At a time of increasing commercialization, it is only to be expected that the role of education as a means of bringing social change has been getting less attention and in fact has been marginalized. As prominent educationists have reminded us several times, education must not be seen only in the context of school education or college education but as a lifelong process. This is particularly relevant in the context of education as a means of relevant social change.

Perhaps the first step in this direction is to choose certain key messages around which the social change role of education is carried forward. Of course, social change has a much wider context and there may be objections to centering this round a few key messages. Another point that may be raised with reasonable justification is that if education is to be regarded as a continuing process to cover so many age groups, how can all of them be covered with the same key messages? The answer to these objections is that while certain key messages are prioritized, this does not mean that other issues are not taken up. It is helpful to take forward the discourse around a few key messages which are thought to be of critical importance for the welfare of people and communities.

Of course when different age-groups are covered, the same messages are discussed and debated in different ways that are appropriate for these groups. The manner of discussion and debate would also be different, depending on whether the discussion takes place in a village or a slum or an elite colony. Some of the key messages relate to aspects of social relationships and behavior. One key message can be that as far as possible one should avoid causing distress to anyone in daily life. One has to discipline oneself accordingly and train oneself for this, for this does not come naturally.

This may appear to be a very simple message, but look at the implications of this: how the world will change or how a single village will change if all the people are consciously trying not to cause any distress to anyone. Another key message is that we should not discriminate between fellow human beings, whether on the basis of religion, ethnicity, caste, colour or in any other way. This opens up our hearts and minds and we can be receptive to the friendship of all people and seek the welfare of all people. Thirdly, whenever we interact with anyone less advantaged than us, our effort should be to be kind and generous, while avoiding being exploitative or taking undue advantage of the weaker state of the other person or persons.

Another important message is to have a firm commitment to one’s family and its welfare, and be very respectful towards women. This includes avoiding all forms of domestic violence – physical and emotional – which is one of the biggest causes of human distress. All these key messages involving social distress are of course related to each other, but nevertheless it is useful to state these separately. Then there can be some key messages relating to personal behaviour. Here perhaps the most important message can be to entirely avoid all intoxicants including alcohol, tobacco, smokeless tobacco and gutka, opium as well various other kinds of intoxicating drugs. These are the cause of not just health problems but also increase human distress in other ways.

In terms of community actions, key messages should emphasize that we all should contribute to maintaining public hygiene and sanitation. We should contribute to the protection of the environment as a part of community efforts and also try as far as possible to ensure that our lifestyle conforms to the needs of environment protection. We should contribute to the early resolution of disputes around us and help to maintain social harmony. If most people behave in accordance with these messages, we would have a world much better than it is and our community and surroundings would also improve.

We ourselves would be more creative and happier persons if we tried to live according to these messages and tried to spread them in our social relationships. However, there is a much bigger reason why these messages are important. Our world is faced with very serious environmental problems, highly destructive wars and an arms race. There is much injustice and resulting distress. To create a different world, we need support for an agenda of peace, justice and environment protection from a large number of people. Education for social change based on important key messages can help to create a very wide and strong base of people, including the upcoming generation, who believe firmly in peace, justice and environment protection, and therefore will be active for these causes.

Education for social change is a very creative process in which poems, songs, stories, essays are created around certain key messages all the time and ordinary people including children also contribute with real life experiences. It is an effort which starts contributing good results from the very initial stages and keeps contributing more and more for a better world the longer it continues.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, When the Two Streams Met and A Day in 2071.)