People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 10
March 10, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 10 March 10, 2013 |
ALL
Moving Ahead with Science
Popularisation Movement
T Gangadharan
THE
14th All India Peoples Science Congress of the All India
Peoples Science Network
(AIPSN) concluded in
ATMOSPHERE FOR
WARM INTERACTION
Out of
the 35
constituent member organisations from 20 states of
The
congress was
divided into five parts: 1. AIPSN General Council meeting,
2. Inaugural session,
3. Seminar on development of Uttar Pradesh, 4. Academic
sessions and 5. Valedictory.
The
General
Council met on February 25 forenoon with D Raghunandan,
president of the AIPSN,
presiding over the proceedings. T Gangadharan, general
secretary, presented the
biannual report of activities and T P Kunhikannan,
treasurer, presented the
accounts and audit report. The council elected a 26 member
executive committee.
Election of D Raghunandan as president, T Gangadharan as
general secretary and
C Ramakrishnan as treasurer was confirmed.
M
Vijayan,
former director of Indian Institute of Science,
ON DEVELOPMENT
OF UTTAR PRADESH
A
seminar on development
of Uttar Pradesh followed immediately after the inaugural
session, with Ms
Subhashini Ali chairing the proceedings. Experts from
different fields
presented papers on different aspects of UP’s development.
They included
Muhammed Muzamil (VC of Ruhelkhand University), Pradeep
Bhargava (GSSI,
Allahabad), Dr Raj Kumar (director, AIIMS, Rishikesh), Prof
Kameshwar Chaudhari
(dean, Department of Social Sciences, Baba Saheb Bhimrao
Ambedkar Central
University), Dr
Rana Pratap (dean,
Department of Environment, Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar
Central University), Dr D
K Sahu (Lucknow University), Dr Vandana Misra and Dr Namita
Singh (writer and
president of BGVS UP).
The
papers
analysed the status of development in various sectors of
Uttar Pradesh,
identified the issues and constraints, and suggested
strategies for future
actions. Subhashini
Ali
pointed out that in UP we are lagging behind in almost all
the important social
indicators. The Human Development Report (HDR) of UP has not
been published for
three years. After 1989, caste and religion politics has
been on the rise. Demands
for the state’s development are visible but in the era of
identity politics,
the mass is divided on caste and religious lines and not
coming together on
larger issues of development and this is the main reason
behind stagnation. We
cannot compare UP with even Tripura on any indicator; the
problem is of the kind
of politics in UP. D K Sahu pointed out that the movements
in UP are not about
protest for restructuring of the system; however the youth
of UP is ready to
help and we require political will and a roadmap. Kameshwar
Chaudhari did not
think that caste politics per se needs to be held
responsible for
stagnation. His argument was that caste politics started in
southern states in the
British era but caste mobilisation did not impede the
development process of
these states; caste politics is known to have played a
positive role in these
states in the overall distribution of gains from
development. Previously in UP the
dominant class was composed of the upper castes; now the
dominant class is more
heterogenic.
Vandana
Mishra
was of the view that polarisation of religions is more of a
problem for Indian
society, noting that though identity politics is inevitable
in Indian society, it
is also due to the failure of our general practice of
politics. However, if in
UP we don't have so far a crisis of agriculture in the acute
form when developed
agricultural regions of India are in debt, then the issue of
UP’s development
also needs to be viewed from the central government politics
of industrial
investment and investment in education and health. Rana
Pratap asked the
participants to pay attention to eco-friendly and economical
alternatives in agriculture
to deal with the adverse impacts of green revolution such as
mono-crop culture,
more consumption of water, pesticides, water pollution, soil
salinity,
decreasing water tables and now decreasing productivity. We
need sustainable
agriculture. Ecological and organic agriculture, drip
irrigation,
bio-pesticides are the solutions. Productivity, soil
development, independence
of marginal farmers and their connectivity with the emerging
market
arrangements are quite critical to the achievement of
success in organic
agriculture.
Dr Namita Singh pointed out
that while we had a
very dynamic discussion on the problems of UP’s
development and the important aspects
of politics using caste based mobilisation, it should not
be forgotten that UP is
one of the richest Indian states in culture. UP has been
the birthplace of a composite
culture but unfortunately all our cultural places are now
places of caste
conflicts. A more suppressed section of society is women.
Particularly western
UP is witnessing honour killings. Addressing all such
issues is an equally big
challenge for the PSM. We
can
reach to masses only through mass literature, art forms
and in their own
dialect. We can reach through book only. So we need lot of
books to reach
masses.
The
session
concluded with the desire that these presentations must be
elaborated in future.
UP BGVS was urged to develop a document out of these
deliberations, with the
support of various faculties of universities and research
institutions.
SUB-PLENARY
SESSIONS
Day 2
and Day 3
of the congress were earmarked for academic programmes. The
focus of congress discussions
was on the task of forging a PSM vision on the emerging
challenges of development
for
On
February 26,
the first sub-plenary was on gender and social exclusion.
Asha Misra was the
convener and there were five speakers: Komal Sreevastava
(AIPSN), K R Venugopal
(JVV), Jagmati Sangwan (AIDWA), Vineeta Bal (National
Institute of Immunology
and DSF) and Alex George from
The
second
sub-plenary on agriculture and food security, held at Karan
Bhai auditorium,
was chaired by R Gopichandran, director of Vigyan Prasar,
and facilitated by Dinesh
Abrol. Other speakers were Ramanjeyalu from Centre for
Sustainable Agriculture,
AP, P V Satheesh from Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad
and T P Raghunath
from CERD Pondicherry. Ramanjeyalu presented a critical
assessment of the pre
and post-green revolution scenarios and the currently
evolving issues in
Agriculture. Satheesh spoke mainly on issues of food
security and the need of
social justice in this area. He pleaded for democratisation
of research
initiatives related to food security. Raghunath spoke on
concepts of bio
farmland and water management initiatives, and the
experiences of Pondicherry
in this regard. Dr Gopichadran put a thrust on taking new
ideas generated by
researches, to the people.
The
sub-plenary on Health was facilitated by Amit Sengupta of
Delhi Science Forum.
His introductory remarks focussed on the impacts of the
system restructuring of
the GOI in health sector and increasing drug price. Elite
healthcare systems
are given more importance and medicare expenses are
skyrocketing. There were
three speakers: T Sunder Raman (director NHSRC), Suresh from
Jana Vijnana
Vedika and Satyajit Rath from National Institute of
Immunology. Sunder Raman
spoke on the ongoing policy changes taking place in health
sector and the
resultant opportunities for interventions by PSM. Suresh
presented the case
study of implementation of Arogyasree project in Andhra
Pradesh to bring out
the element of corruption and how the PSMs will have to
intervene to deal with
corruption based on the experience of their own state.
Satyajit Rath discussed
the impact of biotechnology in contemporary medical care
system.
The
fourth sub-plenary was on environment, energy, extraction
industry and climate
change. T Jayaraman and Tejal Kanitkar from TISS, Mumbai and
M P Parameswaran
from KSSP were speakers. D Raghunandan from DSF facilitated
the session. T Jayaraman
spoke about India’s climate
policies after Durban conference. He termed the approach as
“having an
agreement without knowing the content of the agreement.”
Tejal Kanitkar spoke
on the right to energy, describing the trends in Indian
power scenario for the
last 15 years. She amply quoted the deliberations in the
AIPSN workshop on
energy mix for India, held in Kolkata recently and said that
the possible
target for India will be 2000 kwh per year per person. M P
Parameswaran spoke
on the challenge of adaptation and mitigation of climate
change at community
level, using large plantations of fruit-bearing trees for
carbon sequestration
and food security. He also emphasised that nuclear power is
not a good option
for India. Raghunandan said that in the ongoing discourses,
question raised is
not of development versus environment, but of development
and environment. We
need the right development where both environment and equity
are ensured.
WORKSHOPS ON
IMPORTANT ISSUES
Following
the
sub-plenary conferences, where conceptual variants triggered
debates, ten
workshops took place --- four on gender and social
exclusion, two on health,
two on agriculture and two on environment. The total number
of case studies and
experiences shared in these workshops came to around 60.
They illustrated a lot
of field level experiences of positive interventions which
are indicative for
future actions. In all the workshops activists provided to
the participants a
lot of insights on how people’s fight is going on in the
grass root level. Studies
on health expenditure were placed for discussion in the
workshop on access to
medicine. Few field experiences of utmost importance namely
non-pesticide
management and Biofarm were discussed in the workshops on
agriculture. The
general trend was found to be favouring a concerted effort
on sustainable
agriculture.
Sub-plenary
conferences
on February 27 were on rural livelihood, education, science
popularisation and new technologies and challenges. Session
on rural livelihood
was facilitated by T P Raghunath. Speakers were Sarada
Muraleedharan (director,
National Rural Livelihood Mission), Dinesh Abrol (Delhi
Science Forum) and D Raghunandan
(CTD Delhi). T P Raghunath, as facilitator, initiated his
session by pointing
out the peculiarities of India’s rural livelihood systems,
in which the
dependence continues to be predominantly on agriculture.
Noting that livelihood
potential in agriculture is on decline and allied sectors
are getting to be
more important. Ms Sarada Muraleedharan spoke on the subject
of “Women in Livelihood:
The Dynamics of Space.” Starting from the present
functioning of NRLM, she
detailed the unique experience of Kudumbasree in Kerala,
where more than half
of the families in the state are brought in the network for
poverty reduction
and livelihood improvement. Closely integrated with LSGIs,
Kudumbasree has
become an outstanding movement of empowerment of women,
though with many
problems yet to be resolved. D Raghunandan spoke about
technology based
livelihood. He reminded that not only rural non-farm sector
should be the main
forward looking avenue for India the challenge of technology
upgradation is
becoming quite important. We will have to ensure quality and
standards. We are
intervening in unorganised sector where countries like China
intervene well
organised. Dinesh Abrol spoke about the narrowing role of
the state in ensuring
livelihood and the way forward. He observed that the
concurrent development in
livelihood is visible in trading and finance and other
service sectors and not
much in productive sectors. Skill development is becoming a
corporate agenda
conceived in PPP mode. He was also of the view that
agriculture has much
potential to absorb surplus labour if the peasantry is made
to adopt ecological
farming and from the rural non-farm sector will also gain
better in respect of
the linkage effects.
The
session on Education was facilitated by C P Narayanan, a
member of parliament
and of KSSP, and coordinated by C Ramakrishnan and Asha
Misra. The theme paper
was presented by Vinod Raina and responded by three
speakers, M P Parameswaran
from KSSP, Kamala Menon from DSF and Subimal Sen of PBVM and
former vice chair
of Higher Education
Council of West Bengal. Vinod Raina, in his theme paper,
covered the overall
scenario of education in India, emerging issues and
potentials. Even though the
GOI is enacting new laws and trying to build up new
systems, there is no
interest in the government to implement these systems with
an appropriate
spirit. Noting that the fund allocated for education is
not sufficiently
expended he called for the PSM to mobilise the people and
deal with the
challenge of lack of creative ideas on how to go about the
implementation of
new systems. Subimal Sen spoke regarding the policy
changes occurring in higher
education and how it is going to commodify higher
education in our country.
Higher education is missing a vision for tomorrow. M P
Parameswaran opined that
along with raising criticisms, we have to try to create
functional models to
intervene. He underlined the need of transforming the
teacher community as a
strategy for a long lasting intervention in school
education. Kamala Menon also
emphasized on the need for PSM interventions in education.
STRESS ON SCIENCE
POPULARISATION
S
Chatterjee from Karnataka BGVS and a scientist at the Indian
Institute of
Astrophysics, Bangalore, chaired the session on Science
Popularisation and
Prajwal Shastri of the same institute coordinated the
discussion. S Chatterjee observed
that science popularisation activity was the gateway to
scientific rationale.
He pointed out how PSMs have been using this potential and
what are the future
prospects. There were three speakers: T V Venkateswaran of
Vigyan Prasar, T Jayaraman
from TISS and Amitab Pandey, amateur astronomer and activist
from Delhi. Jayaraman’s
presentation had its focus on different limitations faced by
science
communication activists in the era of global warming. Many
aspects are
uncertain and objectivity is at a risk, related to
predictions and projections.
Venkateswaran’s attempt was to place a communication model
for India, given the
current unscientific practices in the media world. Prajwal
Shastri presented
her views on how a better understanding of the universe will
facilitate to
strengthen rationality in society.
The
eighth sub-plenary conference was on new technologies and
challenges,
facilitated by Prabir Purkayastha of Delhi Science Forum.
The other two speakers
were Satyajit Rath from National Institute of Immunology and
DSF and Debesh
Das, former minister of information technology, West Bengal.
Rath presented his
views on biotechnology with special reference to genome
technology. Nature and
nurture of technologies were the key words in his
presentation to denote
hereditary and created aspects. Platform technologies are
used to manage the
enormous amount of data. He also discussed the impact of
genome technology in
pathology and pharmacology. Debesh Das spoke on information
and communication
technologies, giving a comprehensive picture on the use of
ICT in India and
establishing how India is lagging behind in mastering
technologies with a
vision, while it is believed to be the leader in software
development. He
predicted that the present status of India in ICT would not
continue as we are
not in a controlling position in the manufacturing of
electronic components
used in ICT hardware. Purkayastha cautioned against the
challenges posed by
strategic technologies like biotechnology and information
technology. Influence
of internet and mobile communication is increasing very
fast. It also brings the
thinking that individual interventions are most important
and thus negates or
reduces the importance of collective actions. They have
become disruptive
technologies. We need not reject them but should try to
overcome the disruptive
impacts and try to use them more effectively.
In
the afternoon, there were eight workshops to elaborate the
discussions in the
sub-plenaries. A total 53 case studies were presented in
these workshops which
provided ample scope for discussion (rural livelihood-12,
education-30, science
popularisation-10, new technologies and challenges-1). The workshop
on literacy and continuing education was very rich in case
studies from various
states. In science popularisation workshop, various issues
faced by the
activists involved in science popularisation activities were
discussed along
with few exciting experiences like that of Amitab Pandey. In
the workshop on new
technologies, even though participants were less, a hot
debate on the approach
to GM crops made it more live.
IMPORTANT
PROGRAMMES
FOR FUTURE
ACTIONS
The concluding session
of the congress started on February 28, chaired by D
Raghunandan. Avanish
Avasthi, principal Secretary of science and technology,
addressed the
delegates. He recalled the contributions made by PSMs in
literacy, education
and science popularisation in UP and other parts of the
country and felicitated
its attempts to intervene in the development of UP. Session
coordinators of
each sub-congress were asked to place a brief summary of the
discussions along
with the major recommendations made by the participants.
Thereafter, T
Gangadharan placed a panel for new executive
committee of AIPSN, which was unanimously accepted, and the
new EC members were
introduced to the audience. The general secretary placed
before the body some
important programmes for future actions, which included:
·
PSM
schools at regional and state level
·
Strengthening
of
regional organisation structure
·
Continuing
the ongoing campaigns on RTE, climate change etc
·
A
campaign on astronomy using the opportunity of the visit of ISON comet
·
International
year
of crystallography, year of mathematics of planet earth
·
Experience
sharing workshops, miracle exposure, SHG etc
·
Book
publication on pre-publication system.
The venue of the next
AIPSC could not be declared as
there were three requests. The general secretary said the
venue would be
decided by the EC in due course. Members of the local
organising committee were
introduced by Sanjeev Sinha, its convener, and the tentative
income and
expenditure details of the AIPSC were presented by Tejram
Bharati, convener of
finance committee. This was recognised as a good practice
which should be
followed in future also. The AIPSC souvenir was released by
Veena Gupta. The
new president and general secretary addressed the gathering,
as part of their assuming
the new responsibility. The 14th AIPSC concluded in a
festive mood with
enchanting musical presentations by teams from different
states.
