10 years after completing my B. Arch I decided to take up a Masters programme. I wanted to study green design and this programme, M. Arch in environmental Architecture, is only conducted in a few colleges in Mumbai through the YCMOU.
Another colleague wanted to study construction management (again offered in the same colleges and by the same university); so he offered to go and pick up the forms for both of us.
Horror of horrors.. he came back with two 200-page brochures!! I was furious. We could well have shared one brochure for information and just got two forms.. but then he informed me that the form is attached to the brochure and you have to buy the entire booklet. You can't get just an application form. In case you decide to apply for 2 programmes (as admissions are based on merit) you have to buy two brochures for the two applications.. And this inspite of the fact that all information is available on the website..
It is a criminal waste of paper, print, ink.. Bad for the environment!! And this is a course in 'Environmental Architecture'.. What irony!!
That's not all..
The college needs a list of documents that go as follows:
- B. Arch Degree
- Marksheets of all semesters of B. Arch (10 semesters)
- HSC marksheet (12th Std)
- SSC marksheet (10th Std)
- Photo ID proof
- Residence proof
- Birth certificate
- Domicile certificate
- Photo IDs of both parents!!
All this amounts to at least 18 extra sheets of paper.. And all of these have to be attested. Which is crazy!!
I don't understand why they need all marksheets. I offered to give them transcripts of my B. Arch marks which condenses the paper usage from 10 sheets to 5 sheets but that is not acceptable. Why do they need proof of the fact that I have passed my SSC or HSC.. Isn't that a given when I have completed my B. Arch?
That's not all.. If one makes a mistake in filling the form, it cannot be corrected.. 'No overwriting'.. You just have to buy a new form (with a new brochure).
I can't understand why all this paperwork? And why can't information be available online and just the forms be sold. Take the money for the forms. I don't need value for money in the form a set of identical brochures that I don't need.
Finally, we had to buy 4 brochures to apply for two programmes each. We pulled out the forms and returned 3 brochures to the college to give to people who only need information. It won't make much of a difference but at least I don't have to look at 4 identical books on my desk and feel like weeping..
Why doesn't the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) take up this problem of waste of paper. It's critical that we preserve as much as we can. In the long run, all these wasted brochures for every year.. all these collected marksheets of hundreds of students will just lie in some cupboard and no one will look at them again.. The paper will not be recycled, the ink will add poison to the atmosphere.. and all for the sake of one admission.. and the same cycle of waste will repeat every year.
Same is the case when you apply for a phone connection or a bank account or a gas connection or anything under the sun. I have my Vodafone connection for 5 years now and every month I pay the bill for it. Yet every year invariably, I'm asked to submit all documents again 'for security purposes'.. It's absurd!! Imagine millions of people handing over at least 5 sheets of paper. That's criminal!!
Perhaps the best idea would be to include all this information alongwith the UID as well. So that for everything, you only have to hand over you UID number and all your data including your marks, education, identification, parentage, birth date, place, death, etc. can be available.
That will solve a lot of problems.. Bundles of paper will not have to be wasted every time you have to apply for anything under the sun.
