Study & Documentation Outputs

Secularism and Secular Action

 Secularism and Secular Action
By Shweta Damle,Price Rs.,90/- in (India) US$10 outside India. Paperback. Print 2008.

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The constant attack on the secular fabric of the Indian society in the last two decades has been raising a fundamental issue about the concept of secularism - its alien-ness to India.

This little booklet is a modest attempt to trace the concept of secularism, and to touch upon related debates surrounding the issue. It also tries to look at the element of the rationality of the concept as being a tool for organizing society in times of crisis; especially, in the case of India, it focuses on the freedom movement and the rise of the concept of secularism.
It finally looks at the various attempts made by civil society organizations and institutions to restore the secular fabric of our society.

Shweta Damle is a Mumbai based activist.

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Development Governance

 

DEVELOPMENT GOVERNANCE : Dynamics of Panchayat Raj in a Tribal Areas
By Meena Dhodade, Price Rs.40/- in (India) Paperback. Print 2007.
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Adivasi communities have historically been self-governing societies. Community affairs, including major issues like regulation of access to natural resources and dispute settlements were regulated by the village community. While the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA) does provide for some of these functions, Gram Panchayats have been traditionally viewed by village communities as an extension of the state government rather than as a vehicle for empowerment of the community.

The study attempts to examine both these aspects of Panchayati Raj – whether the Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayats really function as agencies for the upliftment of the depressed classes or whether they serves as a vehicle for the realisation of genuine self-governance.

Meena Dhodade is an adivasi activist associated with the Bhoomi Sena and Kashtakari Sangatna, mass organisations active among the adivasi people of Thane district in Maharashtra. She was recently elected as the first woman Sarpanch of Kondhan Village in Palghar, Thane.

 

 

Read more: Development Governance

Your Money or your right to rehabilitation

 Your Money or Your Right to Rehabilitation

 

The idea of this backgrounder, is to highlight some of the ways in which “our money” (that is money that has been collected in our name, either in the form of taxes, relief funds, or immediate post disaster contributions from the public) have been mis-utilised, diverted, non-utilized, and denied to disaster victims. This relies on newspaper and CAG reports on the last few disasters: such as floods in Maharashtra 2004-2005, Tsunami that affected coastal states on 26 December 2004, Earthquake in Bhuj on 26 January 2001 and Super Cyclone in Orrisa on 11 October 1999. All the disasters have one common tragedy that is misappropriation of funds.

 

Also available in Tamil

 

 

 

Re-building our Lives

 

Re-building Our Lives :
A Backgrounder on the Right to Work in the Context of Post Tsunami Reconstruction
Price:  Rs. 25/- [English] Rs.25/- [Tamil]

Also available in Tamil
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What our Brightest Youngsters think!

 What our Brightest Youngsters think !In the Year 2006

 A selection of Projects done by students
  write to CED  for copies

 

Fishing in Troubled Waters

 Fishing in Troubled Waters
Increased fragility of an already precarious livelihood
Price:  Rs. 25/- [English] Rs.25/- [Tamil]
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Developed around the adaption of an interview of John Kurien [professor, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala]

This is a Docpost Special on the livelihood issues of the traditional fishing communities. It contains a collection of articles and reports which have been organised and pieced together with a narrative.

The document may appear to be disjointed at times. This is a characteristic of such an output, since it contains materials needed by activists and communities, but is not in the nature of an academic research.

Also available in Tamil

 

Net-working Together

Net-working Together
Price:  Rs. 30/- [English]

A Companion volume to the film on the livelihoods of the Coastal communities and their fight against the global market hegemony

 

Our Coast Our Right

Our Coast Our Right
Backgrounder on CRZ and Tsunami
Price:  Rs. 25/- [English] Rs.25/- [Tamil]
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* Government is the biggest violator
* Coast is used as a free resource to increase private profit
* Salient features of the M.S. SwaArticleminathan Committee report

 

 

 Also available in Tamil.

 

 

 

Missing the Community for the Woods: Forests, Communities and Climate change In India

 

 Missing the Community for the Woods: Forests, Communities and Climate change In India.

After the Cancun COP where the REDD proposal were put-together, CED revised its Climate Education Booklet on Forestry to include a critique of the REDD proposals and the Indian government's policy approach to forestry development.

 Table of Contents
 I) Basics of Climate Change
II) Politics of Climate Change
III) Forests
IV) Western Ghats
V) What is to be Done

 

Also available in Kannada: 'VanagaLigaagi Samudaayagala Upekshe '

 

Aspects of Drug Industry In India

Aspects of Drug Industry In India

by MukarramBhagat

Published in 1982, this report  attempts to highlight some of the central issues involved  in the important areas of health and drugs in the developing worlld, primarily in the context of Indian experience.

 

Beginning with a brief description and analysis of the current health scene in India and the formidable obstacles in the path of altering the current health-care status quo, the report goes on to  examine the role of drugs and the drugs industry in the developing world vis-a-vis the commonly accepted objective of providing health for all by the year 2000 AD.

 

Communalism: The Razors Edge

 Communalism:The Razor's Edge: a FactSheet

Though each communal riot is a retrograde expression it also signifies that Indian society is rapidly being transformed. While this does not imply that we condone communalism, we do believe that the peculiar nature of Indian capitalist development has legitimised communal heirarchies. Thus the problem cannot be wished away; it will remain an integral part of Indian politics and society until the path of economic development itself undergoes a national change.

 

Contraception As if Women Mattered

Contraception As if Women Mattered

by Vimal Balasubrahmanyan, Price Rs.25/-Published in 1986

Patriarchy and oppressive living conditions inhibit women's access to birth control.  No Family Planning Programme imposed from above can help unless there is fundamental social change. Abuses have crept in, precisely because FP personnel seek to control women's reproduction while leaving other aspects of their lives unchanged.

 Contents:

I.  From the User's end
II. Ideology of Population Control
III Women as targets
IV Women & FP: Further Issues
V  Do Women want FP

 

 

The 10th Month-Bombay's Historic Textile Strike

 Factsheet: The 10th Month: Bombay's Historic Textile Strike, A chronology of events.

by centre for Education & Documentation


The ongoing textile strike in Bombay represent a watershed in the history of Indian labour. The ten month long struggle of the textile workers has, once again re-established their credentials as a workforce that has stayed at the forefront of industrial unionism in the country and has in fact even dictated its course.It was their pioneering efforts in the early years of this century that determined the scope and nature of all legislation pertaining to industrial relations. After a virtually dormant decade, two-and-a-half lakh workers are now threatening to breakdown the carefully-designed, repressive structures that had straitjacketed them for over thirty years, particularly the INTUC-affiliated Rastriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh which has been the sole bargaining agent for the cotton textile industry under the provisions of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act since 1946.

 

 

Operation Flood: Development or Dependence

Operation Flood:  Development or Dependence?

by Centre for Education & Documentation, April 1982.

 

In this study we are concerned with the implications of Operation Flood, a dairy development project based on foreign funds and the capital raised from sales of imported butter oil and skimmed milk powder gifted by surplus stock with the European Economic Community. The study concentrates on evaluating the performance of OF and examining whether it will help in making India self-sufficient in dairying or if it will pull the country further into the vortex of aided development that stems from the developed world and threatens to engulf the Third World.

 

Hardy Options-Eco-regional Notes on Climate Change and Semi-Arid Regions

Hardy Options: Eco-regional Notes on Climate Change and semi-arid Regions.
A climate Education Booklet

 

Small and marginal farmers, with land holdings below two hectares,constitute almost 80% of all Indian farmers and more than 90% of them are dependent on rain for their crops. Modernity has looked at this dependence as backward and has promoted and subsidised irrigation, green revolution, genetically modified crops etc. Despite the thousands of crores spent on fertilizer and other subsidies, farmers are increasingly in debt and despair. Now we learn that the method of cultivation promoted has increased carbon emissions which have led to climate change-one of whose impacts is the further reduction in availability of water, besides erratic rainfall.


Table of Contents

I) Basics of Climate Change
II) Politics of Climate Change
III) Semi Arid Regions
IV) Case : Anantapur
V) What is to be Done

 

Also available in Telugu: 'Balamaina Nirnayaalu'

 

The Coast isn't clear

The Coast isn’t clear
Climate Change and India’s coastal communities, Bio-regional notes on climate change

 As we take a look closer at the coastal regions, one realizes that it is the
marginalised populations that are directly affected by sea-level rise, storm
surges, environmental damage and diminishing marine bio-resources. It is
then that the ethical implications of the choices of the paths of development
(and consequent climate change) become clear. This also raises ethical
questions for those who are at the doorstep of the same paths of
development. Is there another door?

Table of Contents

I) About Climate Change 1
II) Climate Change and World Politics
III) The Indian Response
IV) A View from the Coast
V) The Indian Coast
VI) What is to be done
VII) Information

 A Marathi Version of this booklet - Havaman Badal Aani Kinaarpattivaril Vasti: is also available 

Balavanta NirNayaalu: Eco-regional Notes on Climate Change and Semi Arid Regions- A climate Education Booklet (Telugu)

Balavanta NirNayaalu: Eco-regional Notes on Climate Change and Semi Arid Regions- A climate Education Booklet (Telugu), 2011.
a climate Education Booklet


Small and marginal farmers, with land holdings below two hectares,constitute almost 80% of all Indian farmers and more than 90% of them are dependent on rain for their crops. Modernity has looked at this dependence as backward and has promoted and subsidised irrigation, green revolution, genetically modified crops etc. Despite the thousands of crores spent on fertilizer and other subsidies, farmers are increasingly in debt and despair. Now we learn that the method of cultivation promoted has increased carbon emissions which have led to climate change-one of whose impacts is the further reduction in availability of water, besides erratic rainfall.

 

 

 

Democratising the Science and Technology of Climate Change a case study

Democratising the Science and Technology of Climate Change: a case study on Indian Network for Ethics in Climate Change
by  Walter Mendoza & John D'Souza.

This study under the SETDEV programme. It traces the involvement of civil society in the science and the politics of climate change and the kind of dichotomy between mainstream policy and the issues faced by the marginalised who are most impacted by development. It also examines how INECC partners at different places are involved in education on the science of climate change, engaged in policy, as well as demonstrating  alternatives at the ground level. These alternatives, into order to be mainstreamed need an alternative science and technology to thrive.

Sustainability & Plurality in Built Environment

 Sustainability and Plurality in the Built Environment: A Case study of Reconstruction by Radha Kunke & John D'Souza

This study was done by CED as part of the SETDEV  (Science, Ethics and Technology in Developing and Emerging countries) project which KICS took part in. Our Built Environment is a symbol of the current paradigm of development involving control over knowledge and resources, furthering social inequalities environmental degradation and cultural displacement. Post-disaster, the built environment assumes the form of reconstruction where some of these dimensions are enhanced within a narrow bandwidth of space time and resources. This study traces these dimensions in the reconstruction efforts after the Bhuj earthquakes, the Bihar floods and Tsunami.

Market Access and Fair Trade for Producer Groups from Marginalised Communities

Market Access and Fair Trade for Producer Groups from Marginalised Communities

Outcome of a workshop organised by Marketing Support Groups from South India August 21-23, 2003.

Workshop Curator : Walter Mendoza
Documentation & Report :Centre for Education & Documentation
Supported by Oxfam.

 

Table of Contents:

- Dimensions of NGO intervention in The Market
- Market Access and Artisan Communities
- Market Control & Traditional Fishing Communities
- Markets & Forest Communities
- Marketing for Small and Marginal Farmers
- Issues along the whole Commodity Chain: Cotton
- Structural Alternatives: Local Markets, Horizontal Marketing
- Global Issues on Market Access & Fair Trade
- Understanding the Modern Market

From Economies of Scale to Emissions Economy Eco-regional Notes on Climate Change And Urban Areas


From Economies of Scale to Emissions Economy

Table of Contents

Introduction
I) Understanding Climate Change
II) Climate Change & the City
III) Politics of Climate Change
IV) Sustainable Development Climate Change & Inclusion
V) What is to be done!

  To be available in HINDI(draft version)

Climate Education Series

 Climate Education  series of booklets are aimed at explaining the basic concepts of Climate Change, and the politics around the climate change debate and action. It  examines the issues faced by us in the eco-regions of  India and looksat the options before us.
CED has brought out these booklets in collaboration with INECC.

ORT And the Credibility Gap

ORT And the Credibility Gap, Counterfact No.8, A CED Health Feature, October 1984.

Late 1982 and early 1983 saw the launching of massive publicity on the theme of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), timed with the release of the UNICEF report on the State of the World's children (1983). Since then the  press has been flooded with news items and feature articles on ORT the miracle cure for preventing dehydration and diarrhoes deaths, with potential to revolutionise the child health scene.

 

Pills for All

 

Pills For All, Counterfact No.7, January 2984

In November 1982, the Union Health Ministry announced its intention to allow distribution of the Oral Contraceptive pill through village level health workers and to introduce "Social Marketing" or over-the-counter sale so as to raise the number of OC users in this country from the present 1.1 lakh to two million in future.

 

Asbestos: the dust that kills

Asbestos:the dust that kills, Counterfact No.5, July 1983.

The killer fibre had penetrated the very essence of his being. His cough was more painful than ever. Each successive breath was a harsher rasp than the previous one.