Holistic and Integrated Approach to Life The emerging socio-economic scenario of the world is highly disturbing and poses great threat to peaceful human life, especially in the wake of the outbreak of COVID 19. The challenges we face today are unprecedented in history which demand a change in our entire outlook to the present system of living, housing, schooling, health care, food supply, trade, professional and service activities, bureaucratic setup, etc. No single individual, family, group or even nation can help find separate solution. We have to find a universal solution by the integration of the community and all the component units. What we want is a new practical approach to life as a viable sustainable solution to the challenges of poverty, security to life and property, depletion of natural resources, pollution, climate change, natural and man-made hazards, hatred, terrorism and extremism. Holistic and Integrated Approach does not simply denote people living together or working together. It is a much broader and deeper concept, in essence a peaceful revolutionary attempt to substitute the present day life pattern to ensure a peaceful, healthy, happy and prosperous life to us and the next generations. It is a new experiment with holistic centres of all human activities with a new vision and mission. It surpass the conventional family life. As per the existing system only the members of a family, the parents and their children live together. But in the new approach people live in community homes. As per the ‘Community Homes’ system there would be at least 50 persons living in a residential building or house. The maximum number of inmates of a community home may be as decided by the government or the private management as the case may be. The economic setup of the Community Home would be entirely different from the present setup. After a stage we need no other building of whatever type except ‘Community Homes’. There is no need for other buildings like hospitals, schools, colleges, markets, etc. supported by the online and digital mode of operation. Every human activity, collective or individual would come under the ampit of Community Homes. As a matter of fact, people want to be free from wants, at the same time they want to have privacy, they want to be independent, and they want to keep up their personal identities and qualities. Community Homes satisfies all these. Those who want to keep their separate identity may opt for it within the Community Homes setup itself. This concept could be made practicable in a fast changing and complex urban society only gradually. It is applicable to the urban and rural areas. At present we have clusters of small houses in villages and large flats or apartments in cities. All these could be converted to ‘Community Homes’ based on a pattern of life which is natural and simple devoid of the adverse effects of modernization. In a Community Home there would be the minimum need for transportation and commutation with the least chance of hazards, risks and accidents. Female members of the society can be as free, fearless as secure as they can expect in a advanced and cultured decent society. No loss of time, energy and resources lost by traveling and waiting for buses, trains, etc. The expenditure may be reduced to the minimum if the living place and working place are the same. Outbreaks of pandemics like coronavirus can be easily controlled. There may be ample scope for maintenance of traditional and cultural values and conventional functions and activities without affecting anybody adversely. Several of the present-day institutions and organizations would be substituted by the new concept of Community Homes with advantage. The system of distribution of essential consumer items, commodities and food help ensure maintain nutritious values of the food items and reduce their wastage by the introduction of community kitchens as part of Community Homes. (Only a brief sketch of the idea to be translated into reality if I get the economic support. )
1997-11