When political Iftaar parties are organised in different parts of the national capital, the Green Dialogue followed by Green Iftaar redefined the nature, meaning and purpose of Iftaar in a unique way. The Iftaar party was organised jointly by Centre for Educational Research& Training and Islamic Relief India to make people aware about environmental challenges and how to use the available natural resources in an effective manner.
Speaking on “Green Dialogue with Islamic Perspective,”on June5 in the national capital, Sibghatullah Ahmed, and Programme Manager Islamic Relief India said environmental challenges in the days to come could pose a bigger threat than perceived and could further aggravate the socio-political and economic challenges if we do not gear up to face them and find out measures with equal participation of people through creating awareness about the use and misuse of resources. Environmental challenges have now become global and should be addressed accordingly.
Taking the Dialogue forward, Avinash Kumar representing Water Aid India said water scarcity has in some states reached alarmingly zero level and so far we are not clear about its source, extraction and the most worrying part is that the government is not having even the authentic data on this issue; forget about the immediate solution.
He also informed, WaterAid has been working in India for the past three decades and has played a significant role in water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors nationally and in the states. “In India currently, we directly intervene in 43 districts and 14 towns/cities across 11 states. In the year 2015-16, we reached 7,03,925 people with water, 11,23,180 people with sanitation and 18,87,253 people with hygiene,” he said.
Keeping in mind the water crisis in India and various parts of the world most of the panellists reminded about the threat of world war on water scarcity. Apart from Green Dialogue the programme was also marked by plantation drive, launching of green vehicle, display of eco-products and display and sale of a variety of plants.
On the Islamic perspective, Abdul Rasheed Agwan of Volunteers for Change said that in the Qur’ān it has been mentioned that all resources are in perfect balance and provided in accordance to the requirement and any imbalance out of misuse will not be good for the people. He wanted to caution the people about not to misuse any given resources more than what they actually require and if they do so then the situation would be one we are in today. He called for people’s participation at all levels to meet the challenges.
Dr.Javed Zafar of Centre for Study and Research reminded about the ill-conceived policies and lack of implementation and governance.
Dr.Vivek Dixit, a scientist from AIIMS, informed about the role he was playingalong with all like-minded people from various fields to clean the dirt and filth of the Yamuna every weekend and will continue to do so with the sole aim of cleaning water. He asked all the people to support his endeavour in order to serve the purpose.