Man has always been concerned about his whereabouts, where he lives, where he has to go to earn his living and bread and who his neighbours are?  This has been so from time immemorial.  The search has involved a study of one's surroundings, learning where water is and where food can be found, and in, more recent times, where food cane grown economically and industries developed.  A knowledge of geography is a perquisite for all these aspects of modern living.

Geography is best imparted to a person when the student is still very young-in other words, in school.  A child should know where he or she lives – the village or town, the district, the state, the country, the neighbouring countries and, then, the world.  Few children in India today know much about any of this, for Geography is unfortunately, a minor subject in most schools, where it is considered merely a part of social studies, usually being taught together with History and Civics, and is a vanishing subject at higher levels. We in India are not only losing sight of the rest of the world through this de-emphasizing  of Geography but our youth is even beginning to lose touch with the rest of the country.  We are becoming strangers to each other.

But given the present syllabi orientation, what little Geography is taught would become more meaningful if only it were taught more meaningfully and with the proper tools.  Primary to the task of dissemination of geographical information are two visual tools – the atlas and the wall map.  According to statistics provided by the Government of India last year, our country has 1,200 lakh children learning in five lakh primary schools and 1,80,000 middle, high and higher secondary schools.  Every one of these children should have access to atlases and wall maps in order to comprehend the basic aspects of geography, both physical and political.  The figures give an idea of the massive number of atlases and maps that the country's educational system needs.  Starting with the lowest minimum need, calculating one atlas and one wall map per school per year, the demand should be in the range of seven lakh atlases and seven lakh wall maps per year.  The reality is much less than that.  Part of the reason for that is, that the majority of the maps and atlases produced in India are in English.  We must find ways and means to produce them in at least all the recognized language in the country that are used in schools.

Then again, as with many other subjects, there is no specialist teaching Geography in most of our schools.  One teacher teaches all or many subjects, especially at the elementary and middle levels.  For this reason, it is all the more necessary to provide teachers and schools with accurate and properly syllabus-oriented atlases and maps since teachers may not be discriminating enough to choose the appropriate publications.

This leads to the question of the design and production of atlases and maps.  It is not a simple exercise.  It is a highly skilled craft, demanding considerable manpower and much talent and training.  It is a job for the specialist.  It is also a costly business activity which will not bring quick returns on investment.  For this reason the Central Government, the State Governments, the various directorates of education and national level educational institutions should associate themselves with the few skilled map-making agencies in the country in producing and distributing the much-needed atlases and wall maps.

The tasks in bringing out the maps are:

1.         The importance of Geography must not only be realized but it must be recognized as a part of national policy.  To do so, a fresh look will have to be taken at the entire Geography-teaching in the curriculum at various levels and a re-orientation introduced.

2.         Such a re-scrutiny must identify the necessary aids that will help make Geography more meaningful.  Such aids as outline maps, wall maps, atlases, gazetteers, work books, etc., must be clearly identified in terms of context necessary at various levels.

3.         The preparation of accurate maps and atlases for various stages in schools – primary, middle, high and higher secondary – must be encouraged.  Fly by night operators or unqualified printers should be discouraged.  The seal of authenticity should be given by certifying authorities to prevent substandard or inaccurate publications from being circulated in the educational arena.

4.         Governmental organizations in various States have so far confined themselves to the production and distribution of text books alone.  They should recognize that outline maps, wall maps and atlases are equally important teaching aids.  These Government organizations should identify the agencies which can undertake the design and publication of accurate geographical aids t international standards and work with them to bring the students only the best and the most accurate.

5.         By virtue of the intricate nature of maps and atlas design and production, they are much more expensive per page than ordinary textbooks.  Unlike in the developed countries, the majority of students in India would find it difficult for a long time to come to afford individual purchases of maps and atlases.  Thee is, therefore, a strong case for subsidies from the government – direct in the form of co-publishing, or indirect in the form of provision of paper and other materials at concessional rates, as in the case of general textbooks, to approved cartographic publishers.

If Government would look at these proposals seriously, firstly to restore Geography back to its rightful place and secondly to ensure that accurate essential aids for the teaching of the subject are made freely available locally, then we might once again become aware of our national and international bearings which we are beginning to lose sight of.