The implication is that real, radical, social change occurs through sustained, long drawn out efforts to build alternative intermediary structures. These are built by both bottom up and top down efforts. This will not happen without political struggle and in fact it can only be achieved through democratic processes. And democratic it can only be if these alternative structures are built on the rights as well as entitlements on the one hand and on the other hand -- the enhancement of capabilities of the large masses of people in rural communities especially tribals, dalits, small and marginal farmers, other artisans, including traditional fisher-folk, and agricultural and other labourers ; and on the entitlements and capabilities of the mass of people living on the margins or just above, in urban agglomerations, big and small.
CED’s mission within this larger picture relates to the field of documentation and education. In the light of the changing information scenario, the mission is to develop effective and quality information support to specific actors that work for this vision, in the focus areas of Climate Change, Civil Society, and Just Alternatives.
Documentation is progressively interpreted as going beyond the library sense of keeping a tag on information on relevant topics to proactive interpretation, study and analysis on development theory, situations, policy and programmes & practices. Besides being proactive, documentation is seen to be interactive with other actors as well as the activities of civil society. Thus education is interpreted as going beyond creating outputs like publications, films, education materials, and doing workshops and trainings to networking and collaborative engagement in specific fields.
Activities in Focus Areas
CED’s traditional activities have been Information Hub of Physical Documentation in two references centres at Mumbai and Bangalore and on-line and offline electronic databases, and information packages like DOCPOST ( Documentation by Post), and Critical Concerns and Development Digest. These have been focused on the three main areas of Climate Change, Civil Society Concerns, And Alternatives.
The Information Hub activities geared towards enabling
• Research and studies leading to development of education material, CDs, booklets, films, audio/video material.
• Converting Critical Concerns into focus area and specific purpose outputs
• Workshops & Seminars (13), Film Screenings (5), and networking activities(13) in the three main focus areas:
1. Climate Change: This includes issues of habitat – rural and urban, environment, natural resource ‘management’. The focus here will be on eco-communities that we relate with namely urban, and coastal. and on water, energy, esp. renewable energy, urbanization, transport and other infrastructure, health, forests. We are closely engaged with Climate Change and sustainable development through the Indian Network on Ethics in Climate Change of which we are members.
2. Civil Society , particularly issues of knowledge, information, science and technology relating to intermediary livelihoods & markets with a focus on localization and diversity. Here the focus is on small-scale organic agriculture; and will move on to health, habitat, forests, water; and on the media. In this work, we are closely engaged with Knowledge in Civil Society ( through KICS) . Additionally, a relationship has developed with Ritimo, a French documentation centre.
3. Alternative Institutions & Development like New Economics and New Urbanism.
Summary of Projects
As part of the strategy of transition, CED decided that it would mainly rely for its finances this year on task oriented project work, and revenues from services, so that the activities are geared towards user needs, and relationship development with networks and organisations, which were mainly Knowledge in Civil Society Forum (KICS), The Indian Network on Climate Change (INECC) and Citizens for Peace (CFP). These projects earned us Rupees 25.05 lakhs, while CED had to fall back on its own reserves and revenues to the extent of Rupees 21.32 lakhs respectively.
KICS- KNOWLEDGE IN CIVIL SOCIETY (CWS). CED played an active role in the forum, which besides the normal member activities saw us maintenance the KICS website, by updating content on a weekly basic, organizing two sharing sessions, research and documentation to provide special content and studies for which we received Rs.2.73 lakhs.
Under the SETDEV project, CED produced a 26 minute film on Non-Pesticidal Management , organized a Focus Group Discussion, and maintained a special website for this project, at the cost of Rs. 4.43 lakhs. Two other case studies were undertaken under this project, Democratising the Debate and Action Plans on Climate Change and Sustainable Built Environment a View from Reconstruction, for a total of 7.71 lakhs.
INECC- Indian Network for Ethics in Climate Change. We were provided with Rs. 8.36 lakhs for developing technical and content maintenance of the INECC website, two short trigger films, climate education booklets and work with youth, two workshops, two round tables, and began a vulnerability assessment study. A major effort was a public hearing on climate change in Mumbai which was funded to the extend of Rs. 2.76 lakhs through YUVA (Oxfam).
CFP-Citizens for Peace provided us Rs. 1.12 lakhs for maintaining their website.
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CED as part of its effort to re-define itself in the Internet age, has started working on specific focus areas, and integrating its documentation and information collection efforts with the downstream work that needs to be done on each of these issues through networking and collaborating with other actors in civil society. This involved a shift from a cafeteria model documentation centre to a knowledge hub concept.
Physical Documentation
CED's centres in Mumbai and Bangalore host a large collection of books, non-book materials, videos, CD, electronic files. Particularly attractive are the old archives of clippings, and reports which are unique to CED and hold a complete history of contemporary issues.
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Overview & Summary Knowledge Hub Focus Area I - Climate Change Focus Area II - Civil Society Focus Area III - Alternative Institutions Organistation Development and Maintenance
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Though we now rely on internet and email technology, CED still processes very selectively 7 newspapers 5 magazines, 24 Journals and 17 newsletters.( Annexure 1 : Inputs to Knowledge Hub)
Even though we have not had any grant for books, we have still been able to enhance our collection of books and reports, CDs,DVDs & Videos. Collection of 682 new titles including Bombay and Bangalore, thanks mainly through donations from our users themselves, a indicator of their support to us. CED is particularly thankful to Rafiq Bagdadi, Kalpana Sharma, Nasreen Fazalbhouy, Darryl D' Monte, Sumi Krishna, Jeevan Kumar, Laya, ODAF(Orissa Development Action Forum), Siddhartha, Mohan, ICFAI University Press, AME(Agriculture Man Ecology) and others in this regard.
Electronic Documentation
CED’s documentation is also available in Electronic form. To provide easy accessibility, we have build up the following databases, which are used to search the databases and retrieve the full documents both online and offline, in physical and in electronic form:
a) Electronic Documentation System (ELDOC) This is a database of electronic documents selectively sourced from different developmental sites. And this database also has documents from our more than 25 year old archives. This database has over 160000 records and can be accessed through our website .
b) Master Catalogue System (MCS) It is the database containing index of all the books, reports, journal articles, films, etc. available at CED. This has over 45000 records. This database is on line and the visitors to our website – www.doccentre.net can access these. The users can do field based search and make bibliographies, as well as ask for the books , AV materials and articles.
c) Under DOCSWEB, we have organised a set of interconnected hyperlinked documents on different themes. This also generates input to the various websites that CED manages and generates content for. The websites are: www.doccentre.net,www.kicsforum.net, www.inecc.net, www.citizensforpeace.in, www.setdev.kicsforum.net
Video Documentation
The main aim of the Video documentation is to capture the experiences and knowledge of local people and those in civil society, and make them available in different forms.
The following have been documented this year and the full transcription has been made available in CED database and CDs of the same can be asked for on request.
Prof. Sheshagiri Rao, Agricultural Scientist and practicing farmer on Agriculture and agricultural economy in semi-arid regions. Video interview. http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/Interview_with_Sheshagiri.doc.
Dr. Dwarakinath, Chairman AME Foundation on Farmer Field Schools and Integrated Pest Management and low external inputs in agriculture (LEISA). http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/ Interview_with_Dwarakinath_on_FFS.doc
Mr K. Abdul Kareem of Action Fraterna. On AF programme to implement Low external Inputs Agriculture in Anantapur. http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/Interview with Kareem.doc
The Story of NPM [Non-Pesticide Management. The various pioneers Mr. M V Sastry (CWS), Dr. N K Sanghi, Agricultural Scientist, WASSAN, Dr. M S Chari, Agricultural Scientist, Chairman, CSA, Dr. G.V. Ramanjaneyulu. (http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/TheStoryofNPM.doc
Decentralised Energy Options: Micro-Hydel Electricity, Interview with Ram Subramanium, Engineer with Villageers. http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/ DEO_Ramasubramaniam.doc
The Copenhagen Discord by Walter Mendoza, CED. This is a power point presentation at a Fireflies workshop, on the Science and politics of Climate Change, which calls on Civil Society to develop and participate in Structural Transformation. http://el.doccentre.info/website/AR/cc_wm2010februarydialogues.ppt
· The Science of Climate Change: a) Dr Srinivasan's PowerPoint presentation and video ; b) Sharad Chandra Lele's powerpoint presentation and Transcription, c) Dr Raghunandan’s powerpoint presentation and Transcription . d) )On Waste Dr H.S Chanakya powerpoint presentation and transcription . e) On transportation Mr. Dasarathi's powerpoint presentation and transcription
Networking & Interaction
CED has taken up several activities in order to facilitate a sharing of knowledge and information on issues relating to civil society and it thrust areas.
The CED centres in Mumbai and Bangalore host several events at CED. We organized a total of 6 film screenings (3 in Mumbai and 3 in Bangalore) and 18 talks and sharings (6 in Mumbai and 12 in Bangalore) and several informal events.
We have also kept our premises open to other organisations to hold their events at CED, usually at no or very low cost. This facilitates interaction between civil society persons like those in NGOs campaign organisations and students, young professionals particularly those whom we consider as in the mould of new activist.
Expertise Sharing
CED has developed expertise in documentation and has been a pioneer in developing documentation and networking solutions, which we share with other documentation centres and NGOs. Our technical team led by Vinod designed and installed LAN based on open source servers, and adapted our our electronic documentation software for the Indian Social Institute, Bangalore and also trained their on usage and maintenance of the system. The feedback has been very positive and they are using it for their day to day information storage and retrieval.
Similarly, another Bangalore based organization, Mythri working in the field of solid waste management and waste related environmental issues approached CED to organise and set up their documentation system. We have worked out a special classification system for them.
We are in the process of discussion of sharing our documentation expertise with other organisations:
Council for Social Justice and Peace Goa: ( a rights based organisation of the Archdiocese of Goa, working with local communities providing analysis and strategising for effective social action) plans to set up a documentation cell.
WIDA - DID centre, an organsiation working among the tribals in Orisaa, to help re-design their documentation of their work, as well as that of the educational materials, and audio visual material in their website. The handholding is also likely to include electronic networking, electronic database, and using of modern e media for dissemination including a dynamic website.
Documentation Centres Meet
The Documentation Centres Meet is a long standing effort by CED to have a forum for sharing of documentation knowledge and resources with different NGOs in the sector. This year Akshara, and Aalochana two women's documentation centres along with CED took the initiative to convene DCM 11 in March 2010 to discuss the changing context of technology and the problems of maintaining a clippings based documentation centre, and take stock of and share the knowledge of the new innovations in this field.
Some of the main concerns raised by organisations were decreasing usages of the centres, issues related to marketing their services, problem of physical space, lack of in-house technical skills, lack of awareness of the new technologies etc...
The organisations who participated included Tathapi, CREA, CED, VAK, Aalochana, Akshara, Jagori, Comet Media, Nirantar, DID Centre, Chetna, Open space, SAMA, Praja Foundation, Women’s Study Centre, Pune. Each one shared their extent to which they used new media and electronic technologies in their information work. CED shared its experience with using content management system to enable direct updating of websites and information, and how this has been retro-integrated with the database of electronic documentation and the library cataloging and retrieval system.
Alternative Publications Dissemination
In order to popularise and make accessible relevant literature on development and social change, CED re-started its Publication Distribution Service (PDS) this year. A wide range ( around 150 titles – indicative list in Annexure 5 ) of books, pamphlets, films, small booklets, reading materials etc. brought out by various NGOs, campaign organisations, individuals and activists, are made available at CED’s centres in Mumbai and Bangalore.
We also take these titles to the important meetings and events that we organise or attend. Some of them this year were:
· "Food and Climate Change" :- an event which discusses the effects of processed Food on health and food production on climate Change, organised by Bhoomi Network.
· "Civil Society Summit":- is a knowledge and networking event of civil society in India. Its primary goal is to bring together leading thinkers and practitioners in development and human rights with their counterparts in different sectors.
· "Focus Group Discussion":- A meeting on "Democratising the Science and Technology of climate change".
· "Namma Jathre":- A networking platform among the organisations which showcases the issues highlighted by the different organisations to a wider audience.
· "The Indian Association for women's studies and the research centre for women's University, SNDT organised a seminar on Women in Science:Taking Stock at SNDT Women's University, Juhu Campus.
These events have helped us reach new audiences, who have appreciated the collection.
CED's own publications and documentation outputs are also marketed in PDS. CED Books are also kept in different bookshops all over India. Around 32 bookskoops and 5 NGO's outlets like Books for Change, Centre for Environment Education , Pipal Tree , Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Katha have been stocking CED publications. (Annexure 4 : CED publications). In the year 2009-2010, we sold 157 titles of CED publications and 162 non-CED publications
Information Packages
Publications and Media
There has been a paradigm shift in the field of publications and media with the advent of electronic and low cost media, ushering in democratisation of the production process. Books and Film have moved from its pedestal of being a major projects have a long shelf life, to quicker more timely outputs, for short term use. More importantly, each study or engagement have multiple outputs, as content can be morphed and updated as and when needed.
For example Critical Concerns, the monthly clipping reader of 12 pages, is also made available in web format, where access is provided in the form of hyperlinks to the original full articles, reports. CED film on Non-Pesticidal Management, already has two versions - one a 55 minutes version for the researcher, and another a 26 min version for workshops and motivational training. Further, all the original print, visual and electronic documents and films researched have been documented and made available in a CD, for more detailed research and training purposes. Further each of the interviews have been stored in separate DVD and has been placed in the CED library for reference and further use.
More specifically, CED sees the opportunity of throwing up these products for use and modification by students, and professionals alike whether it is for newsletters or projects. Thus CED keeps putting its outputs in the public domain and encourages derivative work. More importantly, it even puts the original full texts, data and visuals in the public domain for further use.
Critical Concerns
Critical Concerns is a short publication of around twelve pages which highlights a set of clippings from newspapers, journals and other sources on critical issues & concerns for NGOs, activists and others concerned with Justice & Social Change.
It is designed for easy quick read, with a link to the full article and other must-read references. It is produced both in print and electronic form, and is made available by email. The website version is accessible in multiple ways for different access points.
In keeping with the changing positioning of CED, during the period April, 2009 to March, 2010, we moved away from producing monthly round up of news to a single theme based issues, which have a longer shelf life and reference value.
The theme based issues produced this year are:
Climate Change: Wheeling and Dealing: From Rio to Copenhagen in the run up to Copenhagen summit on Climate Change. A special version of this was prepared for INECC’s Public Hearing on Impact of Climate Change in Mumbai in October 2009.
The Copenhagen Deal, it dealt with the various concerns emerging out of the Copenhagen deal. January 2010
BT Brinjal : On Hold for Now`, it dealt with the ongoing debate and discussions on about BT Brinjal. This was produced to coincide with the Public Hearing on approval to BT Brinjal. February 2010
`Single Largest Security Threat Or Biggest Land Grab Since Columbus` dealt with the ongoing pubic debate on the Maoists in India. A revised version of this issue was produced for the INSAF Political Convention in Bangalore. March 2010.
The earlier monthly round up issues including following focus issues
Water Crisis: Commodity or Human Right?, and a special titled` Adieu to Smitu’ in remembrance of scholar /activist Smitu Kothari who passed away in March 2009.critical issues to theme based issues.April 2009
GM crops, To GM or not to GM: That is the Big Question? And regular round up of events and emerging issues. June 2009
Food Security as a Right - July 2009
`Mining: The Ravaged Road Ahead the issued covered various aspects and concerns generated by mining in the country. August 2009.
DOCPOST - Documentation by Post
DOCPOST was a system to enable users to get regular updates in the form of clippings around themes.
In addition to SPOT request from our archives, we had theme wise monthly packages, curated by CED on
· Legal Rights for the Tamilnadu Peoples Watch and R J CCollege
· Urban Issues for Higuchi Rika of Kyushu International University, Vinit Mukhija of UCLA School of Public Affairs, &
· Child Rights issues for Childline India Foundation
While the DOCPOST is still very useful, we have found that it would be more prudent to assist our users to get the material from the Internet, as it was very expensive in terms of money, environment and person time. Thus the service was suspended after we finished our commitments to those who had subscribed earlier.
DOCSWEB
CED partnered with Ritimo for creating a dossier containing a set of electronic documents around two themes on Small Scale Agriculture and on Climate Change.
The package on Small Scale Agriculture seeks to explore agricultural policy and how it prejudices the viability of small scale agriculture as a livelihood and resilience of traditional and diversified agricultural systems to economic and ecological destruction. This documentation package covers the following topics/issues and has been published at http://base.d-p-h.info/en/dossiers/dossier-1604.html.
1. Agriculture, food and small farmer in India: An overview
2. In India, the Green Revolution turns to brown: Impact of Chemical Technology
3. Indian Agricultural Policy in the Reform Years
4. The Impact of Special Economic Zones on Small Farmers in India
5. Agricultural Research in India
6. Small Farmer Economics in India
7. Micro-finance and Small Farmers in India
8. Agricultural Credit and its effects on small farmer indebtedness
9. Just Change India: Developing Producer Consumer Alliances
10.Subhash Palekar and natural farming
11.Non Pesticidal Management of Crops in India: Chemical free food in Andhra Pradesh
12.Community Seed Banks in India
13.Farmer Field Schools in India
14.Biotechnology in Indian agriculture
15.For small farm diversity in India: Interview with Dr.Seshagiri Rao
CED is working on the second package on the theme of Climate Change.
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As already mentioned, CED as part of its effort to re-define itself in the Internet age, has started working on specific focus areas, and integrating its documentation and information collection efforts with the downstream work that needs to be done on each of these issues through networking and collaborating with other actors in civil society. In this connection CED decided to take up Climate Change as one of its major focus areas.
Our work on Climate Change included documentation, study and research, which also took care of specific requirements of three of the networks which we were involved in - Ritimo, KICS, and INECC.
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Overview & Summary Knowledge Hub Focus Area I - Climate Change Focus Area II - Civil Society Focus Area III - Alternative Institutions Organistation Development and Maintenance
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Documentation on Climate Change
Documentation of Lectures and PPT : CED has been recording lectures, interviews and presentations on several aspects of climate change both to provide resource material and perspective on climate change issues. The main aim is to develop multimedia education content for climate education, which is made available in the public domain. CED also has plans to develop e-learning and e-awareness modules on various issues on climate change.
Some of the lectures which were made available this year as video , power point presentations and in webpages are:
· The Science and Politics of Climate Change, by Sharadchandra Lele, ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment). Complete lecture to Bangalore Platform & CED. 03/07/2009. video and ppt.
· The Carbon Footprint of Waste, by Dr. H.S Chanakya, IISc. Complete lecture to Bangalore Platform & CED, 07/08/2009. video and ppt.
Other recorded and under production include:
· What is the good life, by Siddhartha, Director, FireFlies. Complete lecture to Bangalore Platform & CED, 07/08/2009.
Films On Climate Change : An important part of the documentation effort on Climate Change has been to make a selection of education material on climate change available to students, activists, and professionals particularly teachers, media persons and social workers.
During the year we collected 28 films on climate change Mainly we collected films from Centre for Science and Environment, Green Peace, AKHRA, DIDC, TISS, and friends those who gave complimentary copies to CED.
Video Documentation: As a part of the programme to study vulnerability in coastal and urban eco-region, CED has been documenting on video the views of the affected communities, the learnings and analysis of experts and others.
CED has the video recording of the testimonies at the public hearing, which will be the first inputs on the Vulnerability of Coastal Areas specially those in big urban centres like Mumbai. These include those of Santosh Thorat on Shelter issues, Neville Patrick on Fishermen & Coastal Issues, Lourdes Nunes on Impact of climate change on coastal agriculture and Ajay Kumar – the Homeless. The recording at the pilot workshop covers the scientists at the fisheries and meteorological department.
In addition CED has done field coverage of the following:- Bhayandar Dumping ground, Versova vulnerability of coastal settlements, Dahanu/Zhai fishing villages on fish catch and mangrove protection issues.
In the next phase, as suggested at the pilot workshop we intend to do more detailed coverage of the scientists and studies, and take them to the communities through local NGOs and Organisations there. This would involve making small learning and discovery modules.
Study & Research on Climate Change
In addition to documentation, CED has been undertaking study and research activities, so as to create educational material and information of various issues related to Climate Change
Impacts of Climate Change: CED is doing a study on impacts of climate change in India. One of the outputs of this study has been commissioned by Ritimo an information and documentation network for international solidarity and sustainable development based in Paris. The work is in the final stages and will be published on an international website d-p-h.info as a set of fifteen webpages compiles into a dossier. The topics covered will include Impacts in India in general, mountainous regions, Arid Region, Coastal Areas, Forest Regions, Urban Areas.
The dossier will also explore the issues of health and rural livelihoods particularly agriculture and a critique of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, and the developments at the international level. It will also consider the response of Civil Society, Business and Corporate Sector and Academia.
Two important issues to be taken up are the options of Decentralised Energy Systems in India and the question of whether India can walk the low carbon path to development and equity?
Vulnerability -Documentation & Research : As a part of the INECC effort to work in different eco- regions, CED is working on the issues relating to marginalised communties in the coast and coastal cities. CED & ICOR have been co-ordinating their respective work on Vulnerability to Climate Change: Mumbai Thane Coast. ICOR is doing research work on vulnerability of marginalised communities in the North Mumbai and peri-urban coast. ICOR has taken the responsibility of doing a field study which is being led by Prabhakar Nair, and CED has taken the responsibility of compiling data and information from secondary sources, which would ultimately be converted into a dossier and docsweb.
CED has begun with doing documentation work, of secondary information available on these topics. These have been put in a database. Various outputs will be undertaken based on this document, which will supplement the climate education and action programmes of INECC.
To begin with, CED prepared a fourteen page notes and readings for activist, and social workers, one version of which was printed and circulated at the pilot workshop. The notes summarise the impacts, adaptation and vulnerability of coastal areas, while also outlining various issues and concepts relating to vulnerability, and takes up certain concrete issues that have come up in the recent past which have a bearing on climate change and vulnerabilities of the coastal populations like development pressures around Mumbai which impact climate change, changing fishing habitat and livelihood, and poor in the cities.
INECC : a case study of Democratising the Debate on Climate Change : In the face of the International and Commercial Maneouvering, what was Civil Society doing? There were the standard advocacy and pressure groups, who took part in National and International meetings. The Indian Network on Ethics in Climate Change however insisted on taking the debate to the eco-regions in which the marginalised depend for their livelihood. The effort is to look for solutions to climate change which are rooted in sustainable, equitable and democratic development. As a part of the Science and Technology discussion in KICS, CED undertook a case study of INECC and its fifteen year involvement with the issue. Titled “Democratising the debate on Climate Change”, the case study highlights critical issues of equity, and how the debate itself can be broad-based to be inclusive, not just in intent and content, but also in imagining and working out solutions.
The case studies are part of four studies on various attempts by civil society to re-define and challenge Science and Technology policy and practice in an ethical frame under an Indo-European-Kenyan project called SETDEV. The study has been completed and has been sent for editing prior to publication. A draft version of the study is available for comments.
Workshops & Seminars:
A Round Table on Climate Change & Urban Equity issues in Energy, Water Housing &Transport was held with a panel of key speakers which included Dr. Gayathri Gadag, Prayas Energy Group; Darryle D’Monte, Forum of Environmental Journalists; Dr. T Jayaraman, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Dr. S Asolekar, Adv. Girish Raut.. The discussions were held as part of Mee Mumbai Boltoi.
Public Hearing: (Mee Mumbai Boltoi) on the Impact of Climate Change in Urban Areas: Voices from Mumbai's Margins , held at St. Xaviers' College, Mumbai, on 24th Oct 2009. CED as a partner of INECC had taken up initiating and facilitating the Public Hearing, which was made possible with funding from Oxfam India and implemented through YUVA, a partner of Oxfam.
The Event revolved around:-
Testimonies from the Marginal communities regarding Housing, Fishermen & Coastal Issues, Impact of climate change on agriculture, problems of waste dumping, Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector, Recycling Waste, Flooding- especially the Mithi River, Water, Vasai Struggle,the Homeless.
Exhibitions, Video Screenings, Youth exchanges, Painting workshops, Street theatre workshops organised by different NGOs, were part of this full day long event which was attended by over 300 persons from various slums, and coastal communities, with a large contingent of students both from Xaviers as well as other colleges.
Copenhagen and After: As a part of the follow up to the round tables, and climate education with students, CED organised a pilot workshop to give an update on what happened at Copenhagen - titled “Copenhagen and after”.
Two important people who went to Copenhagen, Dr. T. Jayaraman of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Darryl D'Monte of IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalist representing two major interest groups shared their views on the goings on at Copenhagen and what we can expect after it. Walter Mendoza, shared INECC's involvement at the event, and raised certain issues to debate and action post Copenhagen.
Students who attend included those from St. Xavier's College, Jai Hind College, K J Somaiya College and Students from Nirmala Niketan College of Social work.
From the Voluntary sector, we had Chandran Gopalkrishnan from Comet Media, Students , KT Suresh & Bharat Kale from YUVA, Mrinalini from Saakal Newspapers, Jyoti Mhapsekar from Stree Mukti Sanghatna, Surabhi Sinha from Vikas Adhyayan Kendra.
Others included Elizabeth Abba from NERI, Mario from TISS and John, Raajen, Maya from CED.
Focus Group Discussion
CED, as part of INECC- round table discussions, organised a day long Focus Group Discussion on Democratising the Science and Technology of Climate Change in Bangalore on the 23rd February 2010. This was co-sponsored by the SETDEV ( Science and Ethics in Developing and Emerging Countries) programme.
The discussion brought together the scientific community and different sections of Civil Society - those dealing with Rural Livelihood, those working in the Urban setting, and sectoral issues.
Session I had Dr Sreenivasan, of the IISc discussing the science of climate change and some of the misconceptions in the popular media. T Pradeep, of IsquareD contextualised the issues of equity and sustainability for the marginalised vis a vis climate change.
Session II had several NGOs and science based organisations to outlines the issues of Rural Livelihoods - dryland farming, livestock, energy, non-farm economy, lifestyles.
(particpants in pix left to right: Souwmyabrata Rahut, Vinay Sreenivasa, Dr.H.S.Sudhira, Dr.Monto Mani, Manjulika Vaz, Vinuta Gopal, Hariharan Chandrashekhar)
Session III discussed Urban Habitat and the issues of energy, transportation, construction, water, waste, lifestyles.
Session IV: the Way forward discussed the relevance of re-iterating what really is a good life, in the context of climate change.
INECC- Indian Network for Ethic on Climate Change
CED has been part of INECC network, for some time now. CED has taken up several programmes relating to Climate Change, a large part of which has been influenced and supported by INECC. Beside maintaining the INECC Website, CED has been active in providing documentation, doing Research & Studies, undertaking Climate Education activities and holding Workshops & Round Tables. CED has also been actively promoting other fora like the Bangalore platform, all part of the collective effort to give a perspective from the marginalised, eco-regions to the issue of climate change.
Towards Sustainable Communities edited by Walter Mendoza. This volume puts together essays by different participants in the INECC process to bring ethical and equity issues at the community level. The CED team participated in the editing and production process of the book .
In terms of content, CED has been documenting from secondary sources the science, politics at the national and global level, the different eco-systems being effected by Climate change, the different sectors impacting Climate change, Civil Society participation, campaigns and alternatives through newspapers, magazine, websites .
This is reflected in the INECC website which besides showcasing INECC's work and functioning as a networking tool, presents the gamut of information on Climate Change. The documentation is organised such that it reflects the prime concerns of INECC.:
A: The Equity Issues
B: The Bio-regional Perspective
C: The Way Forward & Alternatives including Decentralised Energy Option, Water Governance
Besides using the information available at INECC, in all its workshops, CED has been able to capitalise and bring to the INECC website some of its own work, which it has done in partnership with other networks like Ritimo and KICS. An important effort has been the archiving of Ecoethic in the website, in two different ways viz the PDF of full issue of ecoethics as well as text files of each article, arranged according to topics.
Another important aspect of the website has been the easy online access for educational material and resources, like videos, posters, power point presentations, and the like. The cartoons and visuals have been collected and published separately, with an invitation to groups to use them for educational purposes.
The INECC website (www.inecc.net) which was designed and set up in January 2009, was based on static webpages, with links to full documents in CED's database. Besides routine technical maintenance, CED shifted all the material to INECC's own database, in an open source Content Management System ( Joomla ). This process was completed in February 2010.
The new system enables the database to be organised into sections and categories, which then provides a convenient platform for updating and participation by various partners in the network. To do this, CED had to design the different sections and categories of the climate change content, as well as the networking, and INECC related documentation, such that any new information incorporated shows up in its proper place, on a real time basis.
Following this, CED has been able to put in about 180 new documents in addition to posters, presentations and interviews on Climate Change which have been documented as part of CED's activities
After shifting to Joomla , we have been able to keep track of the no.of visits to different pages of the site. They are Content pages: Mountains (eco-system) 313, Forest(eco-system) 221, copenhagen accord 199, Resource Pages: Books 220, Institution & Organisations 218, A V(Audio Visual) 214, Networking: Projects 258, Events 256
Follow up activities
Following up on the Round Tables, where INECC decided to engage with the development of national plans, like NAPCC, and spread awareness on these among youth and students, CED has been documenting information, holding workshops as well .
CED has video recorded the following events, and will soon make these available to students for their project work, as well as on you tube.
· India's position Pre-copenhagen by D Raghunandan, Delhi Science Forum.[power point presentation]
· Issues raised by Praful Bidwai on the release of his book "An India that can say YES", which advocates some unilateral steps that India should take.
· Copenhagen & Beyond: Briefs from Walter Mendoza, Darryle DMonte, T Jayaraman at a meeting with students and activists at CED in February 2010.
· To Copenhagen: A power point presentation/exhibition by T Jayaram, TISS on the Carbon Space for developing countries.
Climate Education
Trigger Films : As a part of the effort to provide resource material to activist and educators on climate change, CED prepared two short films, to act as discussion triggers. The films 'City Calling' and 'I am the Drum" were prepared for and screened at the Public hearing on Climate Change, at the session on Urban areas and semi-arid regions respectively.
(PAL, 17mins. English sub-titles) starts with the sudden floods in North Karnataka which is a semi-arid region, and the understanding of the people in terms of its causes and unpredictability of weather that they have observed. The effects of these extreme events is exacerbated by modern monoculture and quarrying, and some of the options open to people in these regions is to adapt to these changes. The film has been accessible to all in Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTpi-5smm0)
“The City Calling” (PAL,96 mins, English sub-titles) :-impact of rising sea levels on high tides which affect the slum communities living on the shoreline. The City to which rag-pickers and hawkers come to provide cheap ecological services while living with low carbon footprints are often marginalised and displaced in modernisation drives, road widening etc. which increase the carbon footprints of the consumer classes.The film can be accessibile on You tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7kOOZ3IYdg). & (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-J4lCN4df8)
"A Testimony: Impact of Climate Change on coastal communities "(PAL, Tamil with English sub-titles):-CED supported an Intern from the TISS to do a trigger film on climate change and fishermen in Veerampattinam village, one of the largest fishing villages in Pondicherry, which is at a distance of about 7 kms from the town. The people spoke about a variety of issues affecting their lives, livelihoods and environment.
Student and Youth community
As a part of the follow up to the Round Tables, CED has been reaching out to the student Community as well as young professionals, inviting them to the various events at CED on Climate Change. In Bangalore, around 42 students , 40 youth have attended these events.
In Mumbai too, CED has been working on Climate Education for Youth.
On 11th August, 2009 : CED organised A Day Inn at CED on the theme Climate Change & the City, for students and teachers giving assignments to student. The programme was attended by 3 students from St Xaviers College, 1 student from Jai Hind College, 3 from Dr. B M N College of Home Science, 1 from Mumbai University, 5 students of Nirmala Nikaten College of Social Work,Swayam Project, 2 students from Tata Institute for Social Sciences and 2 other Individuals
Vidhi Sangrajka of Green peace spoke on a perception study of climate change, which compare the perceptions difference between different classes of people - those living in low lying areas which get flooded and those on high ground etc. The study said: most people blame cutting trees (around 60%) for global warming. Very few, 31% in low lying areas, and 21% in higher ground in Mumbai, think ‘driving cars’ is responsible.
Sharanya Gautam, from TISS who did an internship with CED the previous summer, which took her to the beaches of Pondicherry, where she spoke to fisherfolk on their perceptions of climate change, showed her short five minutes film and shared her interactions with the fishermen and their perception of climate change.
Vijay Pereira from CED showed us his ten minutes film on the effect of the high tide on Fishing settlements as well as slums on the Versova coast in July 2009.
Urvi Desai from Jai Hind College and Nandan Krishnaswamy of Xavier’s shared their experiences while helping CED with some of the research on the Booklet titled ‘The Coast isn’t clear’
On 17 February 2010, John D'Souza of CED, made a presentation "Let's try and understand Climate Change" to National Service Scheme (NSS) Volunteers organised through Anubhav Mumbai, a project of YUVA. This was a part of the preparatory inter collegiate workshops
About two hundred students from three colleges Chetna College, Rizvi and Ruia attended this lecture cum discussion.
Climate Education IEC Materials
The booklet: The Coast isn't Clear: Climate Change & India's Coastal Communities is in two parts (a) general conceptual understanding of climate Change, and analysis of International politics and National Response and (b) Impacts and responses in the coastal regions.
A Marathi version of the booklet was created, and a print version was created for the programme "Me Mumbai Boltoy" which was a public hearing attended by people from the slums and peri-urban communities in and around Mumbai in October 2009.
CED is also working on a Tamil version of the booklet.: The Booklet: Forests - the saviour and who is protecting it .CED is currently doing the ground work for a booklet and other resource on the impact of climate change on forest areas and livelihoods development. CED has done the base research and outline work draft on the first two sections of the booklet which is: the overview of Climate Change and the general issues relating to forests and climate change. This work is being done in collaboration with ODAF, which will be working on the issues relating to the Dandakaranya Forests. The Oriya version will be done by ODAF while the English base version and the Kannada and Telugu versions is to be done by CED. The Kannada version will have a section on the impact of Climate Change in the Western Ghats and indigenous communities
The Bangalore Platform on Climate Change
The Bangalore Platform is an open civic space for reflection and action through greater understanding of the science, policy and ethical issues in the context of Climate Change. CED initiated its launch a year ago following the need to deepen civil society understanding of implications of climate change, energy crisis and unsustainable use of natural capital such as air, water, land and bio-diversity. This platform has helped CED connect with scientists, officials and people from other fields.
In this year, 9 meetings were held on major issues, wherein experts and activist shared their knowledge and experiences on various issues.
The programme was also designed to bring in youth and students to take up study and action on climate change.
Documentation on Climate Change
As already mentioned, CED as part of its effort to re-define itself in the Internet age, has started working on specific focus areas, and integrating its documentation and information collection efforts with the downstream work that needs to be done on each of these issues through networking and collaborating with other actors in civil society. In this connection CED decided to take up Climate Change as one of its major focus areas.
Our work on Climate Change included documentation, study and research, which also took care of specific requirements of three of the networks which we were involved in - Ritimo, KICS, and INECC.
Like the issue of climate change where we have collaborated with INECC, CED is now very active with another network - Knowledge in Civil Society Forum. KICS is a forum for conversations amongst activists and academics on issues relating to science and democracy. The aim is to bring the activists from diverse sectors in civil society and the academics to engage with the hitherto neglected aspects of science and democracy through a process of dialogue, common exploration and joint work. To supplement these efforts, CED has done extensive documentation work on these two areas. BT Brinjal : On Hold for Now`, it dealt with the ongoing debate and discussions on about BT Brinjal. This was produced to coincide with the Public Hearing on approval to BT Brinjal. February 2010
GM crops, To GM or not to GM: That is the Big Question? And regular round up of events and emerging issues. June 2009
On NPM, CED has brought out a CD compiling most of the information and knowledge. On the other issues. LIkewise on GM, CED undertook documentation and study of the current aspects of the issues and brought out a series of Web dossiers and made them available on KICS website.
Seeding a Knowledge Revolution
CED made two version of films on Non-Pesticidal Management. One a 56 min version title - "Away with all the Pesticides" as part of the ILACs programme in collaboration with XIM Bhubaneshwar, hospitality and local travel provided by Accion Fraterna.
A shorter 26 mins version - Seeding the Knowledge Revolution was made under the KICS programme as motivational material. The films bring together the experiences, traditional wisdom and local, indigenous solutions to curb the devastating impacts of the Red Headed Hairy Caterpillar in the early 80s. It talks about Farmers in villages of Anantapur and Warangal districts have adopted NPM or Non Pesticidal Management practices and have grown food successfully without using pesticides. Some of the interview and literature material is also available .
Case Study on Reconstruction
The case study on Reconstruction titled “Ethics In Built Environment: Opportunities And Barriers To A Inclusive, Sustainable And Plural Response” was done in collaboration with Architecture & Development. The lead author Radha Kunke with CED person acting as associates and research and support assistants.
The case-study opens the discussion and debate on one of the strongest contributors to and symbols of the current development paradigm, knowledge and resources control.
In this case-study, we focus on the “housing” and community-level reconstruction requirements and interventions, relating it to the concept of ‘people’ and ‘environment’.
The case study contextualizes 3 major disasters in the last decade (the Gujarat earthquake, the Tsunami in Tamil Nadu, and the Kosi floods in Bihar) and draws its observations and learnings from these to examine the roles of different actors and sectors and identifies the opportunities, barriers and challenges that reconstruction after each of these disasters created to pluralism, justice and sustainability.
While Gujarat broke new ground in enabling quick, owner-determined reconstruction, as government left it to the people to proceed and provide material support, The Tsunami sought to organise things by setting out guidelines, rules for engagement, which made it incumbent on all intervenors, to work in a particular manner. This resulted in a monoculture of houses, most of which disregarded micro-terrain, local relationships, and externalised a lot of environmental and sustainability issues.
Bihar is on the other extreme no major rehab work has been done for over two years, as people were waiting to get their houses done. Ultimately nothing is happening so people have now started doing things on their own, but without any support from the establishment.
In terms of Science & Technology, the ethics of the experts making decisions, which generally discount local technologies and knowledge, and priveleges external carbon heavy materials produced by Science, is highlighted in this case study. This has lessons for contruction and planning in general, particulalry in an era where entire areas are sought to be "modernised" through rehabilitation schemes.
As part of the NPM work we have visited the following organizations: CSA, SERP, ICRISAT, AME, Sahaj Samrudha and Action Fraterna (RDT). The aim is to enable social workers and activists to enhance their understanding as well as provide resource material for training.
Indian Network for Ethics on Climate Change - A case study
The case study of INECC – Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change titled Democratising the Debate and Action Plans on Climate Change was a part of several case studies within a larger programme on Science and Ethics.
In terms of S & T, climate change raises specific issues of democracy where Justice, Sustainability and Plurality, violence and inequity and the crucial role that S & T plays in these areas.
By focusing on the marginal communities, and the view and action at the eco-regions, INECC demonstrates how civil society can intervene such that citizens are able to seek democratic engagement with science, promote long terms community oriented solutions, over short term fixes, as lay persons, engage and make choices, and make meaningful demands on the experts. These are all possible through a democratisation of institutions, or rather developing institutions to intervene in the S & T scenario, which are more democratic and decentralised.
Research: The task of preparing the full cases was then entrusted to a team at the Centre for Education & Documentation. The first task was literature review and documentation. Based on this, an outline of the case studies was circulated to all peers. Subsequently field visits were undertaken to DEO ( Decentralised Energy Options) sites and to forest areas of Andhra and Orissa. Video interviews were held with NGOs, engineers, local technicians, women farmers, NGO Practitioners & Stakeholders . The researchers benefitted the most by participating in a range of events of INECC.
Small Scale Agriculture in India.
One of the outputs of this study has been commissioned by Ritimo an information and documentation network for international solidarity and sustainable development based in Paris. The work has been published on an international website d-p-h.info as a set of fifteen webpages compiles into a dossier. This package can be viewed on their website(http://base.d-p-h.info/en/dossiers/dossier-1604.html) . It has also been translated to French.
This documentation package, explores the present situation of agriculture in India, the challenges for small farmers and which alternatives can be developed. We certainly have to move from viewing food as an economics good to looking at agriculture as a livelihood. A study of traditional Indian agriculture, particularly the knowledge and methods used by small farmers, provides us critical sources of alternatives particularly in the context of mitigation as well as adaptation to climate change. This documentation package covers the following topics/issues in detail..
1. Agriculture, food and small farmer in India: An overview
2. In India, the Green Revolution turns to brown: Impact of Chemical Technology
3. Indian Agricultural Policy in the Reform Years
4. The Impact of Special Economic Zones on Small Farmers in India
5. Agricultural Research in India
6. Small Farmer Economics in India
7. Microfinance and Small Farmers in India
8. Agricultural Credit and its effects on small farmer indebtedness
9. Just Change India: Developing Producer Consumer Alliances
10. Subhash Palekar and natural farming
11. Non Pesticidal Management of Crops in India: Chemical free food in Andhra Pradesh
12. Community Seed Banks in India
13. Farmer Field Schools in India
14. Biotechnology in Indian agriculture
15. For small farm diversity in India: Interview with Dr.Seshagiri Rao
CED is making specific efforts to document the issues taken up by civil society as and when they come up and disseminate basic information on these issues through Critical Concerns. As already mentioned these issues of Critical Concerns are valorised in multiple forms, in print, and then in web format, and placed in different websites. A detailed account of the many outputs and website content development is available in Annexure – Report to CWS – 2009-10
Interaction on urban issues
Some of CED's interactions in Urban issues are: 07th January 2010:- meeting on Housing for the Urban Poor conducted by IGSS(Indo Global Social Service Society) - The meeting was to get NGO support to do the count of the Urban poor which would then lead to gettting the attention of the Judiciary and the Executive systems of the country to address the problems of this vulnerable group .
24-26 January: CED team attended the Civil Society summit at UTC(United Theological Society):- This meeting raised the issues faced by the marginalised sections of the society
30th January 2010 :"ATREE open meeting on urban ecology"
“Street trees of Bangalore: a critical ecological and environmental resource”, by Harini Nagendra
Once renowned as India’s ‘‘garden city’’, the fast growing southern Indian city of Bangalore is rapidly losing tree cover in public spaces including on roads. The presentation was based on the study of the distribution of street trees in Bangalore, to assess differences in tree density, size and species composition across roads of different widths, and to investigate changes in planting practices over time. The results highlighted the need to protect large street tress on wide roads from tree felling, and to select an appropriate and diverse mix of large and small sized tree species for new planting.
Rohan of ATREE presented a paper on `Urban commons: a case study of Agara lake’. The major finding of the study was that the Agara lake (Located near HBR Layout) was used for both livelihood and recreational purposes whereas lakes like Ulsoor or Sankey lake were used only for entertainment. Agara is partly urbanised but still able to retain some of its original wetland character. This has resulted in the Agara holding on to some of its original users like fishermen and acquiring some new ones like the residents of Koramangala and HSR layout who use the lake for recreational activities.
Citizens for Peace
Following Communal incidents in different parts of the country, and other major issues with neighbours, which have tended to divide the country, there have been attempts by various. CED is maintaining and updating CFP’s website. CED also provides value addition by suggesting ideas for the website to make it more lively and interactive.
Who am I?
In this connection, CED organised a special exchange with Anuja Krishnan from Econet, Pune, who works with nomadic tribes. Anuja screened the film “Who am I”. The film follows the rising concern for recognition of identities of members of Non Pastoral nomadic communities who were traditionally labeled criminals by the historical 1871 Act. They are not only fighting against historical injustice but also struggling for social and more importantly legal recognition of their identities as a citizen of this country.
The students who participated included 3 Researchers from Xavier Institute for Social Research who were doing further work on nomadic tribes, as well as students from Kelkar College, G N Khalsa College, St. Xavier’s College/ Leslie Rodricks and Jithen from Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Rima Kashyap from Shakti and other professionals also interacted with the students.
CED organised a sharing session with Fr. Allwyn DSilva, who despite being a senior parish priest has been working with the poor, and involved in developing several civil society organisations in Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum, and definitely the most difficult place to work in.
Titled from FROM DHARAVI TO DHARAVI BHET ( meaning island) where he is now posted, the session was attended by students and teachers from St.Xavier's College, NGOs : Abhishekh Bharadwaj from Alternatives, Surabi Sinha from Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Ruchi Jain from Climate Change and professionals: Ajay nayak, Architect; Inir Pineiro, social entreprenuer; Rajni Bakshi, writer journalist. The session was co-hosted by the Xavier Institute for Social Research and in fact was held there.
Fr. Allwyn has been working in the slum areas for a long time. He shared his experience with rest of us. Earlier he worked at slums Jeri Meri and Sakinaka. They started Jagruti Kendra there. They initiated mass organizations i.e. if you have problems, you come together and try to solve it .It was a mass action not led by particular leader or a particular political party.
In 2000 he started working at Dharavi. Dharavi was a self-sufficient place. Lots of small-scale industries are there e.g. leather, plastic, pickle etc. If these slums have to be rehabilitated then the main problem is where to make new buildings for these lakhs of people. Another problem is many people in Dharavi are earning their income by making things like pots, pickles. If they are living on 6th floor where is the place where they can make their posts to sell?
EXPLORING A NEW ECONOMICS: a Sharing Session with Rajni Bakshi
Bazaars Conversations, Freedom
This year also saw the release of a book " Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom", by one of CED's trustees. Part of the research work for the book has been done over two years at CED.
Economics for Well Being
A shortened extracted web version of our monograph "An Economics for Well Being" by Rajni Bakshi on New Economics was been published in the international Civil Society website www.d-p-h.info. It was also translated into French by Valerie Fernando, from Ritimo during her internship at CED.
CED intends to take up further development of the issues raised in this books.
ICT at CED
As almost all the information that we get and process is in electronic form, Electronic Database of CED (ELDOC) is one of the most of important source of information for all our outputs including CED's website and all other websites that we have taken the responsibility for the content. CED thus handles large volumes of data, in databases and in the various websites, as well as in its regular day to day work.
This however requires considerable in house development and maintenance. The various database programmes, namely the Master catalogue systems, the electronic documentation systems, and how these interface and pipe the content to the several websites that CED maintains are done in-house by Vinod Kumar with lay assistance from support staff whom he has trained to operate. Normally, maintaining such systems involve high costs, and resources.
In this year in addition to the maintenance of the old programmes, a new software has been developed to keep track of stock of our publications for distributions. The programme enables us to make available a larger number of publications at low per title volumes, without heavy overheads. It is because of this system that we can still make available special and specific interest publications at low volumes.
An area of experimentation has been in low cost conferencing, and podcasting. CED started with having several internal meetings using video conferencing with regular computers using Skype. Recently we successfully tested out higher resolution streaming, and podcasted two three-hour sharing session using proper cameras. Our next year’s focus would be to explore and experiment more of new technologies and media (mobile, social networking technologies etc..) for sourcing of information and also to reach out to people.
WEBSITES & Content Management Systems
CED has been developing capacities in managing websites through use of open source Content Management Systems. This has enhanced the functionality of our knowledge hub and networking as most of our staff are able to contribute to developing and maintaining content on websites of our partners, and other organistions. We have also been experimenting with these technologies for collaborative documentation and administration development within CED. In fact this report has been compiled using this system.
Currently, CED maintains, - both technical and also provide contents - four Joomla based websites:
www.inecc.net, for the Indian Network for Ethics on Climate Change
www.citizensforpeace.in, for Citizens for peace.
www.kicsforum.net , for Knowledge in civil Society Forum.
www.sntdev.kicsforum.net , for SETDEV project.
These sites have been also been designed and developed by our computer section. Other websites made for limited period include www.rdc.net as part of our disemination in the Reconstruction for Development Project with A & D, Mumbai For Peace on a short request from them for documentation post 27/11.,
Participation in Meetings/Seminars.
Networking & Solidarity Participation
CED team participated in the Civil Society summit held at the UTC, Bangalore on 24th to 26th January, 2009.
The Civil Society Summit is a knowledge and networking event of civil society in India. It is to celebrate continuing freedom struggles in India, and to recognise present day freedom fighters. Its primary goal is to bring together leading thinkers and practitioners in development and human rights with their counterparts in different sectors. Some of the topics under discussion where accessibility of Commons and Climate Change, Constitutional Vacuum, Governance and threats to Civil Society,Electoral Reforms, Adivasi, Women, Culture and Peace Building, Corporate Social Responsibility and others.
Namme Jathara at Freedom Park at 29th & 30th August 2009. CED is part of the Namma Jathara process which was evolved with a view to showcase the issues highlighted by the different organisations to a wider audience as well and create a networking platform among the organisations. CED also displayed its publications, films, and other NGO literature.
CED participated in the Women in Black protest vigil organised by Vimochana on the 27th & 28th July 2009. One of the roundtables was on Reviewing dowry, the family and marriage in the context of growing economic and cultural fundamentalism.
Priya attended the meeting on Housing for the Urban Poor conducted by IGSSS, 7th January 2010 . IGSSS wanted to collaborate with other NGO's working with the urban homeless to perform the activity of counting the number of urban homeless along with a few other statistics in Bangalore.
03 April 2010: Walter, Veena, Priya attended the meeting "Civil Nuclear Energy and Liability - Who profits, Who pays" at Ashirvad. The meeting was to bring awareness about the working of a nuclear plant, its hazardous and radioactive nature . The other topics covered were the meagre nuclear liability cap and how the Bill seeks to alter the existing legal principles of polluterpays, precautionary principles and also the principle of absolute liability as laid down in various Supreme Court judgments.
Seminar/Worshops Organised by CED
CED held a talk by John Seed in collaboration with Pipal Tree on "Deep Ecology and the Conservation of nature". Deep Ecology is a philosophy of nature which sees that underlying the environmental crisis there is a psychological or spiritual disease stemming from the illusion of separation between humans and the rest of the natural world. 15 January 09.
Events at CED by other Organisations:
CED also shares their space with other civil society organisation to hold their events.
"Meat the Truth" A film screening organised by Soumya Reddy in collaboration with IYCN the film was about the injustice done to animals. 24 October 2009.
10 Tactics by David. A film screening about the 10 technology means using which Civil society could showcase their problems. One of them is using video and broadcasting on the net. 09 December 2009.
Seminars attended by CED
"Food and Climate Change", a seminar organised by the Bhoomi Network. 4th and 5th December 2009. Attended by Priya.
Global Warming and Climate Change: Ecological Consequences for the Poor Countries a talk by Dr. Vandana Shiva. 16th September 2009. Veena and Priya attended.
Urban ecology where members of ATREE Bangalore, presented their studies on two major environmental issues facing the city: a) “Street trees of Bangalore: a critical ecological and environmental resource”, by Harini Nagendra and b) “Urban commons: A case study of Agara lake”, by Rohan D’Souza. Veena participated.
Women in Science:Taking Stock. A seminar organised by The Indian Association for women’s studies and the research centre for women’s University, SNDT :- organised a seminar at SNDT Women’s University, Juhu Campus, 16th February 2010 . Jacintha attended the seminar and others set up a stall desplaying CED publications and work.
Festival of documentaries on the Garos organised by Bangalore Film Society. 3rd January 2009. Shruti & Shyamala participanted.
Human Resources
Governing Body: CED's Executive Committee which also acts as it board of trustees, has met 3 times. Main issues they have been seized about, is direction, redefining CED, and helping the executive team to formulate the thrust areas and initiative programmes.
The board currently consists of
Anjum Rajabali ( Chairman & Secretary )
Vinod Kumar ( Treasurer ).
Walter Mendoza (Member)
Eric D'Souza (Member)
John D'Souza (Member)
Rajni Bakshi (Member)
The Staff Structure is as follows:
Executive Director: Walter Mendoza.
Programme & Research: John DSouza, Raajen Singh, Shamala (Resigned).
Documentation: Veena B, Maya K, Shruti K ( till 17/9/09 ).
Computer Programming & Services: Vinod Kumar, Charles P (till 27/11/09), Vijay P
Support to Documentation:Saraswathi,
Administration: Praful S ( accounts), Jacintha (Manager plus documentation ), Priya (manager plus documentation support).Rajashekar
Prem.....
CED had several Interns & Volunteers during the year. While many came in, the following came to stay. This programme is aimed at exposing students and youth to the various concerns of civil society, while enabling them to develop their skills in various documentation and research functions and co-creating documentation with CED.
The Interns were:
- Valerie Fernando, a doctorate from France spent a year with us ending April 2009 as an intern placed by RITIMO a solidarity based international documentation centre, during which she networked with several progressive NGOs and created several webpages.
- Urvi Desai student from Jai Hind College volunteered in CED from April to May 2009. Worked on Coastal booklet "The Coast isn't clear"
- Nandan Krishnaswamy from St. Xavier's College volunteered in CED from March to May 2009. Worked on coastal booklet "The Coast isn't clear".
- Avinash Kaur Kalsi student from St. Xavier's College who volunteered in CED from 20th June 2009 to October 2009. She helped to draft letters for different film screenings. Helped to get volunteers for the public hearing. Helped to translate in Hindi the programme of Public hearing. Edited some articles which John sent to her.
- Sanjita Majumdar : edited the interview of Fishermen in Versova (Pradeep Tapke) for a short period.2 months
- Sharanya Gautam : was an intern for the period April 15 to 10th June 2009. Documented the impact of Climate Change on the fisher folk communities in Coastal India and made a 5 minute trigger of the testimonies of the community from this documentation.
- Pooja Vijay from RVC College of Engineering and Dhruv Raina doing studies in BBM volunteered with CED. They took part on the interview on Decentralised Energy Options and the Bangalore Platform meetings.
The Support from Without
CED has two advisory committees, one in Mumbai and one in Bangalore, whose mainly provide support and feedback to CED. The members are:
Bombay
Mr. Kaiwan Mehta - Lecturer, Kamla Raheja College of Architecture
Mrs. Preeti Bhat -Freelancer
Mr. Leslie Rodricks, Vikas Adhyan Kendra
Mrs. Nirupa Bhangar, Lecturer, SNDT University
Ms. Rajni Bakshi, Journalist, writer
Mrs. Amanda Padamsee- CED staff
Fr.Allwyn D'Silva - Activist, Documentation Research Training Centre
Mrs. Leena Abraham - Teaching, Tata Institute for Social Sciences
Mrs. Nancy Gaikwad- Activist, Disha Kendra, Raigad
Mr. Raajen Singh, Activist
Mrs. Nafisa D'Souza, Laya
Mr. Darryle D'Monte- Environmental Journalist
Mr. Conrad Goveas- Independent, Consultant
Mr. P Sainath, Journalist
Ms. Sameera Khan, Journalist
Bangalore
Dr. Jeevan Kumar, Bangalore University
Mr. Stan Thekaekara, Action For Community Organisation
Ms Madhu , Centre for Informal Education and Development
Ms. Anuradha Prasad, HIDF Forum
Mr. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Centre for the Study Of Culture & Society
Ms. Manjulika Vaz, Consultant cum Activist
Mr. Vinay Baindur, Collaborative for the Advancement of Studies in Urbanism through Mixed-media
Mr. Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum
Mr. Bablu Ganguly, TheTimbaktu Collective
Mr. Santhosh R, Christ College - Lecturer
Ms. Ammu Joseph, Independent journalist
Ms. Archana Mehendale, Lecturer
Ms. Sumi Krishna, Activist, Author
CED is particularly grateful for active participation and support to: Sumi Krishnan, Kalpana Sharma, Darryl DMonte, Rafiq Bagdadi .. for contributing books and documents free of costs.
Annual Report 09-10
See Complete Report without Annexures
CED : Changing Perspectives
Activities in Focus Areas
Summary of Projects
Documentation
Networking & Interaction
Information Packages
Documentation & Research on Climate Change
Climate Education
Workshop/Seminars
Networking & Support
Climate Education
Documentation & Research
Case Study on Reconstruction and INECC
Documentation on Small Scale Agriculture in India
Interaction on Urban Issues
New Economics
Systems & Capacity Building
Participation in Meetings/Seminars.
Human Resources
The Support from Without
Finances at a Glance
Annexures
Users & Services
Outputs
Workshop Details/Report
Financials
| 3, Suleman Chambers4 Battery Street Behind Regal Cinema Mumbai 400 001 ph:-22020019
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Plot No 7, Domlur 2nd stage, 3rd Phase, 8th Main Road Bangalore 560 071 ph:-25353397
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