Promote The Local

Promote The Local

( By Rounakshi Dey )

Image By:- Darshika Singh

   

 “Go Local” read the campaign. This hashtag is common on twitter too nowadays. What does this campaign mean? How does this support our economy? India, a country of colors and traditions, of different states, of different products each having its own uniqueness and flavor. India is a community having fellow feelings and companionship among individuals. Go Local campaign urges us to buy locally available products from the small scale farmers and shopkeepers around. Go Local promotes our culture, and uniqueness of being a community. Go Local boosts our economy and promotes fellowship.

If we look around, we find that the shopping malls are crowded while the para shop is counting flies. In recent times the number of malls has increased in arithmetic progression while the losses suffered by the local shops are in geometric progression. Why do people prefer malls? Malls provide us branded things and all things under a single roof. People flock to the malls just for the sake of buying foreign branded products. Our local economy suffers and global brands flourish as we keep on buying these branded products.

Now we see the advantages of buying locally are:

Less the packaging is involved in locally produced goods. Locally produced goods are not transported over long distances and hence they need not be packaged heavily. This reduces the chances of plastics involved. However, if we consider products in malls, they are sometimes imported on a global scale. Hence, they involve a lot of use of plastics for proper packaging so that the goods are not destroyed. Buying locally is good for our planet. As we buy locally, the transportation cost is reduced. This in turn reduces the use of fossil fuels and pollution. Go local make our environment cleaner and greener than before. Our Go Local campaign coincides with the Go Green Campaign.

Go Local promotes the local economy. As we buy products locally, there is a cash inflow in the local market. More and more people have access to cash and it elevates the local economy. Buying foreign branded products make these global brands richer while our poor local brands suffer more. Go Local is for the betterment of the economy. As people buy more local goods, more jobs are created and our economic condition moves towards betterment. Buying local supports our neighbors. India is traditionally an agricultural nation. About 60 percent of our economy thrives on farming. Buying locally supports these poor people around them. Also, we get to know our neighbors better. We visit these shops to have a face to face interaction with these people. We come to know more about our locality, the problems faced, the current financial problems they have, etc. We become all the more close-knitted as we promote Go Local.

It preserves our tradition. For example khadi, kalamkari, these are the fabrics that are unique to rural India. As we buy these products instead of a foreign designer brand, our local art and tradition get preserved. We have more entrepreneurs that think of using these local items on a bigger scale. India was famous for its own traditional products before the Britishers took over. Our own products are signs of our rich heritage. The different fabrics and clothing materials produced in our villages should be sold on a global scale. Instead of buying from foreign brands, we should always try to make our Indian clothes, a fashion statement.

Moreover, on a day to day basis, we use a number of foreign brands, unknowingly. We have been using Colgate as our toothpaste since our childhood. We should replace foreign brands with our Indian ones in our day to day life. Instead of Colgate, Pepsodent, Close-up, Oral-B as our toothpaste, we should use Patanjali, Neem, and Anchor, etc. In the case of packaged water we buy when we are outside our houses, we should buy Bislery instead of Kinley. We should use Lifeboy, Santoor, Neem, and Margo instead of LUX, Dove, and Dettol. Whenever we wish to buy a bottle of Coco-cola, we should rather decide to buy Limca or Lassi instead. By replacing our daily used items with our locally manufactured products, we truly, follow the Go Local campaign. Next time when we buy our daily essentials, we should consciously go for these local Indian brands, instead of foreign imported goods. Only by using these Indian brands exclusively, we can boost up the economy of our country. Go Local campaign will definitely be a success, if every conscious citizen of our Nation, decides to support Indian brands only...

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.