Many people in our country are unable to differentiate between science and technology. They take science as technology or technology itself as science. Science is that basic knowledge that is based on experiments, observation, and conclusions.
Today science and technology have become an integral part of our life. But apart from a bunch of tricks and facts about these two in our schools and colleges, nothing special is told and taught and a scientific approach is not talked about. Whereas the scientific approach is the only thing that can teach a person to make decisions based on reason. And only these rational decisions can benefit more and more people.
Today, due to science and technology, change is happening very fast and the flow of this change is so fast that we cannot stop it. Yes, at the most, the speed of this change can be reduced somewhat and it can be tried that the change should be in the right direction only. Anyway, the presence of a scientific attitude is also necessary among the people of democratic countries, so that they can make important decisions.
To keep and increase curiosity in science, the public should have a scientific attitude, so that they can take decisions on scientific subjects. They should have knowledge on issues like nuclear weapons, the end of biodiversity, genetic engineering, global warming, artificial intelligence, or increasing mechanization. Therefore, along with the proper dissemination of the acquired knowledge of science and technology, it is very important to promote scientific attitude, only then the country will develop in a positive direction and scientific consciousness can be awakened among the common people. To promote the spread of scientific attitude in India, every year on this day i.e. 28 February is celebrated as National Science Day.
Every year 28 February is celebrated as National Science Day under the aegis of the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC). Sir CV Raman made a public announcement of his discovery ‘Raman Effect’ on this day in 1928. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery. Therefore, in memory of this important discovery, National Science Day is organized in science institutes, science academies, schools, and colleges. The main objective of such an event is to attract the students towards science, to make the public aware of scientific achievements and to spread scientific attitude among them.
For a long time, many government and non-government organizations have been involved in the promotion of science and scientific approaches and for a long time, programs like National Science Day, Jan Vigyan Jatha, Science Congress are also being organized. But can we say with confidence that the interest of the common man in science has increased? Have superstitions and dogmatic ideas decreased? Has the synergy between our social life and science increased? It is a sad thing, but, indeed, we are still poor at the level of the scientific point of view.
Many people in our country are unable to differentiate between science and technology. They take science as technology or technology itself as science. Science is that basic knowledge that is based on experiments, observation, and conclusions. Science means asking questions about nature and finding answers to that question without prejudice. Whereas technology is the use of scientific information for social utility. Strangely, age-old superstitions are seen standing here with state-of-the-art technology. Often we get to see this contradiction. For example, often even a person armed with a smartphone and a laptop appears to accept superstitious events without investigation!
Today we are seeing in every sphere of life that scientists accept the techniques obtained from the research, but reject the scientific thinking behind them. A solid reason behind this double behavior is that the higher the level of technology in our society, the higher the level of science people have not got. Modern science reached our country through the British, so theories like heliocentric theory and biological evolution did not cause as much panic in our country as there was in Europe. Here science did not become an approach to life, but an effective means of material progress. It is said that information removes ignorance, but this did not happen in India!
According to the constitution, it is also the responsibility of the government to create an environment conducive to the development of scientific attitudes among the citizens. Looking at the situation today, it becomes clear that the governments after independence have not been able to fulfill their responsibility well. In the initial phase, such institutions were created whose job was to promote scientific attitude in the country, but these institutions also could not move ahead with the paperwork.
No attempt was made to change the living conditions which directly affect the thinking of the countrymen. There were positive changes in the lives of some people, prosperity also came in some sections, but the presence of poverty and helplessness remained around. In such a situation, those who remained in poverty were longing to reach the shining world of riches by some miracle, while those who had come close to prosperity, were also surrounded by the fear of going back into the clutches of poverty and helplessness. This continuum of apprehension, insecurity remained the biggest source of uninterrupted supply of manure and water for unscientific, superstition, and orthodoxy.
I believe that every man is born with a scientific outlook. The child himself wants to touch, feel, experiment, and discover everything. This is the core of the scientific approach. However, due to family, social and traditional influences or how education is being done in our schools and colleges, the child loses the innate tendency to question and explore natural phenomena. The scientific approach does not mean just looking through the test tube, mixing this thing and that thing, and creating things big or small. The scientific approach means to train the mind and the whole way of life to work according to the methods and methods of science.
Lastly, the scientific approach enables a human being to examine every issue without any bias. A person having a scientific point of view does not believe in anything because someone else has told about it or it is by tradition, but he believes in something only when it has a scientific basis. By spreading, increasing scientific consciousness among the common people, our life and that of our future generations will be better. This is the urgent need of the nation, society, and this world. Let us take a pledge today on the occasion of National Science Day that we work unitedly towards the promotion of a scientific attitude.
What do you think?