|
Metro Plus
Science for social change
|
Beginning with science education, the Tamil Nadu Science Forum has, over the years, diversified its activities and played a major role in improving rural literacy. Its main objective is to take science to the people.
|
IS SCIENCE all about hi tech labs and experiments under highly controlled conditions? Is science only for scientists and serious students and not for the common man? The Tamil Nadu Science Forum, with its headquarters in Chennai — a founding member of the All India Peoples' Science Network, has a different perspective and uses science to improve the quality of life through its programmes in the areas of community health, education, agriculture, micro credit etc. Since science is a social effort funded and directed by governments and affects all of us, the Science Forum maintains that ordinary people should have an informed say in policies. The Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) was recently in the news for successfully putting together a four-day All-India Science Congress in Chennai in which 600 delegates from across the country deliberated on the theme ``Science for the People". Itself in a state of constant evolution it is interesting to note how the thrust of the forum has shifted over the years to address the changing needs of society. Started by a group of scientists from the IIT and IMSc in 1980 the TNSF began organising lectures on science, bringing out a children's science magazine in Tamil, and working with teachers on and intervening in (during Hailey's comet they got telescopes installed) science education.
By way of policy level interventions when the nuclear explosions took place in Pokhran, the TNSF was the first to speak out and build pressure within the scientific community. Thereafter it moved into an active phase of science popularisation driven by the realisation that the development of a scientific temper would lead to a more rational society and that science was an invaluable tool for development.
To start with, the forum used street theatre — jatha as a tool for creating awareness and village jathas were organised countrywide on issues like water, health, literacy, education, employment and gender. By 1989 it realised that education is the key to the country's development and started the Arivoli Iyakkam, a movement to make rural India literate and worked in tandem with the government in a number of districts. This saw the expansion of the science movement from an urban middle class movement to a large rural network.
Between 1989 and 1995 the TNSF became synonymous with literacy. Its reach was phenomenal, touching 200,000 learners in 2000 villages through 20,000 teachers. When the movement was abruptly discontinued, a spin-off was the launching of a savings based micro credit scheme called Mahalir Association for Literacy, Awareness and Rights or MALAR. Through MALAR the women got together in groups of 20 and saved small amounts every week and loans were advanced to the needy among them. Apart from easy access to credit these groups help the women start small enterprises. Initially the women took loans to pay off amounts they had borrowed from money lenders and/ or redeem their ration cards and later, for starting small businesses such as the manufacture of soaps, jams, phenyl, nutrition mix, paper bags, envelopes, covers, ready made garments etc.
As on date MALAR has over 30,000 women as members of 1700 groups. Together they have disbursed loans exceeding Rs. 3 crores to their members and saved over Rs.1.5 crores in the last five years.
Gradually the programme diversified and Arogya Iyakkam, a health movement, was launched reaching five lakh people in 500 villages. Trained community health activists went from door to door recording the health status of the people, offering advice to mothers on feeding practices, ensuring that Vitamin A and iron tablets reached the children, assisting in immunisation and antenatal care and providing simple, curative services. The programme led to a significant improvement in the health of the community. What's more UNICEF has taken note of this programme and has come forward to part fund it. While all this was happening in the rural areas, in the city too the forum facilitated the development of custom made software applications in Tamil through its IT centres and networking with IT professionals so that the rural poor could benefit from the IT explosion. The CERD — Centre for Ecology and Rural Development, the TNSF's research wing, has also pitched in with inputs. Pest management and soil fertility models for farmers, promotion of techniques that improve soil yield, enabling the smooth transition from chemical to bio fertilizers, developing software on animal husbandry and accounting packages for small savings networks are noteworthy achievements The forum has also begun rehabilitation and renovation of community tanks in a big way along with the government. The concept of community tanks which collect rain water has been given a new thrust with desilting, renovation and improved design elements to suit local needs This has enabled farmers to go in for a second crop, increase the acreage under cultivation and prevent indiscriminate drawing of ground water. The programme was a huge success in Pondicherry and replicated in Ramanathapuram.
To stimulate young minds the Science Forum has set up a number of science clubs in schools and works with college students. These clubs meet once a week and try out experiments using low cost materials. In addition, slide shows on nuclear weapons, a painting competition on "Peace not War", live snake demonstration by the Snake Park and science festivals to generate new ideas in maths, physics, and geography were some of the recent events.
With the help of eco clubs a major campaign against the use of non-recyclable plastics was launched.
To get children to look at science as research area competitions were organised in which students presented reports of projects on subjects such as building materials, medicinal plants, techniques used by fisher folk and the like. Today the TNSF has a presence in 20 districts. It is basically a volunteer driven effort and each district, village and block has its own volunteer base. Its village programmes require corresponding work in the city in terms of interacting with officials, writing reports, preparing training materials and sourcing funds for which volunteers are needed.
"There is a dearth of people, especially in the cities. People don't have to work full time but should be available to help us, says Balaji Sampath, TNSF district secretary. Any one interested (NGOs , corporates ) can start a branch in their area and work with a nearby school ,organise clubs and science festivals and help the TNSF achieve its mission.
SUDHA UMASHANKER
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
|
