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Sarabhai: setting ambitious targets |
Environmentalist, industrialist and educator Kartikeya V Sarabhai is on a mission to make use of the study of cultures for the advancement of society.
A participant at the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations forum taking place at the Qatar National Convention Centre, the founder director of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), which boasts of 40 offices across India and is based in Ahmedabad, Sarabhai said that his centre has embarked upon what he described as “an intangible cultural survey” of India, with a key focus on Kerala, his celebrity dancer mother Mrinalini’s home state.
On how an NGO like the CEE, which specialises on the research of the cultural links of a place, could contribute to the sustainable development of a society, Sarabhai explained: “Everything that influenced the life of people in a particular region over a certain period of time could eventually contribute to the sustainable development of a society emerging in that place.”
Son of India’s most renowned space scientist, the late Vikram Sarabhai, the environmentalist said that the CEE has focused extensively on such issues as energy and greenery, bio-diversity, water, culture and waste management as he felt each has a bearing on the lives of people everywhere.
Through the Paryavaran Mitra (Friends of Environment) Project, which organises activities at 200,000 schools across India, Sarabhai said he aims to guide, facilitate and capacity-build students, who he feels need to be made aware of the growing challenges in such fields as water, bio-diversity, culture and waste management.
The CEE hopes to enrol at least 20mn students in the first phase of the project, which started last year and ends in 2013.
“Not a single district in India will be left untouched when the mission is complete,” he said.
The campaign will not be complete until all students are aware of sustainable development, Sarabhai said.
He said that the Paryavaran Mitra Project would also make students aware of the ethical issues relating to sustainability and climatic changes.
It would help students acquire information and knowledge about national and international issues linked to sustainability, climatic change and also helped them understand issues better to suit the society’s requirements.
Sarabhai, who has served in several bodies set up by the Indian environment ministry, is a member of the Earth Charter International Council and was part of delegations from India to Earth Summits in Rio de Janerio (1992) and Johannesburg (2002).
