In traditional communities, children have always learned naturally from their grandparents, or parents by accompanying them to the market, to the jungle, to the river, or to the fields. While helping with daily tasks of sowing, harvesting, hunting, food gathering, thatching, attending cattle and so on, the community’ s traditional knowledge is passed on. That is also EDUCATION!!

1. By Muriel Kakani
Annadhana Project

2. In traditional communities, children have
always learned naturally from their
grandparents, parents or elder siblings by
accompanying them to the market, to the
jungle, to the river, or to the fields.

3. While helping with daily tasks of sowing, harvesting,
hunting, food gathering, thatching, attending cattle and so
on, the community’ s traditional knowledge is passed on.
That is also EDUCATION!! Within the community, children
acquire important EXPERTISE, KNOW-HOW ABOUT:

4.  BIODIVERSITY

5.  ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

6.  AGRICULTURE

7.  WATER CONSERVATION

8.  HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

9.  CRAFTS

10. UNFORTUNATELY, when children go to
school, it takes away much of the time
they would have otherwise spent in
gaining valuable knowledge and useful
skills for living a sustainable life...

11. With the new generation getting educated in
modern schools that follow a universal curriculum
that is essentially divorced, disconnected from life,
children are getting isolated from their land-based
cultures and from nature… With the spread of
Western development and modern education, we
are erasing centuries of accumulated knowledge.

12. Traditional ecological knowledge is
today on the verge of getting lost
forever. It is surviving only in the
memory of the elders.

13. It is therefore of utmost importance to make children
aware of the significance and relevance of traditional
practices and skills and thereby, instill a sense of pride and
confidence about it.
Traditional Knowledge isn’t primitive!!
Indigenous knowledge is the answer to many
environmental problems the world is facing today.
Scientists and environmentalists… are increasingly
recognizing indigenous people's traditional ecological
knowledge as a potential source of ideas for new
models of environmental conservation and sustainable
development. Preserving indigenous knowledge is
therefore necessary and absolutely essential for survival
of the planet.

14. To preserve Traditional Knowledge and
create a sustainable world, we have to
make sure that the new generation, the
next potential keepers of Traditional
Knowledge and Biodiversity, take pride
in the traditional know-how and skills
inherited from their elders.

15. It is with that objective that
Annadhana Book Project
presents:
Reviving India’s Traditional
Knowledge and Wisdom.
Giving voice to the wisdom of India’s
traditional people by encouraging their
children to write and publish their own
environmental stories.