SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY COMMUNICATION - S & T communication is the practice of informing, educating, sharing wonderment, and raising awareness of science-related topics. Science communication may generate support for scientific research or study or to inform decision making. Now in India so many NGOs on national and state levels are working to enhance scientific awareness in the general public. But today we need to focus on rural areas.
According to RBI, rural areas as those with a population of less than 49,000. It is generally said that rural areas house up to 70% of India's population. There is a great challenge in front of the government on how to alleviate poverty from the rural area. S & T have a key role in alleviating rural poverty in India.
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT - For each state government it is very important to communicate science and technology in its rural population. State governments have a big network of schools in almost every village. Govt can use this big network of school as "BRAHMASTRA" in science and technology communication.
The relation between teachers and local people in villages is more collaborative than in urban areas. For example, when the government failed to provide teachers in school, many times local people collect money to arrange a teacher in the village school.
Role of NGOs - Many NGOs' are working in the field of science communication. Professors, young researchers, and teachers are working with such NGOs. NGOs need to change its direction. Although it is not easy for NGOs like the government. But if the State Science and Technology Council of each state should support NGOs, which are working in science and technology communication.
Indian Villages - In India there was a total of 649,481 villages according to census 2011. Obviously, today's number may be more than the previous numbers. Each village has a unique economic model. In many villages, people do fish farming, poultry farming, dairy farming, and other small business. Also, there are large possibilities for developing more business in each village. If the best technology will be provided to them, it will generate more jobs in the area. This will help to alleviate poverty and also help to address migration towards the urban area.
Not only economically but S & Thas a key role to save natural resources. A big number of the population suffer from health issue to impure drinking water. Also, people face a big problem of drought in their area due to lower earth water levels. Although many people have fields they can not do farming. Here is the science and technology communication that has a crucial role. How these problems can be avoided. If timely, government and NGOs jointly communicate how to save rainwater and make water recharging points it will help a lot.
For example, a village "SANGHE KHALSA" in the sub-tehsil in Jalandhar in Punjab was suffering for water for crops due to low water levels. Local people decided to do something and they talk to experts about what can be done to solve it. Simply they find the spots in their village where more water collects in the raining season. Also, they cleaned all the old wells of the village which was full of garbage and plastics. They use long pipes and collected all water from village streets, fields and other places in well. They made wells water recharging points and save every drop of water. Here how science and technology communication can play a big role.
Challenges in Communication S & T - Communicate science and technology in a rural area is very challenging. The biggest challenge is language, people in the rural area are comfortable with the local language but all research work is done in English. One-third part of the population does not know English. But if we see many villages have some science-based projects form a long time ago. We need to enquire and understand how they find such projects in those times. Even research institutes are not knowing the local needs of the rural population.
How to involve local universities and inspire young researchers to address local villages issues. How to engage local engineering colleges to find the best technology that can solve problems of their local villages. This issue can be addressed with capacity building in local Engineering & PG students of science. Govt should mandatory for Engineering & PG students to go to some village and address their issue with the help of science and technology.
Impact on Rural Population - It will also help to increase the GDP of the country. The government will get an idea to make policy that will be different and more scientific. Migration from rural to urban areas will reduce. When people get jobs automatically it will help to alleviate rural poverty from the rural area. More research will be focussed on local problems. Our rural population will be more wealthy more healthy.
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