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A short bio and informational links on the speakers:
Rajendra
Singh |
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Rajendra Singh is famously known as the "Water Man" for
the water harvesting work that his organization has executed in
the arid desert villages in the district of Alwar in Rajasthan.
From 1984, as a General Secretary of Tarun Bharat Sangh, he has
mobilized the rural communities to rebuild and revive over 4,500
traditional check dams or water harvesting structures to collect
rainwater in 1050 villages, thereby regenerating 6500 sq. km of
land. He also played a pivotal role in revitalizing five rivers
in Rajasthan which were drying up - they now flow perennially. Over
the period of 15 years, these villages have been drought proofed
when the rest of Rajasthan and India experienced droughts due to
poor monsoons.
One of the major contributions of Rajendra Singh and Tarun Bharat
Sangh has been to build unparalleled confidence in the villagers.
The local communities themselves manage all the natural resources
through participatory management - the members of more than 1000
'Jal Sabhas' (Water Parliaments), 'Jungle Samitis' (Forest Committee),
'Mahila Sangathans' (Women's Groups) and 'Yuvak Mandals' (Youth
Forums), individually and collectively discuss, decide and implement
the decisions taken by them.
Since 2000, through the formation of Jal Biradari, or an association
of people interested in the creation and protection of water resources
and working on building policies and laws related to the use of
water, this Water Man has been resisting the new national water
policy of India which promotes water privatization and inter-linking
of rivers over community based water conservation and distribution.
Through Jan Sunwai (public hearings) and Jal Adhikar Yatra, (water
rights marches) he has been creating awareness on community based
water management practices and enforcing policy changes in the national
water scenario. For his work in these areas, he was awarded Ramon
Magsaysay award besides numerous national awards.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1.Tarun Bharat Sangh:
Official Website of the organization. |
| 2. Rajendra
Singh pioneers a new development model: From goodnewsindia. |
| 3. Kiss
of life for mother earth: The Week magazine's man of the year
1998. |
| 4. Rediff
Interview: Interview after winning the Magsaysay award in 2001. |
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P.
Chennaiah |
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P. Chennaiah is the founder and General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh
Vyavasaya Viritidarulu Union (APVUU) - a federation of agricultural
labourers unions in Andra Pradesh. During the 1980s, when the agricultural
workers were not paid minimum wages and the bonded labour system
existed, Chennaiah started an NGO 'Sahanivasa' for agricultural
workers. Sahanivasa which literally means 'living together', intended
to work for promoting trade unionism, especially among agricultural
workers. As Sahanivasa grew, some committed individual and agricultural
workers came together under the leadership of Chenniah and independently
formed a federation of agricultural workers and marginal farmers
unions. The Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vritidarula Union was registered
in 1998 as a federation of 325 registered unions federated from
16 districts out of 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh. APVUU is a part
of the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) and also a
member of the National Centre for Labour (NCL). It has a membership
of about 3.2 lakh.
Since its inception, APVUU has been involved in two major struggles
- for land appropriation and against untouchability. Till now, the
union has appropriated and distributed 150,000 acres of land in
the names of women in Andra Pradesh. Over the past decade, over
16,000 bonded laborers have been released and rehabilitated. The
union has spread awarness against untouchability and struggled for
protection of dalit rights. It has fought for gender equality and
actively sought women's participation in all the movements.
Recently, Chennaiah has been working on building alliances with
national and international movements to struggle against the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) and its negative implication on agriculture
and labour sector. His present focus is to unite the agricultural
workers unions in India to campaign for the Comprehensive Agricultural
workers Act, Employment Guarantee Act &. Right to information
Campaign to include Adivasis villages in 5th schedule. Without fear
of failure, without being proud of the success, this 42-year-old
crusader has been fighting against all odds for workers' unity.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1. A
Profile: A detailed profile on Labour File. |
| 2. Role of Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union in assertion
of Dalit Rights. download
word doc |
| 3. APVVU Growth Process, Programmes and Future Focus. download
word doc |
| 4. Structure of APVUU. download
word doc |
| 5. Chennaiah's Brief C.V & background of APVVU. download
word doc |
| 6. Case Study: Save 680 Dalit bahujan families from the development
of A.P. state sponsored tannery industry by LIDCAP. download
word doc |
| 7. Case Study: Role of union to exposed Ceiling surplus land in
the hands of B.V.Reddy family, (Proprietor of Nutrine Chocolate).
download word doc
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| 8. New Challenges Facing Indian Agriculture. download word doc
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Robert
Jensen |
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Robert Jensen joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty
in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. on media law and ethics in the
School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of
Minnesota. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media
law, ethics, and politics. Prior to his academic career, he worked
as a professional journalist for a decade.
In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical theories.
Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist
critique of sexuality. In more recent work, he has addressed questions
of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized
racism.
Jensen is the author of Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to
Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); Writing Dissent: Taking
Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002);
co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of Pornography: The Production
and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1998); and co-editor with
David S. Allen of Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives
on Freedom of Expression (New York University Press, 1995).
In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular
media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic
pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have
appeared in papers around the country. He also is involved in a
number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic
domination of the rest of the world.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1. Personal
Homepage: Links to books, articles and essays. |
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Sharmila
Rudrappa |
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Assistant Professor in Sociology and Asian American Studies at
the University of Texas at Austin.
Interests: Race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and citizenship.
Sharmila Rudrappa completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. Her book Ethnic Routes to Becoming
American: Indian Immigrants and the Cultures of Citizenship
is coming out with Rutgers University Press in summer 2004.
At present, Dr. Rudrappa is working on how globalization affects
the social rights of citizenship. Her project is tentatively titled
"Techno-Braceros, Indian Mothers and Other Such Phenomena:
Conceiving Citizenship in 21st Century United States." She
is also an active Post-Collective member since its inception in
May 2003. For more information on the Post-Collective's Raddesi
Summer 2004 please visit: http://raddesi.bloki.com/
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Dilip
D'Souza |
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Categorized by Rediff under
"Unconventional Wisdom", Dilip D'Souza's writings provide
simple logical insights into various aspects of all things Indian.
Educated as an engineer (BITS, Pilani) and a computer scientist
(Brown University), Dilip spent ten years in the US working for
different software firms. Since his return to India in '92, he has
been writing steadily and is now a nearly full-time writer/ journalist.
"Nearly", he says, because he still has a software job
that he pays attention to one day a week.
His writing and commentary focuses on political, social and human-rights
issues, and offers a very human perspective on these themes that
goes beyond the mere facts and figures. The broad spectrum of his
writing has covered religious tensions in India, the Kashmir issue,
the Kargil war, the Orissa cyclone, the situation of tribals, and
the issues of poverty, health and education. He is a regular columnist
with rediff.com. He is also the author of two books - Branded by
Law: Looking at India's Denotified Tribes [Penguin 2001], and more
recently, The
Narmada Dammed: An Inquiry into the Politics of Development [Penguin 2002].
His next project concerns Kashmir - about patriotism, war, dissent
and our notion of nationhood. "I think peace is much the harder
thing to achieve than fighting a war (war is the soft option),"
he says "and I think it's time we started doing that hard work.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1. Dilip's Rediff
page: List of his articles since 1996 published on rediff. |
| 2. Dilip
on Indiatogether: List of his articles on Indiatogether. |
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Balaji Sampath |
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Balaji Sampath is a central figure both within Association for
India's Development (AID), and in India where he works with the
All India People's Science Movements (AIPSN) in general, and Tamil
Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) in particular. He has made several vital
contributions in planning and executing mass movements & campaigns
in health, literacy, and improving quality of education in Indian
schools. His work in this regard has culminated in the Hundred Block
Plan (HBP) - a multi-pronged rural intervention and development
program across India - which he pioneered with Dr. Sundarraman of
the AIPSN. The HBP is currently the largest development program
undertaken by AID at this time.
Balaji joined AID as a volunteer for AID-College park when AID
was still a local organization. Over the next few years, along with
other volunteers, he built AID into a large nation-wide organization
with chapters in several cities/universities. He was also instrumental
in developing the vision statement for AID and getting it registered
as a non-profit organization. Since his return to India in 1997,
he almost single-handedly started the AID-Chennai chapter and mentored
the new volunteers by organizing joint programs with the TNSF.
Balaji initially started working with TNSF in their model health
program called Arogiya Iyakkam as well as in assisting them in their
community education, literacy and computer training programs. He
also helped them organize village libraries, savings groups and
information centers. In 2001, at the end of the model program period,
he helped analyze the impact of Arogiya Iyakkam in local communities
and proved the success of this type of intervention. Based on the
results, the UN judged this program one of the top ten programs
in the world. His efforts culminated in his joining the People's
Health Assembly (PHA) where he became a national coordinator. In
2002 and 2003, he started the Makkal Palli Iyakkam - a community
intervention program to improve the quality of primary and science
education in rural India that was based on inputs from Dr. Ramanujam
of the TNSF.
In recognition of his efforts, AID decided to make him their first
Jeevansaathi (lifetime associate). He is currently touring the US
with his wife Kalpana Karunakaran.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1.
My work report from August 1997-August 1999 |
| 2.
Science and technology for social empowerment |
| 3.
In a hurry. But to where ? |
| 4.
Hundred Block Plan - my personal comments |
| 5.
Almost Ten Years... |
| 6.
The Tamilnadu Science Forum on India Together |
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Kalpana
Karunakaran |
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Kalpana Karunakaran is a key figure in rural development and empowerment
associated with the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) and All India
People's Science Network (AIPSN). She specializes in community health,
micro-credit and women's issues. She has extensive field experience
on different facets of these key development areas and serves as
a reviewer and resource-person to several organizations and programs
in the regard.
As District Coordinator of the Mahalir Association of Literacy,
Awareness and Rights (MALAR) movement in Kanyakumari district, Tamilnadu
between 1997 and 1998, she was instrumental in starting self-help-groups
(SHGs) among rural women, troubleshooting the program and training
rural women coordinators in running the associated savings and credit
programs. The program has since become a model for large-scale women's
empowerment programs across India. Her experiences in this regard
are summed in the trainer's manual "United We Stand" which
is used by the AIPSN to develop similar programs. In 1999, she also
became involved with the Arogiya Iyakkam (Health Movement) - a grass-roots
community health and malnutrition monitoring program. As a coordinator
for this program, she was responsible for training village and block
health activists and developing health-education material for teenage
women. The program was chosen as one the 10 best programs in the
world by the UN in 2001. She then went on to take up the responsibility
of State Coordinator for the People's Health Assembly (PHA) - a
wide-ranging international campaign to deliver on the promise of
"Health For All" by the year 2000.
As State Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF), she
continues to be actively involved with their community health, micro-credit
and women's empowerment programs. She is currently also in the process
of obtaining her Ph.D. on 'Gender and Poverty issues in Micro Credit'
at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai.
She is touring the US with her husband Balaji Sampath - an AID Jeevansaathi
(Lifetime associate).
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Aravinda
Pillalamarri |
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Having grown up in the U.S.A, Aravinda brought campaigns against
war and exploitation of human and natural resources to the attention
of the US Indian community. She was always active in movements for
cooperatives, local currency, community radio, fair labour, and
organic farming since an early age and especially during her undergraduate
days at University of Wisconsin (Madison).
After spending a few months teaching children and adults in a village
in Andhra Pradesh, she found Association for India's Development
(AID) as a good means to fulfil her interest in working in Indian
villages. She played a key role in improving AID's publications
and expanding the scope of AID's thinking towards poverty elimination
by focusing on the external influences that causes the poverty like,
globalization and government policies. She returned to India, along
with her husband and AID founder Ravi Kuchimanchi, in 1998 as an
AID Jeevansaathi (lifetime associate) to work fulltime for India's
Development. Of her decision to move to India, which she had left
as a toddler, Aravinda says, "It was Narmada that brought me
here sooner rather than later."
Some of her achievements include working with the NBA and establishing
a firm connection between AID and the Narmada valley, creating an
entry for AID in a new network of activist groups viz. the National
Alliance of People's Movements, her volunteer efforts in setting
up an AID chapter in Mumbai (including establishing an eco shop)
and her active role in encouraging women and children in the tribal
village of Kaduchiwadi. Ravi and Aravinda now divide their time
between Mumbai and Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, where they have set
up savings groups for self-employed women, organic farming, and
children-run libraries. They serve as bridges between AID, and the
villages and NGOs they visit.
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| Further Readings: |
| 1. Globalisation
and Narmada People's Struggle: A commentary on the Narmada struggle
by Aravinda. |
| 2. On
The AID Trail: Inside Rural Development by Venkatesh Rao. An account
of Venkatesh's visit to the Narmada Valley along with Ravi and Aravinda. |
| 3. Activism
in the Trenches by Venkatesh Rao. A conversation with Ravi and
Aravinda. |
| 4. Interlinking
Mirages: Medha Patkar & Aravinda. On the proposed gigantic
rivers interlinking project in India. |
| 5. Picture
Gallery by Aravinda |
| 6. List
of Essays by Aravinda |
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Reading List
Reading list to help you prepare for the
conference and its sessions.
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