'Women concerned equally about environment, development'

A higher percentage of women as compared to men placed equal importance on both environmental protection and development, according to a survey conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Spanning eight cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Indore, Jamshedpur, Kanpur and Pune - the recently released Environmental Survey 2014 report by TERI, focused on waste and water related issues.

"It is worth noting that a higher proportion of women (48 percent) as compared to men (36 percent) felt the objectives of environmental protection and development went hand in hand," the report said.

Moreover, nearly 40 percent felt that environment and development went hand in hand with no apparent trade-offs while over 30 percent thought the government should prioritize environment over development.

It stated that a majority of people feel climate change is a reality and acknowledged the link between quality of environment and health.

"The respondents showed a great deal of awareness and concern about the state of the environment. Over 90 percent felt the quality of the environment had an immediate impact on health," the study said.

R.K. Pachauri, director general, TERI, said it is necessary to bring about public awareness to better quality of the environment.

"If we want to bring about improvement in environmental quality, then the foundation on which any such effort would rest, would be on the awareness of the public," he said in a video message.

Prodipto Ghosh, distinguished fellow, TERI, said: "Urban respondents felt government and consumers played a positive role for improving the environment."