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This article provides information about the activities and achievement of PSM:
Apart from identifying common areas for joint action, certain fundamental issues were raised in the convention regarding the various approaches to the concept and relevance of PSMs in India. One view contends that the PSM should concentrate on the issue that falls on the interface between science and society. Hence the concern of the PSM should be on the natural science content of such issues.
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The PSM should provide “scientific information” for effectively carrying out people’s struggles by mass organisations. In such a conceptual framework, the PSM has a large area of autonomy in terms of dissemination of information, sensitizing the scientific community, suggesting solutions to social problems whenever there is a strong content of science and technology and above all creating a scientific attitude among the people and their organisations.
It was argued that this view was inadequate and restricted. “Science” should emphasise the need for an alternative method for understanding and analysing social issues. This view contended that the link between natural and social sciences is organic and they are not separate. In every social issue there is a natural science content and vice versa. The emerging social contest requires a PSM which, apart from helping other mass organisations, also establishes its own territory by directly going to the people as certain issues and situations require independent intervention of PSMs.
Another view held by some put forth the argument that the concept and meaning of science as used has been derived from the western tradition, which is not too relevant to our context. An attempt should be made to turn to an indigenous concept of people’s science, and on that basis build a perspective for science based social activism in the country. However, serious doubts were raised on the indigenous concept of science.
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The PSM activities can be broadly classified into four categories:
Science and Communication:
Science communication is the basis for the movement in several States. It involves science teachers, working scientists and the science-qualified middle class and students. The activities include science publications, popular science lectures, street plays and school science activities. Cultural forms or communication are extensively used in the Kala Jathas. One of the sustained activities of Haryana Vigyan Manch has been its campaign against superstitions and myths.
For children, in particular, science popularisation by the PSM organisations has been through children’s science festivals, children’s science projects, and quiz contests, science tours and publication of children’s science books. An annual Children’s Science Congress is held shortly before the Annual Indian Science Congress and winners in the former participate in certain special for the latter. Besides, innovative science teaching methods are also propagated by some of the PSM groups.
Some of the well-known publications of these groups include CHAKMAK (for children), Srote and Sandarbh (for teachers) brought out by Eklavya; Thulir (in Tamil) and Jantar Mantar (in English) brought out by the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF). Many of the PSM groups have won national awards for excellence in science communication. These include the Haryana Vigyan Manch, the Pondicherry Science Forum, the TNSF, the Karnataka Rajya Vigyan Parishad, the Madhya Pradesh Vigyan Sabha, Srujanika, the Assam Science Society, the Paschim Banga Vigyan Manch and the KSSP.
Policy Critiques:
The forum of PSM allows scientists and professionals to critically evaluate state policies, not just science and technology and research and development policies. They should point out the inadequacies of such policies and propose alternatives. The idea behind this is to provide a critical understanding of the developmental policies, which would empower people’s organisations to intervene in decision-making. Sustained interventions in the area of science and technology policy and management are required if people-oriented science-society linkages are to emerge. PSM groups have periodically intervened in this direction through advocacy and campaigns.
The PSM studies and articulated positions have played a significant role in nationally debated issues like nuclear disarmament, patent laws and intellectual property rights (EPRs), health and drug policies, energy and environment policies, reforms in the telecommunication and power sectors, panchayats and other decentralisation policies.
Development interventions:
This has been a major component of the PSMs initiatives through mass campaigns and discussions. By developing pilot models in literacy, health, agriculture, credit cooperatives, watershed development, local/panchayat level planning programmes, promotion of small enterprises and their networking, PSM groups have been able to intervene effectively in the decision-making process in several instances. These campaigns serve the purpose of people’s resistance to unfair policies and highlight their demand for appropriate alternatives.
Specifically, for instance in the area of health, the interventions of PSMs have resulted in the withdrawal of a number of hazardous drugs from the market and initiation of legal action on a number of other drugs. The groups have also been active in the area of health education and more recently in decentralised health planning. A number of ongoing programmes are focused on promoting community initiatives and building effective primary health care. These programmes also aim to empower women and develop a rural women’s network.
A major initiative in health has been that of the TNSF called “Arogya lyakkam “, a programme that covers about 1,000 villages in 17 blocks all over Tamil Nadu, where a local health volunteer is trained in the basics of child nutrition, maternal and child care, first aid and preventive and curative health needs.
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In the area of environment, the PSMs activities have been largely in the nature of environmental education. In developing teaching aids, the PSM has integrated comprehensively environment as one of the crucial components of the modules and resource material developed by it. Advocacy and campaigns on issues such as the Silent Valley Project in Kerala, the Bhopal gas disaster and the ongoing Narmada dam project have had considerable impact. Initiatives in the form of policy level critiques related to environmental issues during the Rio Summit, the Biodiversity Convention and the World Summit on Sustainable Development have been undertaken.
An initiative of the TNSF, for instance, has been the reclamation of abandoned large water tanks across the State in order to make them usable once again. The Pondicherry Science Forum intervened effectively in the unbridled practice of aquaculture in Tamil Nadu, which was causing severe damage to the coastal ecology. This resulted in the enactment of regulatory framework. The Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti has initiated a project to study the frequent occurrence of flash floods in the state.
Technology Development: PSM groups have engaged in developing and encouraging people-centred technologies that are less capital intensive and empower a large number of people, workers, craftspersons and artisans. Some examples of such initiatives are: wireless in local loop for telecommunications, the computer and village information software, biomass as replacement for cement/concrete in civil constructions, windmills and biomass based energy systems, non-chemical inputs to boost agricultural productivity, improved small-scale mechanised looms, small-scale oil presses and other food processing units, and mechanised black smithy.
Roughly, once every two years, the PSM groups come together at the All India People’s Science Congress (AEPSC) to review their actions, interact with experts, learn from their experiences and plan ahead. The Tenth AEPSC was held in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, in October 2003. The PSM has come a long way from merely disseminating scientific information to involving the people in advocacy, discussions and interventions in science-related policy and developmental issues. The movement has gone from strength to strength to become a vibrant mass movement with practically every State having an active people’s science group.
The efforts of the PSM are becoming more relevant today as the adverse impacts of liberalisation and globalisation are felt increasingly by the ordinary people and the state is gradually abdicating its responsibilities in education, employment, health and social welfare.