LiFE Through Promoting Sustainable Consumption
“Ati Sarvatra Varjayet” means, excess of anything is bad. The world is getting well-connected and closer each day, and with more people becoming part of the digital world, distance becoming a misnomer. However, we must ask ourselves, is it becoming a better place for our future generation? Author Amitav Ghosh in his book “The Great Derangement” presents a picture of our current standing on climate crises, and calls the present generation to be “deranged” by the impending climate crisis.
The Growth of Electrical and electronic components like fiber optics, batteries, mobile phones, and various other electronic equipment produced is in excess today. As said in the initial Sanskrit shloka, this multiplicity of digital devices and connectivity has also led us to the enormous mountains of E-waste. The international Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum estimates that in 2022 over 5.3 billion mobile phones alone will be discarded.
Not only the electronics industry the fashion industry is also a consumption-oriented industry where a new designer shoe or clothing drops every weekend with popular celebrities endorsing these, young and old are equally guilty of falling for them. This also adds to the excessive consumption-laden lifestyle. According to the earth.org, 100 billion garments are produced each year, and 92 million tonnes end up in landfills. To put things in perspective, this means that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites each second.
The Prime Minister’s vision of the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) movement pitches towards having a responsible attitude when they use modern necessities such as mobile phones and digital devices (headphones, chargers, batteries) and clothing. Imparting values is good and easy, but inculcating them in their daily lifestyle is a challenge that young face today, but joining the clarion call of Swami Vivekananda we should, “arise, awake and stop not until the goal is achieved”. There cannot be a better time than inspiring the youth in G20 countries and the world over to make LiFE a part of their daily lives.
To make sustainable living a reality by inculcating the values of Gandhi, and Vivekananda, the LiFE movement by Prime Minister Modi is a pertinent step to tackle these challenges posed by the impending crisis in a true sense it includes behavioral changes and makes sustainability a part of the lifestyle. This would prevent the current generation from becoming deranged by the climate crises impending upon all of us.
-By Gaurav Gullaiya The Writer is an intern at the Public Affairs Forum of India and a scholar at the Indian School of Public Policy.