India lags behind in science literacy,say experts at meet

Dr Gauhar Raza,head of Science Communication through Multimedia (SCM) division at the National Institute of Science Communication And Information Resources,said,“In the global movement to promote science literacy in citizens we were once ahead of most of the developed world,and in our own neighbourhood much ahead of China,which has now soared ahead. We have fallen woefully behind. Today,we have more religious channels than most countries,when we have resources to set up at far lower costs many infotainment channels like Discovery and National Geographic.”

Raza said in the race of 24×7 “advertising sponsored” TV,science and news find little space,and the print media is fast following the same route. “This has led to the perpetuation of superstition and unscientific practices in many parts of the country. Since scientists themselves are not keen to address their research in public fora,and the media is lacking,we have a clear gap,” Raza said,adding that more state support is needed to boost science literacy.

“The organisations researching on science literacy have been egging the government to carry out national level surveys on scientific literacy — to first arrive at a national definition,then enumerate where our citizens are poised,and to generate some national data,” he explained. Such data is being produced at regular intervals at many countries in the West,and more recently in China,South Africa and Korea,he added.

Chatterjee was a guest at the International Conference on Science Communication,Nancy,France