People's Democracy

9th All India Peoples Science Congress, Chennai

A Burgeoning People’s Science Movement

THREE years after the historic meeting at Nalanda, the All India People’s Science Congress convened again at Chennai from December 19 to 22. For four days the 475 delegates and over 60 resource persons who came from over 20 states of India, focussed their minds and hearts on the two major challenges facing the nation: the threat of communalization and the threats arising from globalization.

While discussion covered the determinants and effects of these two processes, the real focus was on how the peoples’ science movement could construct resistance and contribute to the forces that worked for an alternative.

In his welcomedress, Dr. R. Ramachandran, former director of the Indian Institute of Mathematical Sciences and chairperson of the reception committee, set the ball rolling in his welcome address when he spoke about the need to demystify science and ensure that the tremendous benefits of knowledge and productivity made possible by science should not remain the property of the few, but must become available to all.

The inaugural address, delivered by Professor K N Panikker, was a scholarly and inspiring assessment of the possibilities and directions that resistance to these two trends needs to take. In a 45-minute speech whose written text formed one of the most thought-provoking documents of the entire meet, he advanced and elaborated on the theme of cultural action as a major form of resistance.

Referring to globalisation as an "empire forming before our eyes", he pointed out that while globalisation had been able to secure "the making of an uncritical mind and a conformist mindset", the forces of communalism acted in a complementary role to the forces of globalization, though, as he pointed out, it was important to note the contradictions between the two. Globalisation promoted consumerism as a culture wherein people’s material aspirations were largely unrealisable. Also there was the increasing alienation of the individual from society. In such a situation of heightened anxiety and stress, there was increasingly a turn to religiosity and communalism.

Calling on activists to develop a counter culture, he emphasized that going well beyond the use of art forms to convey progressive messages, the emphasis should be on constructive action in local or "imagined" communities. The continuous engagement in such action is a necessary precondition for the creation of a social consciousness that can effectively contest the ideological influence of both globalisation and communalism.

The ensuing afternoon session was devoted to a critical reflection, by delegates, of the work done by the various member organisations; the impact this had had and the directions the movement should now take.

Initiating the discussion Sridip Bhattacharya, general secretary, in his organizational report on behalf of the executive committee, focussed on on the three areas of work of the PSMs – science communication, policy critiques and developmental interventions. First of all he reported on the action taken on the decisions of the Nalanda Congress and the major coordinated activities undertaken by the AIPSN in the last three years; the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan – a coordinated action taken by 18 national NGO networks at the initiative of the AIPSN to protest the adverse impact of globalisation on the health of the people; and the work on gender issues coordinated by the BGVS on the Samata platform.

The delegate discussions on the following day were divided into seven themes, on each of which there was a one and half hour plenary where one or two case studies of PSM actions in that area were highlighted. This was followed by a position paper on the theme and an invited lecture. In the afternoon, guided by the inputs of the plenary session, a more detailed discussion was held in a number of parallel workshops where more delegates could participate, and an action plan be evolved.

Under this theme introduced by Dinesh Abrol, Amiya Kumar Bagchi spoke on Resistance to Globalisation, Venkatesh Athreya delivered a lecture on The Experience of Ten Years of Economic Reforms; Shantanu Dikshit presented a case study of ENRON to explain how unrealistic and fictional the gains of such policies are, and Ashok Jhunjhunwala a case study on The Challenge of Transnational Domination of Technology.

In the latter presentation examples were given of the efforts being made in respect of WLL, Indian languages-based Internet, PCs and telephony for rural areas at IIT, Chennai, which can even be diffused through small and medium enterprises. Through such measures, he showed that India can still hope to meet the challenge of transnational capital in IT.

In the afternoon sessions a policy critique was made of globalisation with reference to public infrastructure, S&T, information technology and to the process of building resistance. Plus in each of these areas an effort was made to define the nature of the alternative policies sought.

Recognising the importance of this field where PSM groups have been engaged in various constructive work and struggles, the 9th Congress identified this as one of the seven priority themes. Chaired by M K Prasad, President AIPSN and himself a noted environmentalist, Samar Bagchi, delivered the first lecture on Current Issues in Environment and Development; followed by case studies on the KSSP Experience by K. Sridhar, and West Bengal's Joint Forest Management Programme by Tapan Misra of PBVM. Archana Prasad analysed the challenges before the AIPSN if it wanted to evolve a long-term programme on environmental issues, stressing the need for making the AIPSN's vision of an alternative model of development and the struggle against economic reforms, sensitive to environmental concerns.

The afternoon session saw four parallel workshops on four priority areas within this theme – decentralization and natural resource management, conflicts in natural resource management, urban lifestyles’ management and globalization and environment. Over 31 papers were presented in these four workshops, 23 of which related to specific case studies or reports of peoples’ action for natural resource management.

The discussions and the action plans emerging in this process constituted a first step towards the consolidation of PSM efforts and the formulation of a broad consensus on contentious issues in this sector. An effort was also made to have representation from the burgeoning environmental movements. Pioneering environmentalists, Dunu Roy, SR Hiremath and Sagar Dhara contributed in the parallel workshops.

The theme of Science and Reason had a short seminar in the plenary, chaired by Probir Purkayastha, with Kapil Paranjpye, T.Jayaraman and Balachandra Rao, as speakers. They pointed out that the arguments for introduction of Vedic Mathematics or Astrology as science courses were bereft of not only of scientific merit, but also had no historical, cultural or religious justification. The arguments in their defense were irrational and often downright lies. Such moves only pointed to a determined bid by communal forces to communalise education. The discussions continued into a workshop in the afternoon session where eight further papers on the theme were presented.

The Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi has made a major contribution here in the last decade, and they presented two case studies from Wyra in Khammam district and Topchachi in Dhandbad district, followed by a position paper by Vinod Raina and a guest lecture by Professor K N Panikker on the recent changes in the history curriculum for schools. In the afternoon three sessions dealt with, literacy and continuing education, elementary education, and higher education.

The plenary on health began with a presentation of the Peoples’ Health Charter by Anant Phadke and a critique of the National Health Policy by Amit Sengupta. This was followed by two important lectures, Globalisation and Health by Dr B Ekbal, and The Medical Profession by Dr K S Reddy, a senior cardiologist at AIIMS. In the afternoon three parallel workshops shared the work and experience of the last three years and planned for the future. These workshops were on AIPSN Interventions in Health; Sex Selective Abortions, and on Child Nutrition and Child Care.

The plenary on this theme saw the presentation of case studies from Himachal Pradesh,West Bengal, Kerala and Tamilnadu. An overview of this experience was given by Raghunandan, followed by a panel discussion. Each presentation presented the problems of technological and organizational interventions in a number of production sectors, to build local production networks. The afternoon workshop on the same theme saw a number of experiences being presented from most of the states where the issue of the role of technology choice, marketing, training and the role of SHGs in enterprise development was discussed.

The seventh major theme was discussed only in the plenary mode and covered the work being undertaken by the Samata groups. Case studies of work done and lessons learnt in the area of credit cooperatives, participation of panchayats, contesting female foeticide, and in building the Samata network as a platform for women’s empowerment through education and cultural action, were presented by a panel of women, comprising Asha Mishra (Madhya Pradesh), Pushpa (Bihar), Jhansili (Tamilnadu), Deepa (Haryana) and Usha (Bihar).

This was followed by a presentation on Women and Education by Anita Rampal; and guest lectures on Women and Development by Ranjini Krishnamoorthy and P Sainath.

Other than the seven themes there were two important workshops. One was on Children’s Science Periodicals where the editorial committee representatives from over eight children’s science magazines published by PSMs were reviewed.

The second was an interaction between electricity trade unions and the PSM representatives, coordinated by Ashok Rao, to plan for collaboration in the work against the Electricity Bill 2000, and liberalization policies in the power sector.

The other major session was the well attended public meeting addressed by Sainath on the growing burdens of globalisation on the lives of the rural poor. Sainath who had also put up an excellent poster exhibition on this theme, spoke at length on the growing divide between rich and poor, and detailed eloquently the immiserisation and wretchedness to which the rural poor were being subjected, even as the government boasted of progress under the economic reforms.

In the concluding sessions chaired by Dr M K Prasad, re-elected as chairperson of the AIPSN for a second time, the new office bearers and executive committee elected by the general council meeting of the AIPSN were announced. Speaking at the valedictory session both K K Krishnakumar, general secretary of the BGVS, and Sridip Bhattacharya, general secretary of the AIPSN, highlighted the phenomenal growth of the PSM over the last decade.

The movement now reaches out to an estimated 15,000 villages spread over 20 states. With the even greater challenges ahead there were equally greater possibilities for making an impact as a peoples’ movement, as pointed by the guest speakers at the valedictory session, Dr Ekbal, Vice- Chancellor Kerala University, and N Ram, Editor Frontline, particularly in the fields of health and education.

This ninth congress of the AIPSN was notable for a number of special reasons. A relatively low budget conference - the arrangements for food and accommodation, though simple and inexpensive were highly appreciated. Moreover despite pouring rain on all four days and a very tight schedule, the programme could be kept running on time. For this the volunteers from Tamilnad who manned the different venues, and whose tireless work made possible the splendid success of the conference, have to be particularly thanked, and the General Secretary, on behalf of all participants expressed their deep appreciation to the volunteers for this work.

In the course of the four days seven plenary sessions had been held, apart from the inaugural and valedictory sessions and the sessions on organization. In all over 35 scientific presentations and case studies were presented, and a total of 17 parallel workshops conducted where over 153 papers were read with almost all the delegates enabled to participate in the discussions. Of these papers over 65 had written texts that were made available to each state team.

Another notable feature was the significant participation of women (about one fourth of the delegates), though this still fell short of the desired level. Many leading scientists attended taking an active part in the discussions. On the one hand we had over 40 doctorates attending as delegates, on the other, were activists, largely graduates, from a rural or small town background, presenting their experience and putting forward new formulations shoulder to shoulder with the academic community. This link that is being forged augurs well for the future of both the theory and practice of the people’s science movement, and one hopes that it will also have a positive impact on the entire movement to resist globalisation and communalism.