IHEU launches science education program in India
IHEU has made a strong start to its campaign against popular superstition with the launch on 27 August 2007 of a unique Science Education Program in India.
The project is managed by two IHEU member organisations, the Social Development Foundation (SDF) and the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA), and has been fully funded by IHEU in the amount of 6,000 Euros. The Science Education Program will engage the services of a full time resource person, deliver anti-superstition activist training in several parts of India and also adopt five villages and five village schools in remote areas of Nalgonda, one of the most backward districts of Andhra Pradesh state. At a conservative estimate, the project will have a direct and long-term impact on 500 school-going children and 7,500 adults.
Teachers from Vemulapally High School offer full support
Nalgonda district was chosen for the school program because of stories of human sacrifice and frequent reports of witch killings from this district which neighbours Hyderabad, one of India’s important IT hubs. Here, travelling exhibitions with models and charts which could be used in public outreach programs will be created and distributed to other NGOs and schools in the neighbourhood. Children and their parents will be given education and information on hygiene, nutrition and health to improve the lives of those who are victims of dangerous superstition. Teachers will be offered teacher training.
“We are very happy that Mr. Chandraiah, a well-known maths populariser and anti-superstition activist, has joined this two-year program as a full-time resource person. I am also pleased that during my meetings with them, all the headmasters and teachers have enthusiastically welcomed the project. It is very encouraging that the visionary headmasters have seen that this is more than a school education project; indeed, it is a program of social reform with schools as an entry point into the community to spread human values”, said Babu Gogineni, IHEU’s International Director, when launching the program in the five different schools where he held meetings with the headmasters and teachers inviting their support and participation.
Headmaster of Ravulapenta High School and his team welcome the initiative
Chandraiah is the resource person; Prof. Narendra Nayak, President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, and National-Level Master Trainer of the National Network of Science Technology and Communication is a volunteer advisor.
Engaging Children
Chandraiah has been recently involved in anti-superstition activities in schools in the Chirala and Inkolle area of Andhra Pradesh, thanks to privately raised funds.
Now, with IHEU’s support, his activist talents and energy will be available for the movement full-time for the next two years. One day a week, he will teach in classes 6, 7, 8 and 9 of each school (ages 11-14) as per an agreed schedule and syllabus. Four of the schools are High Schools and one is a primary school, all run by the government, and attracting pupils from the poorest of the poor families.
No proper roof, but a good foundation in science at the privately-run Rahul school in Chirala
A mixture of song, dance and magic tricks will be used to expose children to the fun and delights of science and maths. during classes they will be challenged to think for themselves, and will be exposed to Humanist ideas, and encouraged to examine their tradition and values. As Humanist ideas reach them at a young and impressionable age, they are likely to have long-term impact and even transform the atmosphere in the rural setting where the project will be implemented.
Involving Adults
Chandraiah will be attached to the schools during the school working days and during the rest of the time he will be engaged in miracle-exposure programs in the villages adopted and in neighboring villages. He will also travel to Humanist groups in the region to help in their work.
Chandraiah teaches songs to children at Laxmidevi Gudem Primary School (adopted by the IHEU-funded project) on the first day.
On weekends, cultural events and informal activities will be organized in the villages with local participation: the children will perform in the cultural activities so that the parents also develop a stake in these activities.
Training Activists and Scaling up
SDF and IRHA will also invite Chandraiah and Prof. Nayak to different parts of the country (Hyderabad, Chirala and Madanepalle in Andhra Pradesh; Kushinagar, Gazipur and New Delhi in North India; Godhra, Ahmedabad and Mehmadabad in Gujarat and Bangalore and Mangalore in Karnataka) to impart training to rationalist activists in exposing miracle claims.
Learning can be fun, children at Satya Sai High School in Chirala find out!
Scaling Up
There is a crying need for such programs to be replicated all over Asia and Africa, and IHEU will work with the implementing organizations and other partners to document the activities, collate the teaching material, and using that as a base, and with the help of the rationalist activists who will have been trained, aim to enlarge the area of work and the number of schools involved.
Blink
del.icio.us
Furl
Google
How to become good neighbours
The Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan met on September 5 and 6 after many years. Their agenda virtually dated back to 1997 when eight subjects were identified by the two countries' Foreign Secretaries for negotiations. There was little progress between 1997 and January 6 this year. After January, when fresh negotiations began, the dialogue has gone on as planned. The Foreign Minister-level talks did not make any breakthrough. However, the two countries agreed on 14 confidence-building measures and sending back the rest of the items on the agenda to the committees that had first debated them. There is advice to be patient.
This is fair enough. But some questions arise. Granted that it is a long, arduous journey, one is entitled to ask whether there is any agreement on the destination. Is there a common goal? The stated purpose is normal, good neighbourly relations. But this can encompass a wide range of possibilities. Take Germany and Poland. They had almost normal relations until last year, but now they have a much closer relationship as European Union members. An inspiring goal is needed for faster progress. The Foreign Ministers' Delhi encounter has disappointed many in Pakistan because of the slow pace of the dialogue.
A common vision of where the two countries want to go is necessary: the nature of domestic policy change and the desired dispensation in the external sphere should be spelled out. This is crucial as merely "normal" relations carry no urgency for a change in one's priorities and purposes. The question is: Where does Mr Natwar Singh want to take Pakistan, or what does he require from it? The same is true for Mr Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri. What would he want India to do or be, besides agreeing to act in Kashmir the way his government wants? There is complete silence on these questions.
The accepted goal of most Indians is to see their country emerging on the international stage as a great power. India's military capabilities, including its nuclear weapons - the currency of power and influence - are calculated to achieve national grandeur. The goal should now be more specific after the decision to lock India to a strategic relationship with the US.
There is no certainty regarding Pakistan's goal. Every ruler - mostly military dictators over long stretches of time - used Islamic rhetoric but acted as America's henchman, making the country a US satellite. It still is. The national cause used to be the "liberation of Kashmir from Indian occupation". Today another military strongman is impatient for a negotiated solution of Kashmir - one that India can live with. He has given India the choice from a notional menu of possible solutions. He has given up Pakistan's old stance of a UN-supervised plebiscite. He is anxious for a solution acceptable to India, but it should come about quickly.
Pakistan realistically lives in the present, taking one tactical move vis-à-vis India after another. But it has no independent vision for the country and the people - not even an Islamic vision. Factually, Pakistan has always tried to cut India down to size and acquire protection and aid from Uncle Sam. But India kicked at Pakistan's crutches by making New Delhi a "strategic" ally of Washington. The US has now apparently ordained peace in South Asia. That may be an explanation for President Musharraf's eagerness for any kind of settlement on Kashmir.
Anyway, India and Pakistan have to live together. Most Pakistani moves in Kashmir, including the armed insurgency called jihad, have failed. Pakistan has nothing much to fall back upon; Islamic rhetoric was useful to dictators, and the western world did not mind it. But after 9/11 General Musharraf had to make a U-turn on the Taliban and militant Islam. He is forced to propagate "enlightened and moderate" Islam. But he has also given a slogan: "Pakistan first".
This can be stretched into a philosophy of making humane economic development the first priority and purpose. General Musharraf appears to be going down this lane. For, it will involve demilitarisation of Pakistani society and economy. Anyway, Pakistan is in difficulties. India has rendered the relationship with the US non-exclusive, and India's value to the US is much greater. Its Kashmir policy having ended in a blind alley, Pakistan has to find a role as a second-class power sans cold crutches. Playing an independent world role is beyond it; not even Britain or France can sustain it. The change in Sino-Indian relations has deprived Pakistan of the exclusiveness of its relationship with China.
Hence a profound confusion over a role.
The Pakistanis have so far displayed two contradictory traits. Basically they feel insecure vis-à-vis India. And yet, they are proud to be the inheritors of the Indo-Persian civilisation - that is shared with India. All these 57 years of being a US satellite and a failed democracy have profoundly shaken the Pakistani intelligentsia. The rise of militant Islam as also terrorism are the symptoms of falling back on whatever they can lay their hands on. They need a new role or paradigm for domestic and external policies.A people-to-people reconciliation with India, in accordance with the Franco-German model, involving close political and economic cooperation, should revive their spirits. A wide-ranging India-Pakistan relationship, preferably within the SAARC framework, can be a potent factor. It will be going back to one's civilisational roots. It can release their energies for all-round economic and cultural enrichment.
In short, what India will have done is to help Pakistan - and one dares to say the same about Bangladesh - acquire a new paradigm, poise and purpose.
This may sound utopian. Perhaps, it is. One wishes to make it even more utopian by recommending a European Union-like India-Pakistan partnership. Nuclear weapons are a major hurdle. They are a big destabilising factor; for they create a profound mistrust among the rivals. While the purpose of Indian nukes remains theoretically vague, Pakistan's are aimed at only India. So long as these nukes are there, it is impossible for India and Pakistan to trust each other. This problem has to be tackled head on and made a part of the reconciliation and partnership programme. When this is done, the door to a relaxed and self-confident friendship and cooperation will open. It will also last.
That a great opportunity to
That a great opportunity to explore important areas like India. They need a chance to emerge and develop, a chance to more opportunities, a chance to escape from the endless circle of poverty. India brought great science people to the world, it's time to start searching for more.
Congratulations IHEU
It is good to see Humanists actually doing something to enhance the human condition, instead of just sitting around weeping and wailing about how bad believers are and bemoaning a nonexistent God.
SCIENCE EDUCATION PROGRAM
Congratulations to IHEU to start the program to save the victims of superstitions. It should go to the roots of the evils. Belief in devils and its powers may be the cause of the superstitions.Different religions created the fear of devils to friten the masses and attract them to wards their gods.The victims should also be told to find out weather the religions are fiction or fact.