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THE ROLE OF FAMILIES IN COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE

Young Bites. Dated: 5/17/2024 12:07:04 PM

LALIT GARG International Day of Families is celebrated as an annual celebration on 15 May to celebrate the importance of families and their role in society. The United Nations adopted it as a resolution in 1994 to raise awareness of the importance of families, highlight the challenges they face, promote the ideals of solidarity, and demonstrate efforts that strengthen family units around the world. This year we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Families, the theme of which is Families and Climate Change. Its goal is to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on families and encourage them to take action to reduce these impacts. Family and community initiatives aim to raise awareness about the threats to the environment and life from climate change and to clean up the environment by providing education, information access, training and community participation. Family is the smallest unit in the animal world and social organization. It is difficult to even imagine running a human society in the absence of a family, we have understood this very well during the Corona crisis. Every person is able to make his life journey pleasant, prosperous and development oriented only by being a member of some family. Its existence cannot be thought of apart from it. Our culture and civilization has been refining itself by going through many changes, but there has been no impact on the existence of the family institution. They may have been created or broken, but their existence cannot be denied. Its form changed and its values changed but its existence cannot be questioned. No matter how much modern ideology we are growing up in, but in the end we experience satisfaction and fullness and meaning of life only in converting our relations into a family by linking them with the institution of marriage. The importance of family is not only in India but everywhere in the world, that is why International Family Day is celebrated with the aim of strengthening the family institution. The main objective of this day is to make the youth aware of the family so that the youth do not get away from their families in the flow of so-called modernity. The family institution continues to exist despite facing many struggles and changes. If we talk about old eras or even on the basis of religious beliefs, then like today, there used to be disintegration of families earlier too. But in modern society disintegration of the family has become a common thing. In such a situation, International Family Day is celebrated with the mission and vision that families should not break. By living among the family, you remain stress-free and happy, and you also do not become a victim of loneliness or depression. The concept of society is incomplete without family and to create a family it is very important for people to live together and connect. There are two types of families – one is nuclear family and the other is joint family. Father, mother and children live in a nuclear family. In a joint family, father-mother, children, grandparents, uncle, aunt, elder father, elder mother, aunt etc. The first celebration of this day was announced by the United States of America on 15 May 1994. This day holds great importance for the people who are suffering the tragedy of breakdown and disintegration of joint families. In fact, the unique identity of human civilization is the joint family and wherever it is, there is heaven. Old age shudders due to the actions of family members who destroy the importance of relationships and love and the so-called modernist thinking. While the disintegration of joint families and the emergence of the nuclear family has caused pain to the elderly, it has also deprived the children of many events. The power to bear sorrow and endure hardships which is seen in joint families is not found in those who live alone. In today's modern era, in view of rising inflation and increasing needs, joint families can be called the need of the hour. India is a country of villages, a country of families, perhaps this is the reason that despite not wanting to, we have emerged as the world's largest population nation and perhaps this is the reason that despite the challenges arising from population pressure ;as a 'family', did not feel the need to formulate population policy. A part of the land surrounded by walls made of brick, stone and lime is called a household, with which ‘I’ and ‘me’ are associated. The organizational unit of relationships committed by values is each member of that household. The happiness and sorrow of every member touches each other's heart. The mind is affected by feelings of love. To control this fragmentation and disintegration, we launched the “ Sukhi Pariwar Abhiyan” under the leadership of GaniRajendraVijayji, through which extensive initiatives are being taken to strengthen the family institution. The concept of Nuclear Family is not yet widespread in India. Even today, there are many families in India whose generations live together and support each other at every step. But the situation is gradually worsening in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai. It is expected that soon the importance of joint family will start increasing again in the society and awareness will spread among people that they should live together in a family which has many benefits. This step and resolution of life taken in the name of human relationships and family tradition will be a unique gift to the family in welcoming tomorrow. (Lalit Garg, Writer, journalist, columnist).