Global Open University pitches hygiene campaign for Nagaland

EMN
Dimapur, December 30

A local institution in Nagaland, Global Open University, has pitched sanitation and ‘cleanliness’ campaign for Nagaland for which the government of Nagaland has been requested to offer support. This suggestion was made during a recent education event in Delhi, a press release from the institution said on Wednesday, December 30.
The 36th World Management Congress organized on the occasion of World Management Education Day was conducted at the Paryavaran auditorium in Delhi. The event was conducted with the theme “Cleaning Up The Earth (CUTE): Challenges and Dimensions (CD).”
Speaking as the chief guest of the program, Swami Padmaprakasha Jnana Thapaswi, head of the Shantigiri Ashram in New Delhim, talked about the principles of inner and self-healing. He stressed the need for ‘self-cleaning’ and advised the gathering to ‘remember that even Swami Vivekananda had said that the youth are used-less.’ The same is the case today, he said in his advocating for ‘utilizing the young minds for environmental cleaning with a view to protecting our mother earth.’
Presenting his views in the capacity of the chief guest of honour, Ven. Bhikhu Sanghsena discussed about the lack of toilet facilities for more than 650 million Indians. He accordingly wanted a priority for making more toilets ‘rather than making temples in the light of the fact that one can worship anywhere but cannot defecate everywhere.’ He expressed a need for a new approach to religion ‘by adopting ecological dharma.’
Presenting the keynote address, Prof. Gregory Berglund, CEO of The Planet Earth claimed that the pollution level of Rome and Milan in Italy was ‘equally worse like that of Delhi.’ He added that vehicles were not allowed to ply in Milan between 8 am and 4 pm. He wanted practical solutions for Delhi rather than whatever will be done from January 1, 2016.
Presenting the theme, Dr. S.N. Pandey, Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University of Arunachal Pradesh said that it was in fitness of things that in the ancient age ‘we used to adore rivers, mountains and trees and that is why we continued with greenery for such a long period.’ He was of the opinion that the ‘human mind should be de-polluted first,’ the press release said
Also, the press release from Global Open University said that its chancellor Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi highlighted during the program “the urgent need of understanding the critical path of introducing action-oriented plans in the areas of cleaning, hygiene, sanitation and pollution control in the cities and towns in India as well as in the rest of the world with proper use of the cleaner as well as cleaning up technologies.”
He announced that the institution would start a campaign called “Clean up the Earth.” He sought the cooperation of the government of Nagaland to ‘make any department as the nodal department for implementing Clean Nagaland Project as a model for replicating the same in the remaining seven States in the north-eastern region including Sikkim.’
Stressing the importance of hygiene, he said that hygiene was a ‘set of practices performed for the preservation of health.’ “Whereas in popular culture and parlance it can often mean mere ‘cleanliness’, hygiene in its fullest and original meaning goes much beyond that to include all circumstances and practices, lifestyle issues, premises and commodities that engender a safe and healthy environment,” the press release said.
In modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between different cultures, genders and ‘etarian groups,’ the university’s press release quoted him as having added.
Recalling the Indian prime ministers’ vision for a clean India, he said that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was a national-level campaign by the Government of India covering 4, 041 statutory towns to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. The campaign is India’s biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and schools and colleges students of India participated in this event.