In early stages of human evolution and habitation, small ‘groups’ started living at favourable ‘habitats’. These groups, in the process of building great civilizations, developed their own traditions and value systems. Most of these traditions were suitable only to their local conditions, circumstances and challenges, and this knowledge remained primarily with a small group of people. One thing common in all these traditions was ‘betterment of self and society’.

As we make the transition towards ‘global village’ or a global society, it’s of paramount importance to study these traditions and derive benefit out of this traditional ‘wisdom’ for betterment of global society. Wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge. ‘Wisdom’ is the ability to make correct judgments and decisions. It is an intangible quality gained presumably through experience. Wisdom is timeless. Traditional wisdom is therefore also extremely useful for modern society and is always contemporary.

Only Humans are capable of changing the world……for good or bad. The answer to today’s challenges lie in restoring balance of five – elements namely water, aire, fire, earth, and space and falling back on our traditional wisdom to re-discover the science of five – elements. Only such knowledge will be complete, helping individuals to act strategically towards sustainability. Traditional wisdom has extremely rich contents for overall growth of humans living in balance with its universe. It has the potential to practically transform our lives and eliminate the challenges and threats we face today, due to imbalances created by us due to our ignorance and disrespect towards laws of nature.

It is with this intent that Aqua Foundation has taken an initiative in this direction as well to do intense study and research on traditional wisdom and five – elements for the betterment of the society and give mankind a better way of life and existence.

It comes as a surprise to many that Aqua Foundation is running a campaign titled “Use your Head- Stop at Red”. How is traffic sense linked to environment? Well… Researches worldwide have proved that bad traffic conditions are directly linked to higher level of emissions and poor air quality.

The constant acceleration and braking of stop-and-go traffic burns more fuel, and therefore pumps more pollutants into the air. Whenever someone jumps the lane, traffic at back has to break, starting a chain reaction of traffic slow down, followed by acceleration again.

Jumping red light is one of the least punished crime in India. It puts lives in danger, contributes to huge traffic jams, and yet the punishment is very mild. The consequences are evident. Cases of road rages are increasing, with more fatalities than ever. Let’s accept the fact that we are living in one of the most crowded cities of the world, with a very high population of vehicles. Problem is further compounded by heterogeneity of our traffic, cyclists, two-wheelers, cars, buses, slow moving earth movers, dumpers, and at times cattle, all share the same road space. Now that’s a fact which can not be changed overnight. What can be changed is our response to this. Typically we respond with frustration, irritation and turn into a wild animal as soon as we hit the road. Ready to fight, to shout, and to kill. Let’s look at possible solutions to these problems as responsible citizens:

Lane Driving:

The rarest sight in Delhi is to have traffic running in proper lanes, even if road is not crowded. It’s not uncommon to see vehicles running right on the dividing lines of two lanes even at stretches like DND Flyover. As soon as traffic density increases, 7-8 lanes develop in a 3 lane road. We all see it everyday, and are part of it. What’s important is to realize that by doing so, we are adding to traffic jams, are running a risk of brushing pass other vehicle, and overall putting our safety in jeopardy. Respecting lane driving is first step towards safe driving. And again, let’s not wait for others to do that, lets make the beginning. Others will follow.

Honking:

This is truly unique of India in general and Delhi in particular. We honk a lot……and mostly for wrong reasons. In most of the countries honking is taken as shouting, and there are good chances that the other person feels offended. We need to understand that honking paints us as uneducated, un-civilized and un-cultured. Honk only when you have to….to warn the driver whose car is rolling back at you etc. And please never ever honk at the red-light on a waiting driver. That’s almost criminal. You want to jump the red-light, and you are shouting at the person in front of you to commit the same crime. That’s criminal.

Mid Road Arguments:

One of the most common site in Delhi is to have couple of cars standing right in the middle of the road, and their drivers engaged in heated arguments over whose fault was it, completely ignoring the huge pile up of traffic resulting out of their act. At times it’s almost impossible to spot even the damage. Yet, we decide to argue and settle the score, right in the middle of the road. This is criminal……… We are making strong recommendation to Delhi Government to put an end to this practice of blocking traffic by imposing heavy penalty on the offenders. Even if there is an accident, and there is damage to vehicles, it simply does not justify stopping in the middle of the road and start fighting. After all we all have to have insurance, which covers against such losses. In case of private vehicles no ‘on the spot’ survey is required, so what justifies the act of blocking the road? Let’s collectively stop this. This will also save lives lost when these arguments turn violent.

The Campaign:

When we are patiently waiting at the red light, and someone honks from the back, urging us to jump the red light, don’t we feel like getting out and teach him a lesson? The campaign ‘Use your Head- Stop at Red’ does the same, in a safer and effective manner. With the this sticker on your back glass, chances are that you will not hear that irritating honking on red lights.

Contact us for your own sticker today on info@aquafoundation.in

‘Skill India’, is supposed to be a multi-skill programme. The main goal is to create opportunities, space and scope for the development of the talents of the Indian youth and to develop more of those sectors which have already been put under skill development for the last so many years and also to identify new sectors for skill development. The new programme aims at providing training and skill development to 500 million youth of our country by 2020, covering each and every village. Various schemes are also proposed to achieve this objective.

Aqua Foundation has always felt the need towards meeting gaps under capacity building. Many successful highly niche level of technical & management trainings – workshops are regularly organised. The technical trainings are mostly centric to subjects like – water – resources, land surveying and geophysics whereas topics like gender – sensitization, goal – management, life – management, health – management, etc are covered under management trainings. These programs are especially meant for people at executive and operational levels. Organization is also engaged in providing trainings to other sectors like Telecom and Retail Sector in association with NSDC under the scheme branded as PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and Reward).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched , ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (save the girl child, educate the girl child), on January 22, 2015 in Panipat in Haryana.

The scheme has been launched in a hundred districts across the country. Especially In Haryana where the child sex ratio (CSR) has been dismally low.

The scheme aims at making girls independent both socially as also financially through education. This approach of the Government can facilitate in generating awareness and improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for the women.

Aqua Foundation through its own efforts and also through its members & volunteers across the parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan is holding sensitization programs at regular intervals towards the cause of promotion of saving girl child and giving them equal level of love and other rights. Women community is definitely very important here so contact programs are being designed in a way wherein we are able to keep a track as well of the gradual progress we are able to derive out of such efforts. Very recently under one such initiative of, ensuring better future for girls, one of the esteemed member of organization initiated installation of, Rainwater harvesting system with support of Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi at Sushila Model School and Sushila Model Intel College for Girls, Ghaziabad. The process has been initiated and in a short span of time not only school and the college both will be benefitted with the structure but also considering that both institutions have the population of Girls more which inturn will become beneficial for the society as well, considering that females are responsible for building up healthy families leading to building of better societies which ultimately leads to prosperity of the nation.

On India’s Independence Day, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, made a commitment to launch the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAANJHI). Holding true the commitment made, he launched the Scheme on 11th October, 2014 – Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Ji’s birth anniversary – at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Inspired by the principles and values of Mahatma Gandhi, the Scheme places equal stress on nurturing values of national pride, patriotism, community spirit, self-confidence and on developing infrastructure. The SAANJHI will keep the soul of rural India alive while providing its people with quality access to basic amenities and opportunities to enable them to shape their own destiny.

The Scheme is unique and transformative as it has a holistic approach towards development. It envisages integrated development of the selected village across multiple areas such as agriculture, health, education, sanitation, environment, livelihoods, etc. Far beyond mere infrastructure development, SAANJHI aims at instilling certain values, such as people’s participation, Antyodaya, gender equality, dignity of women, social justice, spirit of community service, cleanliness, eco-friendliness, maintaining ecological balance, peace and harmony, mutual cooperation, self-reliance, local self-government, transparency and accountability in public life, etc. in the villages and their people so that they get transformed into models for others.

Aqua Foundation is pursuing this agenda through mediums of village contact programs. Under this program ladies and children are primary targets. Sensitizing these groups on education, health, food habits, good citizenship, environment consciousness and sustainability are some of the key aspects of program.

Mahatma Gandhi communicated a quintessential message to the nation through his efforts to educate people around him about cleanliness. He wished to see a “Clean India” where people work hand in hand to make the country clean. To work seriously towards this vision of Gandhiji, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi- launched the Swach Bharat Abhiyaan, on October 2, 2014 and asked people from all walks of life to help in successful implementation of this mission.

Aqua Foundation in order to support the cause is working in this direction by sensitizing communities at various levels like – school children, taking cleaning initiatives at community parks, by becoming an integral part ourselves with cleaners, etc