Work and Labour

Work is like worship, and it ought to be so. It is closely related to our psychological level, because we tend to look at work from the norms that have come to be set in the society. Work, high or low, highly paid or lowly paid, considered inferior or superior, remains work and any person, society or nation cannot do without it. If the work of a minister is important, the work of a plumber or electrician or mason is also equally important. This was the reason that Swami Vivekananda said, "Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition and then acceptance."  In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "If a man is called to be streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

There is a great need to put our education in a new perspective so that it can do good to the individual, society, nation and world. The most basic body part involved in learning to do a work is the hand, that must act in conjunction with the brain; in other words, the brain is educated through the hand. Gandhiji too said that those who do not train their hands, who go through the ordinary rut of education, lack music in their real life. Thus, it is very important that the importance of work is understood by each teacher and student.

The scope of work comprises different numerous aspects of life, some of which can be mentioned as follows :

1.   Work that meets individual needs, such as those of nutrition, health, hygiene, clothing, shelter etc.

2.   Work that meets social needs, like creating of amenities and infrastructure in the society.

3.    Work that meets community needs, like cultivation of cultural and civilizational needs.

4.   Work that meets educational needs, such as the activities pertaining to teaching-learning.

5. Work that meets livelihood needs, such as imparting and cultivating skills and qualities through work education, vocational courses, craft education, professional courses etc.