Education, Environmental (India)

Education, Environmental (India)

India’s ecological diversity poses formidable challenges for its environmental education initiatives, which have been gaining momentum since the 1980s. An active civil society, a multitude of grassroots movements, and the government are shaping environmental awareness and education. As India’s economy continues to expand rapidly, both formal and informal institutions are actively transforming initiatives for environmental education in the country. Many challenges remain, especially those associated with India’s “demographic dividend.”

genetically modified crops are often shaped by the competing viewpoints that come from the differing beliefs people hold about their relationship with the natural environment. On these issues, the country’s vibrant democracy facilitates a culture of healthy public debate. Environmental education in India continues to be shaped by the ways in which these debates are conducted, and it is a fertile zone for disagreement and compromise in the country today.

Historical Background

T

he character of environmental education initiatives in any society has to be understood as an outcome of its historical and sociocultural conditions. India is the world’s largest democracy, and ecologically it is a land of tremendous diversity. Culturally it is varied as well, with close to thirty officially recognized languages, twenty-two thousand distinct dialects, many ethnic groups, and a large tribal population. India also has the world’s second largest population and is inhabited by more than a billion people, many of whom continue to subsist on agricultural and forest products. Finally, it is the home of most major religions in the world, all of which have shaped each other over time and many of which espouse their own distinct beliefs on the nature, meaning, and management of the environment. For these reasons, discussions of environmental awareness and education in India must be built around an appreciation of the interplay among the economic, cultural, and political forces that are shaping the region both formally and informally. India’s diversity means that environmental issues often provoke conflicting reactions from different social groups, which adds to the difficulty of discussing environmental education. For instance, debates over the need for big dams, nuclear power, or

Since attaining independence in 1947, India’s leaders have faced the challenging task of advancing a shared understanding of how to manage a large population living in an ecologically diverse subcontinental landmass. After the departure of the British, India emerged as a democratic republic with a federal structure, which provided the framework for its people to manage their state, their ecology, and their economy. Under the leadership of its fi rst prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru—a socialist leader with an abiding commitment to environmental conservation—India’s challenge was to balance strengthening the weak postcolonial economy (reliant largely on agriculture) with the imperative of keeping India democratic and free. India inherited a rich and diverse body of environmental learning when it became independent, and its multicultural character has ensured that it has served as a crucible for the production of knowledge pertinent to environmental conservation. This is because groups living in different agroclimatic regions have developed a variety of environmentally sensitive practices that have been refined over centuries and have stood the test of time. For instance, the historical water conservation methods of Rajasthan’s nomadic tribal communities continue to

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EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL (INDIA)

shape current water management policies in this desert region. The same is true of coastal communities and their relationship with marine ecosystems. Both populations rely on premodern practices of sustainability and pass this knowledge on through locally embedded systems of environmental education. Environmental education practices in contemporary India, therefore, result from the interplay between traditional and modern forms of knowledge—between communally embedded ideas about conservation on the one hand, and more recent governmental attempts at national assets management on the other. As India’s movement for independence from British rule gained momentum at the beginning of the twentieth century, men like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore articulated a conception of environmental protection that sought harmony between premodern and modern concepts of ecology. To varying degrees, their views on sustainability, environmental protection, and ecological harmony have shaped the dominant currents of environmental education in independent India. Indeed, it would be fair to say that many varieties of environmentalism in India today continue to build on the legacy of these thinkers. Since the 1970s, environmental education has been sustained by new energies unleashed from the state, civic organizations, and (more informally) a plethora of environmental movements in different parts of the country. From this period on, the sense of urgency accorded to the need for environmental education has been largely a response to the mounting concern for environmental protection in a maturing nation. In the late 1980s environmental education began to be impacted by the global environmental movement as well, as a result of India’s growing awareness of it during the previous decades. The adoption of neoliberal economic reforms by the Indian government in 1991 gave India’s environmental engagement with the world a further boost, a momentum that was sustained by a boom in communications technology and the growth of India’s mobile transnational workforce. All of these forces built on the intellectual foundations that had been laid during India’s movement for national independence, and

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provided the fertile ground in which India’s environmental education initiatives continue to take root.

Government Initiatives In 1972, the fi rst United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden. The Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi—the only head of state to attend—highlighted the link between poverty and the environment: Unless we are in a position to provide employment and purchasing power for the daily necessities of the tribal people and those who live in or around our jungles, we cannot prevent them from combing the forests for food and livelihood; from poaching and from despoiling the vegetation. . . . How can we speak to those who live in villages and slums about keeping the oceans, the rivers, and the air clean when their own lives are contaminated at the source? The environment cannot be improved in conditions of poverty. (Gandhi 1996, 15) The Indian government’s efforts with respect to environmental education grew out of conference deliberations, and were formally initiated around the time of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education in Tbilisi, USSR, in 1977. The recommendations that emerged from that conference recognized the pressing need for increasing awareness of environmental problems and understanding the interrelationships between human beings and the environment. The 1970s and 1980s were a period of concerted planning and institution building for environmental education. The governmentfunded Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had both supported environmental research over the years, creating momentum for other institutions to build upon. Two notable institutions were established in New Delhi—the School of Environmental Sciences at


106 • THE BERKSHIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUSTAINABILITY: CHINA, INDIA, AND EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1974, and the Centre for Energy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1976—creating a framework for the growth of higher education in environmental studies. By using a multidisciplinary approach that integrated environmental studies into geology, chemistry, physics, and biology, these institutions laid the foundation for a comprehensive environmental education curriculum in schools and colleges. The rich experience and perspectives gained in these institutions motivated many young minds to respond to issues of modern industrial growth and its impact on the environment and ecosystems. It was at this time that popular-science movements initiated through citizen forums on science and mass campaigns like Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti actively dedicated themselves to deepening environmental education with a focus on environmental protection. In 1980 Indira Gandhi’s government created the Department of Environment. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), and more particularly the Ministry of Environment and Forests that was created in 1985, have been largely responsible for the dissemination of environmental education in India. In this period, an institutional framework was laid out for systematically promoting environmental education. “Centres of Excellence,” such as the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in Ahmedabad and the C. P. Ramaswami Environmental Education Centre in Chennai, have been carrying out a range of interventions for integrating environmental education into the learning environment for children in both urban and rural India. Other programs, like the National Green Corps and the National Environment Awareness Campaign, are supplemented by outreach and funding for environmental education initiatives. The Environmental Orientation to School Education program (supported by the MHRD) is based on the idea that a compact area with a distinct ecosystem should be the basic unit for designing education programs. The program provides assistance to relevant voluntary organizations for developing location-specific teaching materials and innovative programs that relate student activities to local environmental concerns. Finally, the 1986 National Policy on Education states clearly that environmental education must form an integral part of the curriculum at all educational levels to


ensure that students appreciate the importance of protecting the environment.

Civic Engagement and Nongovernmental Organizations By the mid-1980s India’s institutional framework for environmental education was taking shape—but how successful were the government’s attempts at incorporating environmental education into the real lives of India’s people? This question remains unanswered, in part because the quality of instruction varies widely from school to school, and also because there are serious questions about whether teachers are as prepared as they need to be to provide this quality instruction. Having said this, it is clear that environmental awareness has increased over the past few decades. The scale of civic engagement with environmental politics grew dramatically in the 1980s, and it is highly likely that the formalization of environmental education and the increase in environmental civic activism fed off each other. The realization of the promise of environmental education, as envisioned in the state’s multipronged framework, owes as much to the conscious environmental activism of citizens and the active role played by the judiciary in India in the 1990s as it does to government initiatives. The noted lawyer M. C. Mehta fi led petitions in 1991 and 2004 urging India’s Supreme Court to direct the National Council for Education and Training (NCERT) and University Grants Commission to introduce environmental education as a mandatory subject in schools and colleges all over India. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like the Uttrakhand Seva Nidhi and the Kerala Sastra Sahitiya Parishad have conducted key experiments in grounding environmental education in the lives of individual communities to allow them to manage their ecologies in a planned and considered manner. These initiatives have linked environmental education with community action for environmental protection successfully. Other NGOs actively committed to promoting environmental education are Eklavya, Kalpvriksha, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the Foundation for Ecological Security.


EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL (INDIA)

The founding of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) by Anil Aggarwal and Sunita Narain, Development Alternatives by Ashok Khosla, the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology, and Navdanya by Vandana Shiva needs to be considered in the context of this increasing popular awareness about the environment and the growth of citizen-led initiatives. Each of these organizations has in its own way advocated for a radical version of environmentalism that assumes an intimate link between the natural resources and livelihoods of small and marginal communities. Their outreach activities have brought a political edge to environmental education by stressing the relevance of issues of justice and equity in the environmental debate, and their magazines—such as CSE’s Down to Earth for adults and Gobar Times for children— have played a crucial role in disseminating information about the importance of environmental conservation and in documenting key environmental issues in India. By reaffi rming that a stable ecology forms the backbone of environment as a human-centered domain, these NGOs have enriched environmental education in India. They have demonstrated that as India’s reliance on natural resources grows in conjunction with its rapidly expanding economy, environmental problems are best addressed by balancing the fi ndings of hard science with sociopolitical mobilizations that are often local, grounded, and concerned with the immediacy of everyday life. Questions regarding the management of land, water, and air are central to many policy discussions in India today, and are hotly debated in India’s democratic spaces. Experiments in environmental education engage with these discussions, and are expanding their reach and impact.

The Question of Our Times In 2007 the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education was held at the CEE. Participants adopted the Ahmedabad Declaration, which noted (among other things) the increasing income disparity in India, the challenges of managing climate change, the loss of India’s biodiversity, and the increasing popularity of ecologically destructive, unsustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns among the young. The declaration received wide circulation even as India’s economy continued to grow, and is a sobering reminder of the challenges confronting environmental education in this fast-changing country. Often it has been observed that in the coming decades India will benefit a great deal from its “demographic dividend”—the fact that the majority of Indians are below the age of twenty-five. While this demographic attribute


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is indeed likely to benefit India’s economy—since a large proportion of the population will remain a part of the country’s workforce for many decades to come—the challenge for those committed to environmental education is the following: to what degree is India’s predominantly young population educated about the need to embrace a sustainable future? India has made rapid progress in its environmental policy framework over the past three decades, but how enthusiastically those constituting the country’s demographic dividend will embrace ecologically responsible practices remains to be seen. For environmental education to realize its fullest potential in India, the government, civic organizations, and the private sector will have to pool their resources and creativity in the service of environmental sustainability for many years to come. Vivek BHANDARI and Independent scholar, Jaipur, India Rahul GHAI Independent development practitioner, Western Rajasthan See also Activism, Judicial; Education, Environmental (China); Education, Environmental ( Japan); Education, Female; Gandhism; India; Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs); Rule of Law

FURTHER READING Bharucha, Erach. (2004). Textbook for environmental studies for undergraduate courses of all branches of higher education . New Delhi: University Grants Commission. Bharucha, Rustam. (2003). Rajasthan: An oral history. Delhi: Penguin. C. P. Ramaswami Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC). (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www. cpreec.org/ Centre for Energy Studies (CES). (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://ces.iitd.ac.in/ Centre for Environment Education (CEE). (n.d.a). About CEE. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.ceeindia.org/cee/ index.htm Centre for Environment Education (CEE). (n.d.b). Education for children. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.ceeindia.org/ cee/educationfor_children.html Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). (2012). Homepage. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.cseindia.org/ Development Alternatives. (2011). Homepage. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.devalt.org/ Down to Earth. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.downtoearth.org.in/ Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). (2012). Homepage. Retrieved March 31, 2012, from http://fes.org.in/ Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE). (2007, November 24–28). Th e Ahmedabad Declaration 2007: A call to action. Ahmedabad, India. Gadgil, Madhav, & Guha, Ramachandra. (1998). Towards a perspective on environmental movements in India. Indian Journal of Social Work , 59 (1), 449–472.


108 • THE BERKSHIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUSTAINABILITY: CHINA, INDIA, AND EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: ASSESSING SUSTAINABILITY Gandhi, Indira. (1996). Safeguarding environment. New Delhi: New Age International Publishers. (Original work published 1984) Gobar Times. (2012). Homepage. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.gobartimes.org/ Gopal, Brij. (2005). Issues in ecological research and environmental management. Bulletin of the National Institute of Ecology, 15, 277–286. Green Teacher. (2012). Homepage. Retrieved April 2, 2012, from http://www.greenteacher.org/ M. C. Mehta v. Union of India, Supplementary Affidavit on Behalf of NCERT, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 800, Supreme Court of India (1991). Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. (n.d.a). Homepage. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://moef.nic.in/ index.php Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. (n.d.b). About the Ministry: Centre for Environment Education. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://moef.nic.in/modules/


about-the-ministry/centres-of-excellence/?f=environmentaleducation&l=l1 Navdanya. (2009). Homepage. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://www.navdanya.org/ Panigrahi, Srikanta K. (2004). Environment education: Need of the hour. Yojana , 48 (6), 13–22. Rangarajan, Mahesh, & Sivaramakrishnan, Kalavathi. (2012). India’s environmental history (2 vols.). Ranikhet, India: Permanent Black. Sarabhai, Kartikeya V.; Raghunathan, Meena; & Jain, Shivani. (2002). Environmental education: Some experiences from India. In Bishnu B. Bhandari & Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) (Eds.), The path to success: Some pioneering examples of environmental education. Hayama, Japan: IGES. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved April 5, 2012, from http://www.jnu. ac.in/main.asp?sendval=SchoolOfEnvironmentalSciences Sonowal, C. J. (2009). Environmental education in schools: Th e Indian scenario. Journal of Human Ecology, 28 (1), 15–36.
