Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) is to launch a campaign to promote public awareness in civil consciousness, specially to assist the public to select quality products. At a press briefing held for this purpose, at the SLSI head office this week, Chairman Dr A R L Wijesekera said that the SLSI provides a number of services to facilitate quality improvement of the products and services of the country.

Basic factors affecting quality of products and services are the quality of material, machines, method and men which are often known as 4Ms. Out of these four factors the most crucial factor would be the quality of people. The quality of people begins with ethical behaviours. Thus, SLSI will now attempt to contribute towards ethical development of people, he said.

Through trying to improve the ethical standards and quality of life it also expects to come to the limelight, then to get the required publicity automatically. To improve the ethical standards which by all means is an impossible task, it expects to launch a video clip campaign through one of the state electronic media. SLSI showed 12 individual episodes to the media this week which would be used in the ethical cleansing of the general public. Eleven of the 12 episodes portray negative attitudes of the people and the only one positive episode depicts how a public officer fulfills his task ahead of time.

Another episode depicts how a motorist throws a bag containing garbage to a compound of a roadside garden and as a result sparking a conflict between the neighbours. The message here is that it is unfair to blame people for dumping their garbage as garbage collection and disposal is not functioning properly by local authorities and municipalities. In fact, there is legal provision for the Central Environmental Authority to take to task, the local bodies which do not clear garbage properly.

In another episode there is a depiction of a person seated in a bus being insulted by the mother of a pregnant women for not offering the seat meant for pregnant mothers. Another episode shows a motor car splashing muddy water onto several bystanders while the vehicle crosses a pothole on the road filled with stagnant water. If the highway authorities mend the roads in time there won’t be any potholes where water collects.

Spelling out the campaign on improving behavioural patterns of the people, the SLSI says that it has embarked on a campaign to improve behavioural patterns of the people. Producing and broadcasting a series of one minute video clips on ethical behaviours of the people is one project under this campaign.
The financial part of producing these video clips was sponsored by one of its clients and produced by a popular dramatist.