Shashi Tharoor and Smriti Irani attend two-days District Conference of Rotary International

“For peace and conflict resolution, peace is not merely the absence of war, but it is a state of being. Economic development, sustainability, democratization, accountability, and trust for good governance, human rights, and social justice are the factors for conflict resolution. A recent conflict example is the Russia Ukraine war. So many innocent human beings are being killed in the last couple of days. We need to build peace to the fullest sense of the world.” This was stated by the Member of Parliament Dr. Shashi Tharoor while addressing virtually at the valedictory session of ‘Jashn’ the 45th Two-days District Conference of Rotary International Dist. 3190 held at Palace Ground on 16th-17th April in Bengaluru.He said, “I am also a lifetime member of Rotary and throughout my 29 years of work in United Nations Service I have got many opportunities to speak to Rotarians all over the world, viz., Geneva, New York, United Nations headquarters, and at the annual meetings of the rotary international.”

Tharoor further said that Rotary has set an exemplary example as an NGO and a civil society organization that helped to move things in our society. The extraordinary conquest of polio could not be possible without the support of the rotary’s pulse polio campaign. For the environment Rotary as a civil society organization can raise consciousness and can create a conscious lobby group for change, also, each of us as a small gesture of change through plantation drive can plant a tree and these are a few measures that can make an enormous difference in terms of environmental aspect. To save our planet Earth from the cyclone, floods, and other sorts of natural disasters, rising temperatures through global warming, we should prioritize our measures at home, work, and business to regularize environmental measures.In the end, Tharoor also appreciated the efforts done by Rotary at the time of the pandemic’s second wave extremity. He said that Tuberculosis is an area where Rotary can work for.As the Guest Speaker of the occasion Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Zubin Irani while talking virtually with Rotarians about obstacles she faced in her journey of women empowerment and how she overcame those problems, said, “One needs to look at life from the prison of opportunities, not obstacles. The minute we see the circumstance from a negative perspective, we tend to either roadblock ourselves from finding early solutions, tend to enhance our anxieties about any problem, or we tend to presume that we are incapable to find the solutions. Individually if you look at the problems, we tend to be overwhelmed by them. As I have come from a middle-class family, so my parents imbibed or ingrained in me that efforts or working harder in life can only help to achieve a certain position or success in life.”

She further said that Rotarians can contribute foods, and toys with other useful items to Aaganbaris near to them through the District Magistrates or District Collector. Rotarians can also work on the infrastructure of these Aaganbaris. From an environmental point of view at the District/Zila grassroots level Rotary can ensure the government schools should have set up to dispose of sanitary pads. For the removal of plastics Rotary can join hands with the district administration for finding out the best techniques possible. Rotary can contribute to creating awareness at the school level for the recycling and reuse concept with the hand wash campaign as Unicef is doing satisfactory work in this direction. Also, Irani urged Rotarians to make people aware of one-stop crisis centers more and more so that women who are facing violence can get timely support. Rtn. Fazal Mahmood, District Governor, RI Dist. 3190, first lady Ann Sabiha, with other past District Governors, dignitaries from various parts of Karnataka and India with Rotarians were present on the occasion.