The world Peace Day is observed every year on 21 September. The day is celebrated around the world to strengthen the idea of peace in the world by observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease fire.

Peace is the path we take for bringing growth and prosperity to the society. With out peace, achieving cultural growth and Political stability is not possible. Countries grow when people live in peace and Harmony.

When countries or other large groups use weapons, to fight each other, the fight is called War. Throughout history groups of people have used war as a way of settling differences.

Wars are fought primarily for economic, religious, territorial and political reasons. Whatever are the reasons war is fought for; it comes with great adverse effects also.

The most obvious consequences of war are widespread death and destruction. Mass destruction of cities and have long lasting damaging effect on country’s economy also.

As per Encyclopedia Britannica, during the thirty years war in Europe, for example the population of German sates was reduced by 30%. The Swedish armies alone destroyed up to 2000 Castles, 18000 villages and 1500 towns, in Germany.

The Economy of the county suffers a setback too. People of the country are displaced and cannot get back to work. Governments decides to fund the war direct money to fund war efforts, leaving other institutions with less or no budget.

Destruction of Infrastructure can collapse the social infrastructure. Destruction of Health and Education infrastructure has led to decline in education in many countries affected in war. If certain infrastructures are damaged, then it can cause serious problem in the whole system. Such as, transportation routes in a city which could make it impossible for economy to function properly.

Wars also damages the environment. As per The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace, for humans the use of depleted Uranium (DU) by US army during Persian Gulf War claims that the deposited Uranium was the cause of cancer cluster in Iraq’s southern region. In Africa, war has been a major factor in decline of wildlife inside National parks and other areas. The Gulf War Oil spill was regarded as the worst oil spill in history was caused when Iraqi opened valves at the Sea Island Oil terminals and dumped oil from several tankers into the Persia Gulf. Oil was also dumped into the middle of desert.

The reason for a war can never a larger than the reason for the life to live at peace. As Shaheed Bhagat Singh rightly mentioned, “Bombs and Pistols do not make a revolution, the sword of revolution is sharped on the whetting stone of ideas.”

Eklavya Pandita
Empowering IIIC