https://in.news.yahoo.com/news/halt-construction-central-vista-project-172552126.html Ritu Priya, professor at Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a member of the Vikalp Sangam Core group said, 'The focus now must shift on human and environmental health and well-being.' The statement said given the impacts of climate change and other ecological damage and impending pandemics that are predicted to become more frequent in the coming decades, 'it is important to question a development ideology based only on growth in GDP, which is meaningless as shown by the pandemic'.
'Such growth has only increased inequalities, economic insecurity amongst tens of millions, and ecological devastation,' it said.
The full focus of economic activities in the name of 'development' from now on must be on human and environmental health and well-being. Indicators that reflect these, beyond GDP, must guide economic planning, it added.
https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2021/05/12/des67-env-central-vista.html "The pandemic's second wave in India is a systematic political failure for which the government needs to be held accountable. The spread of the virus has shown the strong relationship between our environment and human health, "While the central and state governments have necessary resources to carry these out, and must be held accountable for them, civil society groups and bodies of local self-governance in villages and cities must also put full efforts into making these possible.
"Indeed, the more communities are able to be relatively independent and self-reliant in avoiding or dealing with such crises, the stronger India will be," it said.
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