Can universities in Punjab help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by focusing on the state’s recent ecological challenges? Considering the huge capital and resources available with universities and colleges in Punjab, this is the most opportune moment to place a demand on them to deliver in ways which helps the state move forward in the direction of achieving ‘global SDGs’, by addressing ‘local’ challenges.
The United Nations (UN) system universally adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a beacon for socially, economically and ecologically sustainable development.
This Agenda 2030 establishes 17 Goals which are universally applicable for all countries of the world.
These goals cover aspects like ending poverty (SDG 1), achieving food security (SDG 2), promoting health and well being (SDG 3) and other goals related to education, gender equality, climate change, and reducing inequality. Within these globally agreed and universally applicable SDGs, each country (and many provinces) are in the process of developing specific locally relevant benchmarks and indicators for achieving these commitments. In India, NITI Aayog has been leading from the front through targeted interventions at various levels.
What do these global goals mean in the context of Punjab? The state has been witnessing several ecological challenges of late.The most important is the rapid and alarming ground water depletion, across its length and breadth. According to the Punjab department of water resources, ground water in 80% of the geographical area is over exploited, and by 2023, the Punjab Council for Science & Technology informs us, the water table depth in central Punjab is projected to fall below 70 feet in 66% area, and below 100 feet in 34% of the state.
For solutions to such challenges, we often look to public institutions and state machinery for solutions. Higher education and its myriad institutions, with an enormous amount of resources at their disposal (human, physical, digital), can also play a crucial role in finding solutions. Universities as institutions, and the source for knowledge creation,are established with the objective of ‘public service’.
The role of ‘education’ has also been emphasized in the UN SDGsas being critical for attaining sustainable development. Punjab has 30 universities, which includes 11 government universities, 16 private universities and 3 deemed universities. The state is also home to over 1100 colleges. The capacities and resources of these universities and colleges need to be used for addressing local challenges, such as ground water depletion.
Universities can take several practical steps to align learning related to SDGs. SDGs are trans-disciplinary, and students from all disciplines must be oriented towards its importance and given opportunities to learn. Different curricula, teaching modalities and pedagogies will be required. Universities will need to revisit their missions of
teaching, research and service in ways that make the latter more ‘engaged’ with local realities to achieve local solutions for global goals.
A practical step forward can be the revision of curriculum in universities to bring in aspects of water-related SDGs, such as SDG 6 (access to clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 12 (responsible production and consumption) across disciplines. For instance, an undergraduate course on environmental sciences can include the teaching of dynamics of excessive use of ground water in Punjab.
Courses on geography, sociology, management can focus on studying the barriers to usage of surplus surface water, from the lens of their respective disciplinary expertise.Course on water resources management can include focus on enabling mechanisms to encourage people to recycle and reuse water. New courses/modules can also be introduced such as one focused on ‘water use efficiency’ for students of agricultural sciences; ‘water supply infrastructure’ for students of civil engineering, ‘economics for water usage’ for students of economics,etc. Teaching on such topics can be made more engaged with real world, society-at-large, and not merely in classroom. Innovative pedagogical tools, such as immersions, can be offered for students to understand water-use dynamics in the field. Modalities like internships, field placements, co-operative education and service-learning can also be used.
Universities can develop new knowledge and students and faculty may frame locally usable research questions, in partnership with local stakeholders like Water Users Association (WUAs), pani panchayats, district administration, gram panchayats and municipalities. For instance, students of geography, in collaboration with local farming communities, can explore questions like ‘how do factors like soil type and topography of an area impact the extraction and usage of ground water’? Economics students, in association with the department of water resources, may be interested in researching water-use economics in relation to ground water. Students of law can explore the legal frameworks associated with ground water extraction.This form of collaborative research on local issues in partnership with local stakeholders will,however, require building capacities in community-based participatory research.
Considering the huge capital and resources available with universities and colleges in Punjab, this is the most opportune moment to place a demand on them to deliver in ways which helps the state move forward in the direction of achieving global SDGs, by addressing local challenges. This will also help universities showcase their ‘social responsibility’, an aspect which is increasingly being given importance by Indian higher
education regulators like Ministry of Human Resources Development, University Grants Commission (UGC), and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
(The writer is Founder-President, Society for Participatory Research in Asia)