By M L Satyan
Bengaluru, Aug 26, 2023: Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14. The lander and rover landed near the lunar south pole region at 6:02 pm on August 23, making India the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon. Indeed, this was a proud moment for India and Indians.
The whole country was in a jubilant mood. But I was not. Why? As Chandrayaan-3 was landing on the Moon, several houses were collapsing, more than 300 people and livestock were washed away in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand due to flash floods. Sadly, the under-construction railway bridge collapsed in Mizoram killing 26 people.
No doubt that every country has to develop in all sectors, including science and technology. On August 15 the country celebrated 76th year of its Independence. What have been the country’s achievements? I invite the readers for a sincere introspection.
It is my personal view that the country’s development is imbalanced. Today we live amidst contradictions and we have become immune to them. I wish to point out certain major contradictions:
• On the one side we find skyscraper buildings and wider highways but on the other side we have shorter temperaments and narrow view points.
• We find higher income, more spending capacity, growing affluence and consumerism among people but we find low morals in individual/social life and decline of basic human values in them.
• On the one side we see bigger, finer and artistic houses but on the other side we see nuclear and broken families.
• We boast of our knowledge on various subjects but we have lost our capacity to judge things rightly.
• We note the educational institutions aiming only at academic excellence but they are not paying attention on character building.
• Today we find a greater number of talkers and preachers and but a smaller number of people who practice what they preach.
• We live in a high-tech world with electronic gadgets but we have lost connectivity with our own family members.
• Pizza or the ordered food arrives in 15 to 30 minutes but the Ambulance or Fire Service vehicle does not arrive on time.
• We find that our food production is more but they are rotting in warehouses. We find an increase in obesity among the privileged but note an increased mal-nourishment and starvation deaths among the underprivileged.
• On the one side we see an increase in multi/super specialty hospitals but on the other side poor health, Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) are on the increase.
• We have diverse culture, language, geography and yet there are divisions and increase in communal violence.
• We are blessed with plenty of natural resources – Jal, Jameen, Jungle, Minerals – but a majority population is deprived of these resources.
• India is a free, democratic and republic country and yet we note the party politics is thriving without a vision for the nation.
• We have more urban development schemes but less rural development schemes.
• There is a huge presence of security forces like Army, Navy, Air Force and yet terrorist attacks and smugglings are on the increase. We are forced to live with fear.
• In India various religions co-exist and there are innumerable places of worship and yet religious fundamentalism, fanaticism and religion-based violence are widespread.
• Today mobile phones are abundantly available and used but there is an acute scarcity of toilets both in rural and urban areas.
• Car/Two-wheeler loans are cheaper and faster today but House/Education loans are costly and slow.
• Various Goddesses are worshiped and the nation is addressed as Mother India and yet atrocities on girl children, women and widows are ever growing.
• Marriage is considered sacred among many communities and family is an important system. But it is sad to note an increase in divorces, live-in-culture and sexual violences/crimes.
• We boast of reaching the Moon and climbing the Himalayan mountains but we have failed to reach out to our neighbors.
• We have conquered the outer space and seem to have control over science and technology. Yet we have lost control on our own self and our inner space. We have little/less self-knowledge.
Today the country is facing poverty, unemployment, communal violence, human trafficking, drug abuse, smuggling, atrocities on women, human rights violations, financial decline and political instability.
Every year India witnesses intensified weather patterns, with incessant rainfall following closely on the heels of an intense heatwave that affects various parts of the country.
While various factors contribute to flooding, the experts point to climate change resulting from global warming as a significant driver of increased occurrences of heavy rainfall.
Some environmentalists have started making statements that there is a “zero disaster-preparedness”. The never-ending “blame-game” among the political parties and between the federal and state governments goes on. Whatever said and done, the bitter truth is that India is very much lacking in disaster-preparedness. We have poor and inadequate infrastructure at every level.
There are also other environment-threatening problems such as land and soil degradation, water degradation, atmospheric degradation and several other kinds of pollutions such as noise pollution, light pollution that are part of environmental degradation.
At this stage, we need to raise certain fundamental questions:
• How can we boast about sending satellites to different planets when we do not know how to protect ourselves from natural calamities like earthquakes, cyclones, floods and human-made tragedies?
• Why is our disaster preparedness/management very poor?
• Should not our scientists, who are experts in doing research in different planets, set up an effective disaster management system?
• When our villages, towns and cities are not conducive for safe-living, why should we spend crores of rupees for space research and activities?
• Are the ISRO scientists not aware of the ground-level problems that the common people, including themselves, face every day?
• Now, with all sincerity, answer this question – Can we be really proud of Chandrayan-1, 2, 3 and other achievements of ISRO?
It is time for the policy makers, federal/state governments, scientists, software technologists and research institutes to look at the ground realities and the current problems that the common people are facing in their day-to-day life. They must realise that every sector needs to have a solid foundation and try to create a conducive environment for a SAFE LIVING HERE ON EARTH.