New Delhi, September 6 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that nation building should become a national movement and every individual should be associated with it.
If every individual associates himself with the task of nation building, “we can go very far”, Modi said in his Teachers’ Day speech. He said people who had achieved something in life and taken to a profession such as doctors and engineers should teach students in a school for one period in a week.
“There is need to make nation building into national movement. There is need to associate everyone. The emphasis should be on how should be the national character,” he said.
Addressing millions of students on Teachers’ Day, Modi also said he did not feel that adverse situations can come in the way of ambition of a determined individual.
Answering a query from a student during an interaction on Teachers’ Day about how he dealt with stress in his job, Modi said that the spirit of service in an individual creates a feeling of affinity with people.
Politics should not be considered a profession but a service, he said. “If there is no affinity, there cannot be sense of service,” Modi said. He cited an instance of a girl carrying her younger brother but not feeling tired because she had a sense of duty towards him.
“Politics should be seen as service, that too due to sense of affinity (towards people). Positions keep coming and going. This is part of the (democratic) system,” he said.
Modi said that if there is a sense of service, there is no stress or tiredness in anyone. He had this feeling when he worked for the wellbeing of 1.25 billion people of this country. Small efforts can help build the nation, leave alone saving energy, Modi said.
“Serving the nation does not only mean doing grand things. Doing small things is a big service to the nation,” he said. Modi said that the work towards serving the nation can be initiated from one’s home itself.
“Ask your parents about the electricity bill, and if it is Rs.100, try to think of ways to bring it down to Rs.90,” he said. While answering another question by a student from Assam on climate change, Modi said that one should “live in harmony with nature”.
“There has been no climate change, it is us who have changed (it) and that is what has affected the environment,” he said. Laying stress on saving electricity, Modi urged students to switch off their lights on a moonlit night and enjoy its beauty and do their bit in saving power.
He gave the example of Nagpur, where the mayor swtiched off street lights on moonlit nights, thereby saving electricity, and encouraged residents to come out into the streets and enjoy the glory of nature. He said that it was not enough to enroll students in schools and every school must ensure it has toilets, especially for girl students, to check their drop-out rate.
Responding to a question from a student in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on what the government was doing about the shortage of schools in the tribal region, the prime minister said he noticed that most girl students drop out of school after reaching Class 3 or 4, primarily due to lack of toilets.
He said he was pushing for building toilets for girls in every school, something he spoke about in his Independence Day address. Modi rued that if earlier governments had paid attention to building toilets, the dropout rate for girls would not be so high.
Right now the dropout rate for girls in India in the 7-17 age group is 33.7, that is one in every three girls. “For every school, there should be toilets for girls and boys…Parents are bringing their children to schools but they leave when they reach Classes 3 and 4,” the prime minister said.
“I have thought a lot on this subject and have planned a lot. The results will be visible soon,” he promised. He also had a word of praise for Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, saying he had done a lot of development for the Bastar region that is known to be a hotbed of Maoist rebels.
Modi said that girls’ education should be given priority. He noted that in the recent Commonwealth Games, 50 medals were won by girls and that most of the toppers of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and other state exams were also girls.
“So, if we concentrate on girls’ education, then the country will surely develop.” He said he was emphasizing on providing toilets for girls in schools because he did not want a girl to leave school.
He quoted Mahamta Gandhi to say that if a boy was educated, only an individual got educated; but if a girl was educated, two families got educated – one of her own and one of the family into which she gets married.
Modi said he was happy the people of Bastar are concerned about the lack of schools. Responding to a student about his reputation as a hard task master, Modi said that he works hard and is a “taskmaster”.
“Yes, I am a taskmaster and it is not that I myself do not work and take work from others,” he said. The prime minister, in an answer to a question from a student, said his life has become very busy since he became the prime minister.
He also said that because of his long stint as chief minister of Gujarat, he did not find the role of prime minister very different. Modi said that he needed help from every school in the task of building toilets for children, and cleanliness should be part of efforts at character building.
He recalled his recent visit to Japan and said he was told by an “Indian family” that students and teachers there together clean and mop up toilets. “They said it was part of character building. How do we build national character,” Modi said.
Referring to his Independence Day speech in which he referred to absence of toilets in some schools, particularly for the girls, Modi said it was a very important task. “I need help from every school. An atmosphere should be created,” he said.
-INDIA TODAY
