What is the organisational structure and purpose of KSSP?
KSSP is functioning as a mass democratic organisation with a state leadership, district, area committees and local units. In order to focus upon the various activities of the KSSP, we have formed subject committees, which plan and execute various activities in that particular field. At present there are subject committees for environment, education, gender, development, health, scientific awareness, youth affairs and publication. Science for social revolution has been the slogan of KSSP for about four decades, and we work towards the dissemination of scientific temper among the people and intervening social issues related to science and technology.
What kind of people are members in terms of gender, education, occupation?
Generally, it is an organisation of middle class employees, school and college teachers and those laymen who are interested in science issues. We have been attempting to contact professional scientists and their institutes and involve them in our activities, with varying success. The gender component was marginal in the beginning, but recently the membership of women has risen to about 10% of the total membership. We are aware of this lacuna and are trying to involve more women as members and activists.
What drives people to volunteer for this organisation?
Most of the activists are attracted by our work in the various subject committees and some of them are also attracted by our campaigns through magazines, published works and art programmes (kala jathas). A number of young people have been joining our organisation who had earlier got introduced to our forum for children (balavedi). The most important inducement for joining our organisation has been the major socio-political campaigns udertaken by us in the fields of environment, literacy and the People’s Plan Campaign (PPC).
In what ways is KSSP different from the usual NGO?
KSSP has been functioning as a mass organisation, maintaining a liberal, democratic character. People belonging to different political parties and organisations, and some without any direct political affiliations have been our members. However, it is undeniable that on the whole, the organisation has acquired a broadly Left and democratic profile. The organisation has raised its own funds through selling our publications, products (such as the soap and hotbox) and magazines, and used government funds or funds distributed by acknowledged national research institutions for the institutional project of IRTC (Integrated Rural Technology Centre at Palghat). The organisation has not so far received any funds from acknowledged foreign funding agencies nor is it associated with religious or community organisations believed to be receiving foreign funds.
What are your most cherished memories as a member and as a leader?
Perhaps, the most cherished memory was the campaign that we undertook in the wake of the Bhopal gas massacre of 1984, a campaign that involved questions of environment, human rights and fight against multinationals, and assumed the concrete form of the boycott of Eveready battery. The campaign culminated in ‘science trains’ run from different parts of India to Bhopal and a massive rally in front of the site of the massacre. The message of the campaign is still alive as the gas victims are still fighting for the compensation to which they are legally entitled. The enthusiasm shown by KSSP activists in the rehabilitation of the Tsunami victims in Kerala, along with a major science awareness programme throughout Coastal Kerala is another cherished memory.
Can you give us an account of the years leading up to the famous Peoples Plan Campaign of 1996?
PPC has a long historical background. Ever since the formation of Kerala state, it was realised that Kerala’s substantial biodiversity, including oceanic wealth and agro-based enterprises, was going to be a major resource for development projects, which had to be tapped locally. Hence, the Left party in Kerala had in general been arguing for decentralised planning, which had drawn the support of liberal minded economists also (like K. N. Raj). The proposal made some headway during the 1987-91 LDF (Left Democratic Front) government, when District Councils were formed. KSSP intervened in the process by initiating Panchayat level resource mapping project. After the introduction of the Panchayati-Raj-Nagarpalika Bills in 1994, KSSP took another initiative by submitting proposals for the preparation of comprehensive Panchayat level development (a research proposal submitted to Kerala Research Project for Local Level Development, operated by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram). The experience gained in resource mapping and the KSSP project facilitated the formulation of the PPC, which was undertaken by the Government of Kerala (under LDF) during 1996-2001. In the final form, PPC also drew its inspiration from the famous participatory budgeting project at Porto Allegre, Brazil.
The response of the people towards the PPC was overwhelming during its early phase. It is possible that the people were expressing their dissatisfaction towards the tardiness and corruption in the implementation of government schemes, and were exploring opportunities to create new people-oriented projects. The atmosphere was also set by the repeated campaigns in support of ‘the power to the people’ initiated in particular by the KSSP. The positive atmosphere that had set in after the implementation of the Panchayatiraj-Nagarpalika bills also facilitated PPC. However, the implementation soon ran into problems, initially through opposition by the Line Departments, who believed that their own rights and privileges were encroached upon, and later through shifts in the perspectives of the Panchayat bodies themselves. Investment in the primary sector (in particular agriculture, small industry, and the like) declined, and building, construction, distribution of amenities etc, began to assume importance in the Plan implementation. The earlier practice of appointment of people’s committees for Plan implementation was replaced by widespread sub-contracting. However, legislative and administrative reforms and empowerment of the people could have solved these issues. The UDF government that assumed power in 2001, went ahead to systematically destroy the PPC, from which it has not recovered as yet.
What happened to Gender Budgeting that was a part of PPC?
Gender Budgeting was introduced under PPC as a part of the Women’s Component Plan, whose funds had been transferred to the LSGIs (Local Self Government Institutions). A number of projects for the empowerment of women had been submitted by most of the Panchayats. Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and producer’s collectives were also being formed, and the Community Development Society (called Kudumbasree, Kerala’s Poverty Eradication Mission) was also formed in the process. However, gender budgeting was virtually given up by the later governments, except by the 2006-11 LDF government, when a major initiative was undertaken in the 2009-11 phase. Kudumbasree has evolved as an autonomous self-help agency supported by the Government of Kerala. Over the years it has developed its own independent structure also supported by the Panchayats. KSSP activists have been involved in the state level organisation of the Kudumbasree, in which they continue to function even now.
What is the role of such an organisation in shaping the culture and stimulating rational thought in society?
KSSP along with other PSMs have to play an important role today. On the one hand, we have scientism, which today means a simplistic faith in the ability of techno-science as the panacea for all ills gripping the society, and on the other we have antiscientism, which rejects every scientific and rational thought and wants to bring in a neo-medieval society. The first group have their champions in the market forces, and the latter have their spokesmen in community identity politics, of both the majority and the minority. In this context, it is importance of science as an ecumenical, rational body of social knowledge, which should become the common sense of the people of any developing society. Any defense of rationality would imply fighting the ‘irrational anti-people’ uses of science also. Hence there is an objective need for a science movement in the country, a role that today’s PSMs, including KSSP are trying to fulfill.
What has been its role in shaping the culture of Kerala?
When KSSP was formed in 1962, the secular and democratic cultural processes were dominant in Kerala, and KSSP activists believed that their duty was to infuse scientific content into it, that is bringing science into society. Even the slogan ‘science for social revolution’ was coined in this spirit. During the subsequent decades, the scenario has changed; science is seen as an instrumental necessity for the new generations to succeed in the market economy, the space for scientific consciousness or a rational outlook being subverted by religion and caste. The current dominance of the market forces and communal ideology has resulted in the undermining of secular, democratic politics and culture. In this context, the task of PSMs is not only to inculcate science, but entire tenets of scientific rationality and democratic consciousness among people. Science and culture are no longer two provinces of human life, but aspects of the same material culture that facilitates social transformation. Building a democratic, secular, material culture becomes an urgent task of all science movements including KSSP today.