NEP Encouraging The Coming Together Of Disciplines: Kamna Sachdeva

Meha Mathur Sep 14, 2022

Kamna Sachdeva has been associated with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), working in the domain of air quality management and its links with health and climate change. She has recently joined the Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University’s School of Sustainability. In an interview with BW Education, she cites examples of interdisciplinary work she has been involved in and how it has worked for the betterment of human life, the environment and for the policy-makers, for building science-based decision-making. Excerpts:

What is the role of biosciences in environmental studies? What is the scope of interdisciplinary work?

I have been involved with several projects funded by the ministry and other bilateral agencies where we fostered science-based policy-making and society connection was kept vital. The main motive of my current and previous institute is to impart skill-based teaching and bridge the gap between the disciplines.

One of our projects has been focused on agriculture in the Uttarakhand region, wherein we have worked to establish the differential vulnerability of the farmers. We have established through science that all farmers are not equally vulnerable. To begin with, we have used rainfall and temperature data and also ground observation to establish the climatic variability in that region. Then, have done gender mapping to understand gendered vulnerability, and established that female farmers are more vulnerable than male farmers. The third aspect we have studied is socio-economic factors and the size of land holdings that make you less or more vulnerable. The small farmers with less land generally tend to leave farming and migrate, whereas farmers with sizeable land holdings and with good education generally intensify agriculture as an adaptation practice or move to some other type of agriculture that yields more money. Based on our study, we have given our feedback to the government regarding strategies to be adopted for the region, like microfinance, better schools, road networks, etc.

Another study in a very nascent stage is understanding the impact of stubble burning on crops in Punjab — once the stubble is burned and incorporated in the soil, how it will change the plant-soil interaction. Some studies show that mixing carbon in soil provides phosphorus and carbon enrichment, which is helpful to plant nutrition to some extent. But in the long run it is bad for the soil. These particles are very minute, so they may be taken up by the plant and they may affect the crop growth later on. In this study, we’re connecting the air pollution, soil health and behavioural approach of the farmers and trying to understand why they continue to burn the stubble when institutional and technological support is available. These are some of the examples of multidisciplinary research, and our National Education Policy also encourages us to inculcate multiple perspectives approach.

Can you describe what are the industry openings in this field?

These days, ESG – Environmental, Societal and Governance aspect –is the buzzword in every corporate. In the environment, the consumer, and in turn the corporates are now particular about air pollution and water pollution-based management; in the social aspect, there is a focus on how your work is uplifting the liveability index in terms of earning, quality of life, education, and uplifting the vulnerable sections. For example, in hospitals, they will see that how many EWS people you are treating. Disclosure is mandatory and important for business and image building.

Corporates and business world are serious about it and they are disclosing their ESG indicators to take a leap in their businesses. Responsible and environmental conscious business strategies are winning game, where giving back to society and adopting good governance models are important.

But is it translating into jobs for students from these subject areas?

Yes, a lot of our students have got jobs, like ESG managers and sustainability managers. Corporates are hiring for work pertaining to the evaluation of CSR reports. Then there are government agencies like Niti Aayog and the ministry of Jal Shakti which are very serious about the environment and implementation of SDGs in the country.

What kind of aptitude is required for this kind of research work?

Research-led teaching is the need of the hour and university students need to be groomed accordingly. Introduction of basic bridge courses is required in the subject of sustainable development. In my previous institute, we offer such courses across the university. It’s a capsule course of seven days. Through examples and experiential learning, we put the seed of sustainability in the mind of students. NEP promotes inquiry-based learning and we should focus on that.

Plus, we provide them with some skill sets which are required, like sustainability reporting, life cycle assessment approach etc. Communication and technical writing skills are also very important for making students job-ready.

How are schools preparing students in terms of STEM courses and scientific aptitude?

Learning by doing, experiential learning is very important. We take them to the field as we really want to show them zero-tilling agriculture. Similarly, we take them to the balloon launching sites of IMD Delhi, where a balloon is released by IMD, with the instrument attached to it every Friday for upper atmospheric data.

For the food security course, we take them to Sikkim, which is an entirely organic state, to show them how organic farming is being practised. So, we include this field visit to students so that gives them a good understanding of the field and motivates them.

What would you say about infrastructure for these courses in the country, and where do you want improvements to happen?

India has the infrastructure and the will to do so to. The only issue is maintenance. Funding is there for infrastructure, but not for maintenance. The infrastructure dies of that want.

How did Covid impact studies in the institute and how did the faculty and students cope?

It did impact, as there are some students who can’t study virtually. I totally understand that. But the institutes helped students to cope with change. Moreover, post-pandemic recovery has brought many jobs for the ‘pandemic batch’, and we were able to place students in institutions like KPMG, E&Y and GIZ.

We learned over time how to teach online, how to design teaching and prepare for exams in the online mode. We shifted the lab work to the next semester so that they would not miss the chance of doing the lab work by hand. In the meantime, we recorded videos of the lab work on the website, and on the basis of that, we assigned them calculation-based assignments, which they had to do. By the end of 2021, when UGC allowed labs to open up, we organised 10-day capsule lab courses for those students. We have come out of the lockdown phase very successfully.