Income Affects Pollution: The Two Extremes of India.
As a global pathway student, I have had the experience to travel to one of the most ancient countries in the world: India. India is known for its architecture, bright festivals, and, unfortunately, its pollution. Environmental Pollution is a phenomenon that must be understood, especially in regards to income inequity. Environmental Pollution affects everyone on a global scale. In some areas, though, good environmental health seems to be a privilege only for the wealthy.
Interesting enough- while India suffers from great deals of pollution, schools such as the one I attended, Christ University, seem to be experts in environmentally-friendliness. The school that I attended was a Zero Waste Campus- this means literally what it sounds like- everything was reused or recycled. The university even recycled cooking oils to generate electricity and used solar energy to heat the shower water in the dorms where I lived for the semester. Those of us who lived in the dorms had to time our showers just right so that we wouldn’t miss the hot water.
It was conflicting for me to witness the wide gap in equality especially when talking about environmental health. Environmental health is something that should be equal for all members of a society yet it was not. For example, when I would leave the campus, the polluted air outside of the gate was profoundly noticeable compared to the university campus where we had an abundance of trees and greenery. As soon as I left campus, I would have to wrap my scarf around my nose and mouth to prevent the dust and air pollution from triggering my asthma.
All photos were taken by me while I was studying abroad in India Fall of 2017. The two pictures on the end show the vast amounts of pollution in low-income areas. The two images in the middle show the luxury, clean lifestyle that high-income earners (and tourists) live.
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As a student of Christ University for the semester of Fall 2016, I took a course on Environmental Health specifically in India. For this specific course, I created a powerpoint presentation called "The Most Holy Pollution" which can be found below. My presentation was based on the pollution I had seen in my experiences traveling to the Ganges River in Varanasi, India and based on information I had acquired in the class about the Ganges River. In the presentation you can see images that I took myself and then other images and information that I acquired from other sources. This presentation is a dramatic yet impressionable truth of the pollution around India.
Throughout my four years at the University of South Carolina, I have taken a few courses that relate to environmental health and pollution. In my Sociology 101 course at the University of South Carolina, I learned about the concept of group think. Group think occurs when you, in simple terms, follow the leader. In India, streets become trash-dumping grounds. People would see each other litter and mimic their behavior. Even witnessing the pollution scattered upon the ground would reinforce the action of littering. I have attached photos that emphasize the severity of this concept of groupthink within India. Where there was one piece of litter, there were multiple.
In Public Health 102, Introduction to Public Health we were taught the historical development of Public Health. In ancient times, each culture would deal with disease in their own ways- the best they knew how. Some cultures such as the Greeks developed effective systems while others continued living in poor standards. For example, the Greeks understood the importance of personal hygiene and they believed that an imbalance between man and his environment caused disease. Some areas around India, especially the slums, continued living in poor standards similar to the way developed nations lived in their pasts.
Speaking of the past, in my HIST 112, United States History after 1865, we discussed city living and the harsh conditions in which immigrants lived in the U.S. For example, they lived in over-crowded tenements and the streets were full of animal carcasses such as dead horses. I witnessed similar events in India- specifically in the low-income areas. People lived in communities called slums that did not have sewage systems nor safe housing- it was as if I had traveled back in time. Some of the houses did not have doors but instead a curtain to cover the main entry-way into the home. Children ran around barefoot and water overflowed into the dirt-covered streets.
All three of these courses connect to the pollution problem in India. When traveling to Varanasi, I took a boat ride in the famous and holy Ganges River. Due to the fact that the river is holy, it is believed to cleanse all that comes in contact with it. For that reason, dead cows, animals that are considered motherly and resemble holiness, are placed into the river to show respect. The disposal of cow carcasses in the river causes a problem because the residents of Varanasi do not only bathe and wash their clothes in the Ganges River, but they also drink from it. This brings up another concern learnt in PUBH 102, the environmental and cultural factors that influence overall health, not only environmental health.
India is beginning to make efforts to improve the quality of life especially pollution control. In some areas, the country tries to take public health initiatives by means of signs and graffiti. Something else positive that was specific to Bangalore was the ban on plastic bags. Grocery stores had cloth bags you would have to purchase for your groceries for 10 cents in an effort to enforce re-using and sustainable efforts.
While there are some public health initiatives to recycle, reusing remains a problem in India. In the United States, many people take advantage of the cheap reuse of clothing by shopping at places such as Goodwill. In India that would never happen- there is a stigma attached to re-using someone’s former possessions which, in my opinion, is a hindrance to pollution control.
Pollution, whether it be land, air or water pollution, reflects concepts I learned in Public Health 102, Sociology 101, History 112 and Environment 101. The traveling that I was able to do around India opened my eyes to the negative impacts of excessive use of plastics and other pollutants. To share my knowledge, I was asked by a professor of the Arnold School of Public Health to present to Public Health 102 about pollution in India. The powerpoint slides that focus on pollution can be found below titled "BTC-Public Health Ppt".
Studying abroad in India truly changed who I was and the behaviors I decided to partake in. I have always been an environmentally-conscious person, but now I have transformed into an eco-friendly individual. After seeing trash bags polluting the water bodies and lining the streets and seeing animals and children dig through over-flown trash cans with plastic and trash spread out everywhere, my views of plastic changed. I have changed my behaviors to more sustainable ones after returning from India. I carry my re-usable grocery bags with me every time I shop due to my witnessing this intense pollution. I bought a recycling bin for my apartment and taught my roommates the appropriate way to rinse plastics and glass in order to recycle them and I have taught my roommates what can and what cannot be recycled. I say no to single-use plastic and I do not use straws at restaurants.
I hope that the university that I attended in India, Christ University, can be an example to the rest of India by encouraging Zero-Waste initiatives around the country. I also hope that, in the future, low-income areas are not forgotten about in the fight against pollution and that the health disparities decrease so that everyone has a right to environmental health.
Throughout my four years at the University of South Carolina, I have taken a few courses that relate to environmental health and pollution. In my Sociology 101 course at the University of South Carolina, I learned about the concept of group think. Group think occurs when you, in simple terms, follow the leader. In India, streets become trash-dumping grounds. People would see each other litter and mimic their behavior. Even witnessing the pollution scattered upon the ground would reinforce the action of littering. I have attached photos that emphasize the severity of this concept of groupthink within India. Where there was one piece of litter, there were multiple.
In Public Health 102, Introduction to Public Health we were taught the historical development of Public Health. In ancient times, each culture would deal with disease in their own ways- the best they knew how. Some cultures such as the Greeks developed effective systems while others continued living in poor standards. For example, the Greeks understood the importance of personal hygiene and they believed that an imbalance between man and his environment caused disease. Some areas around India, especially the slums, continued living in poor standards similar to the way developed nations lived in their pasts.
Speaking of the past, in my HIST 112, United States History after 1865, we discussed city living and the harsh conditions in which immigrants lived in the U.S. For example, they lived in over-crowded tenements and the streets were full of animal carcasses such as dead horses. I witnessed similar events in India- specifically in the low-income areas. People lived in communities called slums that did not have sewage systems nor safe housing- it was as if I had traveled back in time. Some of the houses did not have doors but instead a curtain to cover the main entry-way into the home. Children ran around barefoot and water overflowed into the dirt-covered streets.
All three of these courses connect to the pollution problem in India. When traveling to Varanasi, I took a boat ride in the famous and holy Ganges River. Due to the fact that the river is holy, it is believed to cleanse all that comes in contact with it. For that reason, dead cows, animals that are considered motherly and resemble holiness, are placed into the river to show respect. The disposal of cow carcasses in the river causes a problem because the residents of Varanasi do not only bathe and wash their clothes in the Ganges River, but they also drink from it. This brings up another concern learnt in PUBH 102, the environmental and cultural factors that influence overall health, not only environmental health.
India is beginning to make efforts to improve the quality of life especially pollution control. In some areas, the country tries to take public health initiatives by means of signs and graffiti. Something else positive that was specific to Bangalore was the ban on plastic bags. Grocery stores had cloth bags you would have to purchase for your groceries for 10 cents in an effort to enforce re-using and sustainable efforts.
While there are some public health initiatives to recycle, reusing remains a problem in India. In the United States, many people take advantage of the cheap reuse of clothing by shopping at places such as Goodwill. In India that would never happen- there is a stigma attached to re-using someone’s former possessions which, in my opinion, is a hindrance to pollution control.
Pollution, whether it be land, air or water pollution, reflects concepts I learned in Public Health 102, Sociology 101, History 112 and Environment 101. The traveling that I was able to do around India opened my eyes to the negative impacts of excessive use of plastics and other pollutants. To share my knowledge, I was asked by a professor of the Arnold School of Public Health to present to Public Health 102 about pollution in India. The powerpoint slides that focus on pollution can be found below titled "BTC-Public Health Ppt".
Studying abroad in India truly changed who I was and the behaviors I decided to partake in. I have always been an environmentally-conscious person, but now I have transformed into an eco-friendly individual. After seeing trash bags polluting the water bodies and lining the streets and seeing animals and children dig through over-flown trash cans with plastic and trash spread out everywhere, my views of plastic changed. I have changed my behaviors to more sustainable ones after returning from India. I carry my re-usable grocery bags with me every time I shop due to my witnessing this intense pollution. I bought a recycling bin for my apartment and taught my roommates the appropriate way to rinse plastics and glass in order to recycle them and I have taught my roommates what can and what cannot be recycled. I say no to single-use plastic and I do not use straws at restaurants.
I hope that the university that I attended in India, Christ University, can be an example to the rest of India by encouraging Zero-Waste initiatives around the country. I also hope that, in the future, low-income areas are not forgotten about in the fight against pollution and that the health disparities decrease so that everyone has a right to environmental health.
WTC- The most holy pollution.pptx | |
File Size: | 3529 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
BTC- Pollution, Public Health Ppt. | |
File Size: | 9177 kb |
File Type: | pptx |