Do engineering educators have any social responsibilities ? This question is answered in this presentation.

1. Social
Responsibility
of
Engineering
Educators
P.L.Dhar
I I T Delhi

2. WHY ?
We should be concerned
about the consequences of
the education imparted by
us
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Our future depends upon the education of the youth

3. What Consequences ?
How are our engineers
benefiting the society ?
How is Modern Technology
benefiting the society ?
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Phenomenal growth in GDP
– wealth of the nations !

4. The Great Divide
In Vidarbha every
day 3 farmers
have committed
suicide during last
one year
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30% population
below poverty line
($1 a day)
80% population
below $2 per day

5. The Great Divide
Per capita income(2004)
Norway $52030
Africa $100
Inequity is increasing ….for
S every Rs 100 generated by growth
R in India, the poorest 20% would
receive Rs8.9 while the richest 20%
E
would receive Rs45.
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6. The Environmental Problems
• Global Warming and its
consequences
• Resource depletion –
especially oil
• Increasing Strife - crime,
violence, extremism
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7. Should the engineering educators
be concerned about these issues?
•Social Responsibility of
Engineering Educators
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• How to respond ?

8. How to Respond ?
• Identify the root causes for
these problems.
• Find alternatives, if any ?
• Examine their feasibility.
• Analyze the impact of world
view on technology and society
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9. The search for root causes …..
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• Is inequity because of intrinsic
differences in motivation,
intelligence, abilities among people ?
• Is it because of the nature of
technology or the model of
development ?
• Is it because of the materialistic
world view prevalent today ?
–
Happiness lies solely in sensory pleasures obtained
through material acquisition

10. The search for root causes …..
Understanding the Model of Development
• Increase wealth of nation
through Planned growth in
agriculture and industry-emphasis on centralized
technologies – economies of scale
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• The wealth would trickle down
to masses thus alleviating
poverty

11. The search for root causes …..
Understanding the characteristics of modern technology
• Centralization , Automation , Planned
obsolescence
• Centralization =>Capital Intensive ( Only
the rich can make best use of modern technological
developments )
=> increasing inequity
• Automation => unemployment
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• Planned obsolescence => consumerism ,
ecological disaster

12. The search for root causes....
appreciating limitations of materialistic world view
• Materialistic world view promotes
–
–
–
–
consumerism ,ostentatious living
‘criminal economy’ , strife
resource depletion
ecological disaster
• Rejects
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– simple living , ‘self control’
– rejects ‘appropriate’ technologies
– the spirit of Service
…...from “seva” to “naukri”

13. The search for root causes..
Materialistic world view
Centralized technology using
automation for mass production
and creating artificial demands
through advertising
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Increasing inequity, strife, ecological problems

14. The search for alternatives …
Gandhian Model (1909)
• Gandhian View :Development should be
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holistic & Non-exploitative, i.e. sustainable
concept of ahimsa
• Need for self control : swaraj
• Possible only in “Self sufficient Village
Republics ” : Gram-swaraj & Swadeshi --wealth generation in a distributed manner &
not re-distribution of wealth generated
centrally
• Need for Rural Industrialization -decentralized production

15. Why was Gandhian Model
Ignored ?
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• Technical feasibility : Is it possible to
have production by masses in a manner
that can compete with mass
production?
• Social feasibility – Is it possible to bring
about a change in the world view of
society?
• Gandhiji’s call to scientists and
technologists in 1934

16. Social Responsibility of
Engineering Educators
• To re orient engineering
education so that engineers can
respond to these challenges
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• Our survival in 21st Century
will depend on it.

17. Technical
feasibility….I
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• Innovative designs to
improve acceptability
• Improve product quality ,
develop simple low cost
techniques for quality
assurance
• Improve working conditions
, hygiene
• Improve productivity &
Reduce costs without
displacing labour

18. Technical feasibility… II
• Improve packaging and
marketing
• Reduce energy consumption
without increasing capital
costs, , increase energy
availability => appropriately
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• Identify niche areas / products
where decentralized
manufacturing has a natural
edge

19. Technical feasibility: the challenge of
Rural Industrialization
Need for an Institutional Mechanism to
provide S , T & M inputs to this sector
Lab to land transition
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Empowering
artisans &
craftsmen
Participatory technology development

20. IIT Delhi’s recent efforts in this
direction
• Setting up of MGIRI (Mahatma Gandhi
Institute for Rural Industrialization), in
Wardha ( Min of ARI )
• Linking NGOs with it
• Linking 12 prominent S &T institutions of the
country with it as its TIUs (Technical Interface
Units)
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• Demonstrating the efficacy of S ,T & M
interventions in strengthening rural
Industrialization

21. Social Feasibility demands ..
Change in the
world view
through
Education in
Human Values
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22. IIT Delhi’s recent efforts in this
direction
• Setting up of
National Resource Centre
V E
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alue
ducation in
ngineering in
for
2001
• Developing possible frameworks for value
education
• Conducting workshops for developing course
material for value education of engineering
students
• Introducing the students to various
methodologies of value inculcation

23. Cardinal Principles of Value
Education
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♦♦The foundation should not be
made dependent on myth, or authority
♦Provoke the students to analyze the world and the
experiences of their own life
-its goals, aspirations,etc.
♦♦Value dimension should permeate teaching
♦Give practical training in self-restraint &
self observation to actually inculcate values
♦Teachers as senior students, nor moral masters

24. Concluding Remarks
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• All the problems of modern times , be these technogenic or
social, have their roots in the materialistic world view
and the technology based on this world view
• Only a change in the world view can usher a change in
life style, and technologies needed to survive beyond
21st Century.
• Education in human values is the foremost need of 21st
Century. Only that can usher in a holistic world view
and alternative eco friendly technologies.
• Technology has increased the vulnerability of society to
strife and violence
• Mere technological innovations will not solve even the
technogenic problems, leave aside the social problems
like strife and violence.

25. S
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Thank You All !