques.
“NEEDS has been able to turn Mawklot, a locality situated in the city outskirts, into a ‘zero waste’ locality wherein a self-help group from the locality has been able to create wealth by converting waste into compost”, NEEDS programme coordinator, Edward Thma proudly narrated.