ASSOCIATION FOR INDIA’S DEVELOPMENT ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2016 REPORT

Location: University of Maryland, College Park Dates: May 28-30

Table of Contents Agenda ...... 2 Saturday 28th May, 2016 ...... 2 Sunday 29th May, 2016 ...... 3 Monday 30th May, 2016 ...... 4 My Experience: ...... 5 Speakers ...... 6 1. Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi ...... 6 Topic: 10x AID ...... 6 2. Mr. Obalesh Bhemapa ...... 7 Topic: Manual Scavengers...... 7 3. Ms. Thenmozshi Soundararajan ...... 8 Topic: Caste Issues ...... 8 4. Joint talk by Mr. Ashish Ranjan and Mrs. Kamayani Swami ...... 10 Topic: How and why to organize workers for a democratic and secular India ...... 10 5. Ms. ...... 12 Topic: Narmada Bachao Andolan ...... 12 6. Mr. Kiran Vissa ...... 14 Topic: Agriculture and Farmers’ Issues ...... 14 7. Dr. Balaji Sampath ...... 16 Topic: Eureka! Kids and Homes ...... 16 Contacts ...... 17

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Agenda Saturday 28th May, 2016 Time Session

8:30am – 9:00am Registration and Breakfast

9:00am – 9:20am Welcome, introductions

Curtain Raiser — Skit: India’s Biggest Problem. Re-enactment of 1990s AID skit by 9:20am – 9:30am Balaji, Kiran, Aravinda, Malini, Shrinaath, Tulika, Ravi and others

AID@25 and 10XAID: Sonali Tamhankar, 09:30am – 10:30am Ravi Kuchimanchi, Kiran Vissa

10:30am – 12:15pm Keynote Speaker: Obalesh Bhemapa

12:15pm – 1:30pm Lunch

Workshop on Caste Issues: Thenmozhi 1:30pm – 3:15pm Soundararajan

10X AID: Ravi Kuchimanchi, Sonali and 3:30pm – 4:30pm team

AID Annual report (presentation only) 4:30pm – 5:00 pm Nirveek, Rashim, Naga

5:00pm – 5:30 pm Chai

MNREGA in Bihar- Struggles from the 5:30pm – 6:45pm Ground Kamayani Swami, Ashish Ranjan

7:00pm – 8:30pm AID Reunion Dinner

Cultural Activity: Unsuni play based on 8:30pm – 9:00pm Harsh mander’s “Unheard Voices”

9:00pm – 9:45pm Ice breaker / Fire extinguisher (part1)

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Sunday 29th May, 2016 Time Session

8:00am – 8:45am Breakfast

9:00am – 9:45 am Bhopal Campaign Updates: Rachna Dhingra

10:00am – 11:45am Keynote Speaker Medha Patkar

11:45am – 1:00pm Lunch

Development Coordinator presentations: 1:00pm – 2:15pm Aravinda Pillalamarri & Somnath Mukherji

Panel on Reaffirming “Sangharsh” AID Campaign; Community Control of 2:30pm – 3:45pm Natural resources Kiran Vissa, Medha Patkar, S.R. Hiremath, Aravinda Pillalamari

AID Mela (Parallel table sessions on EB teams, 4:00pm – 5:00pm DC team, 10X team, Young AIDers)

5:00pm – 5:30pm Chai

An update on TN flood relief work : Balaji 5:30pm – 6:30pm Sampath

(i) AID Communications & Volunteer engagement Portal 6:30pm- 7:30pm (ii) Rights based policy and the role of activists in contemporary India- Vinita Kusupati

7:30pm – 9:00pm Dinner, AID and Me

9:00pm – 9:45pm Ice breaker/Fire extinguisher Part 2

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Monday 30th May, 2016 Time Session 8:30am – 9:30 am Breakfast

Sustainable Agriculture Initiatives in 9:30 am -10:45am Telangana and AP – Kiran Vissa

11:00am – 11:45pm TBD 12:00pm -12:15pm Thanks and closing comments

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My Experience:

The AID Conference 2016 was held during May 28-30 in University of Maryland, College Park, Washington D.C. A number of topics covering all the fundamentals of AID were discussed in depth. Considering that AID was celebrating its Silver Jubilee anniversary, special attention was given to the need for re-organization of the core activities of AID. With this regard, Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi presented “AID 10x”, an initiative to group various projects in the same field to streamline the overall working of AID. Listening to the opinions and suggestions that were discussed, it can be safely concluded that “AID 10x” is certainly a great path forward which optimizes the manner in which the activities were conducted till this point of time.

The most significant section of the conference consisted of the talks given by many eminent personalities who have and are still making important contributions to uplift the socially challenged in India. They spoke in depth about their work, the obstacles in their paths, and the need for spreading awareness about their causes. While it would be morally incorrect to talk about a particular speaker as all the guests have made remarkable contributions, I found the talk given by Ms. Medha Patkar to be the highlight of the conference. The pitch of her voice increased as she proceeded with her talk, specifically when she spoke about the difficulties being created by the central and state governments; she was audible to the attendees sitting in the last rows, without the use of a mick. The high pitch of her voice can be considered as a measure of the innumerable oppressions faced by her, her realization of the pain of the affected people, and her never ending dedication. There were in total 7 guest speakers, and the details of their talks are given in the later part of the report.

The organizers gave attention to minute details of the conference. The attendees were provided accommodation in a hotel which was at a few minutes walking distance from the venue. They were also requested to bring their own cutlery, to reduce waste, and those who couldn’t, were provided recyclable cutlery. The attendees were also provided authentic Indian meals twice a day (undoubtedly the best Indian food I have had so far in USA). The meal session also provided the attendees with an opportunity to interact with each other, to know about their respective chapters, projects, and possibly extend help or collaborate. The organizers were successful in conducting the conference with absolute perfection.

To conclude, I would say that each AIDer must visit such annual AID conferences. They provide a great platform to get inspired, inter-chapter collaboration, and contribute to AID as a whole and not only via a certain chapter.

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Speakers

1. Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi Topic: 10x AID

10x AID is the direction in which the activities for the next 25 years are supposed to be performed. It primarily focusses on grouping of projects with similar objectives and in the same field (agriculture, education, environment, social justice, health, relief and rehabilitation, and women’s empowerment) The following are the objectives: 1. Facilitate sharing of information between different chapters working on projects in the same field. 2. Encourage exchange of funds between chapters. 3. Collaboration between chapters to handle complex projects. 4. Simplified calculation of total sponsorship and expenditure in a particular field, which will help in identification of field(s) that lack/have excess funding. About Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi

While a graduate student at University of Maryland, Dr. Kuchimanchi founded the Association for India’s Development (AID) in 1991 with the vision “problems are interconnected, so must be the solution.” In 1998, after his postdoctoral work in theoretical particle physics at University of Virginia, Dr. Ravi Kuchimanchi with his wife Mrs. Aravinda Kuchimanchi focused on development issues in India such as dams versus people and environment, rural electrification and integrated development.

Passionately interested in pursuing appropriate technology to benefit the underprivileged, Dr. Kuchimanchi with his colleagues recently adapted the traditional hay box for Indian villages. The “Easy Cooker” that is both made and sold in Indian villages, conserves about 50% energy, saves time and creates livelihoods for bamboo artisans and women’s groups

In 1999-2000 with his collaborators Dr. Kuchimanchi developed the pedal power generator to light remote, off-the-grid village schools where students take turns to pedal. Demand for alternate energy in the valley in western India, where there is an ongoing struggle against large dams such as the Sardar Sarovar, led him to forge a collaboration between AID and grassroots groups that electrified 12 hamlets of the tribal village Bilgaon. This inspired the Bollywood film Swades (2005) that became a symbol for Non-Resident Indians interested in India’s development.

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2. Mr. Obalesh Bhemapa Topic: Manual Scavengers

Caste has been an important factor in deterring India from using its human capital. One of the major issues of caste discrimination has been Untouchability. While the crude form untouchability might not be seen, it shows itself up in many ways. One such way is manual scavenging. Although there was a Supreme Court judgement passed stating such activity as illegal, it has been a hereditary profession for tens of thousands people in India.

Caste as a topic is not discussed extensively in AID even though we often work with projects which help the communities who belong to Dalit & Adivasi. Looking at caste and its hypocrisy and its manifestation in the form of Untouchability can help us learn more about it and come up with solutions where the communities are involved instead of just saying what is right for them.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154309141027845

About Mr. Obalesh Bhemapa

Mr. Obalesh Bhemapa hails from the Madiga community, historically been the most marginalized even among the dalit communities. It is also one of the ‘untouchable’ communities. The Madigas form about 95% of the sweepers and manual scavengers in Karnataka. He has been working to organize manual scavenging community through various interventions in the Tumkur district.

Mr. Bhemapa and his team work in the Tumkur district which is around 100 KMs from the Banaglore metropolis. Thamate is a part of the Safai Karmachari Kavalu Samithi (Sanitation Workers Watchdog Committee) in Karnataka, a state-wide collective which investigates into atrocities committed on safai karmachari workers and fights for justice and compensation in case of injury or death. Just over a month back, the State High Court granted Rs. 10 lakhs in compensation along with the allocation of entitlements such as housing, education for kid, to the family of a manual scavenger who died while cleaning a drain in Raichur. This was a big victory to Thamate and their partners who took part in fact-finding studies and in legal advocacy efforts.

Mr. Bhemapa is also part of the Right to Health movement at the state level and has been working against privatization of health care and against the use of public-private partnership (PPP) in the public health centers (PHC). He has worked with Jan Arogya Andolana Karnataka and Jan Arogya Chaluvaly Karnataka and has conducted public hearings and done case studies bringing out the violations of right to health in PPP PHCs. Mr. Bhemapa and others have been demanding the termination of PPPs in PHCs for quite some time and finally, in mid Feb 2016, the Karnataka State Govt. took the decision to ban all PPPs in PHCs.

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3. Ms. Thenmozshi Soundararajan Topic: Caste Issues

Running, passing, hiding. This is the litany of the Dalit American. Growing up in southern California, Ms. Soundararajan’s family was one of the first Tamil families to immigrate to Los Angeles. She believes that caste exists wherever Indians exist and it manifests itself in a myriad of ways. The Indian diaspora thrives on caste because it is the atom that animates the molecule of their existence. In the face of xenophobia and racism abroad, many become more fundamentalist in their traditions and caste is part of that reactionary package.

Ms. Soundararajan’s believes that like in India, caste in US is the smooth subtext beneath questions like, “Where is your family from?” It is part of the cliques and divisions within those cultural associations where Indians self-segregate into linguistic and caste associations. It continues when aunties begin to discuss marriage prospects. They cluck their tongues softly, remark about your complexion, and pray for a good match from “our community”.

For second-generation NRIs, flashing caste becomes a part of their cultural street cred with other communities. Some do it intentionally to elevate their identity while others operate from a misunderstanding of their own roots and blindly accept the symbols of their culture. Punjabi rappers throw down lyrics about being proud Jats. Tam- Brahms show off their sacred thread, recreate Thiruvayur in Cleveland, and learn Bharatanatyam while using their powerful networks to connect and succeed in the diaspora. Ultimately, we trade and calcify what is seen as proper Indian culture. But hidden within that idea of ‘proper’ lies the code for what is aspirational and ultimately upper caste.

Ms. Soundararajan’s perceives the culture of caste-based intolerance in the diaspora as dangerous, for it extends beyond individual relationships. Individuals build institutions and institutions are steeped in caste. From Hindu temples to gurudwaras, there is a separate yet unspoken policy of worship for those that are Dalit. Furthermore, in the over fifty south Asian and Asian studies departments in North America, there are less than a handful of tenured Dalit faculty. And, crucially, as the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate has shown, NRIs in the US have directly funded and fueled communal violence in India by supporting cultural and aid programs that are fronts for local Hindutva organizations.

For while caste is everywhere in the diaspora, there is a damning silence about naming caste. And in the silence there is violence. For though it has been almost 100 years since Ambedkar came to study at Columbia University, Dalits are still struggling to find a foothold that is uniquely our own. Unlike other Indians, Dalits do not have their own public institutions within the diaspora. There is no way to go into any city and find and connect with local Dalits unless one is already plugged in to the unofficial Dalit underground communities held together by mailing lists, Facebook groups and phone trees that help us survive the double whammy of racism and casteism.

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About Ms. Thenmozshi Soundararajan:

Ms. Soundararajan is a filmmaker, singer, and grassroots media organizer. As a second generation Tamil Untouchable Dalit woman, she strives to connect grassroots organizers with media resources that can widen their base of resistance. Through her work with #DalitWomenFight, #DalitHistoryMonth and more recently in the California Textbook Battles, she has centered the voices of Dalit communities in many of the vital debates of our time.

She is the Executive Director of Third World Majority, a women of color Media/Tech Justice training and organizing institution based in Oakland. She is also a co-founder of the Media Justice Network and Third World Majority is one of the network’s national anchor organizations. In that context she has worked with over 300 community organizations across the United States.

Ms. Soundararajan was featured in 2003 in both Utne Magazine as one of 30 visionaries under 30 and in Source Magazine as one of the top ten political forces in hip hop. Further, she was in residence at the MIT Center for Reflective Community Practice writing about her experiences with community based digital storytelling from 2001-2003. She was also a 2001-2002 Eureka foundation fellow. Finally she has been awarded the Jewel Ryan-White Award for Cultural Diversity from the Alliance for Community Media for TWM’s work in Media Justice. She is currently working on her first Speculative Fiction Novel: The Distance Between You and Me Is the Empire.

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4. Joint talk by Mr. Ashish Ranjan and Mrs. Kamayani Swami Topic: How and why to organize workers for a democratic and secular India

Mr. Ashish Ranjan and Mrs. Kamayani Swami of Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan (JJSS) talked about their ground-level work in Araria, Bihar in organizing workers for a democratic and secular India. They work full time on labor issues such as temporary/seasonal migration, minimum wage, and employment guarantee & pensions for the elderly. Their organization JJSS grew from an NREGA survey in Kaimur and Araria districts of Bihar. JJSS currently focuses on NREGA, Right to Information (RTI) and issues of justice.

In an hour-long talk Mr.Ranjan and Mrs. Swami gave details of the type of work that they are doing. Araria district has strong presence of Muslims. The area is mostly rural where 95% workers are engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Starting out Ashish said that lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri followed by Rohit Vemula and JNU has affected everyone including them. Democracy and Secularism ideas are included in the preamble of our Constitution. Some of the issues that were raised in the recent Bihar election were not developmental in nature but rather targeting a community and trying to polarize the societies. “These issues concerned us, “said Mr. Ranjan. Mrs. Swami added that, “people are not naturally antagonistic to each other. Vegetarianism and sanskiritization of Dalit communities are creating issues on communal lines but Ganga-Jamni values is still strong and all talks of communalism can be overcome.” Just the simple act of bringing people of different social backgrounds helps in bringing down some of these barriers.

JJSS has empowered the rural community of Araria and Katihar districts of Bihar to struggle for their basic rights which are so easily denied by the corrupt government machinery and vested interests. The work of the JJSS at the district and state level has helped workers get work and avoid distress migration. The JJSS has also been instrumental in initiating wide scale social audits (MKSS has pioneered social audits which means audit by the people) along with the government in Araria district to help curb corruption and to involve ordinary people in the implementation and monitoring of the government schemes. In 2012, the JJSS took part in conducting Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) social audits, in East Champaran (Motihari) district, along with the ICDS directorate. The work of the JJSS has led to greater awareness about the rights of the rural poor.

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About Mr. Ashish Ranjan

Mr. Ranjan is the joint secretary of Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, Bihar, an organization focused on effective accessibility and implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for the rural poor. He is also the convener of National Alliance of People’s Movements, Bihar. He is also a trained engineer and previously worked at Birla Institute of Technology, Patna.

About Mrs. Kamayani Swami

Mrs. Swami started delving seriously in the field of social change and development as a Masters student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai). After 17 years of formal schooling, she, like many others, had a lot to learn and unlearn. She started her learning and unlearning in the real world as a full time worker of the Shramik Adivasi Sangathan (SAS, Beitul district, ). She has also worked with the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and was associated with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), which has played a key role in guiding her work ever since.

In 2008 she became part of the effort to mobilize workers of Bihar and form a rural workers trade union called Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan (JJSS). Kamayani feels the JJSS with its gender, caste and class lens has tried its best to build a democratic and progressive organization within, while fighting the system outside. She and the JJSS hope now to expand in the field of inculcating progressive values in the younger generation.

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5. Ms. Medha Patkar Topic: Narmada Bachao Andolan

The controversy over large dams on the River Narmada has come to symbolize the struggle for a just and equitable society in India. In brief, the Government's plan is to build 30 large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams to harness the waters of the Narmada and its tributaries. The proponents of the dam claim that this plan would provide large amounts of water and electricity which are desperately required for the purposes of development.

Opponents of the dam question the basic assumptions of the ‘Narmada Valley Development Plan’ and believe that its planning is unjust and iniquitous and the cost-benefit analysis is grossly inflated in favour of building the dams. The plans rest on untrue and unfounded assumptions of hydrology and seismicity of the area and the construction is causing large scale abuse of human rights and displacement of many poor and underprivileged communities. They also believe that water and energy can be provided to the people of the Narmada Valley, and other regions through alternative technologies and planning processes which can be socially just and economically and environmentally sustainable.

Ms. Patkar presents the view of the poor and underprivileged inhabitants of the Narmada valley, affected by the dams and their crusade for justice and the Right to Life. She recognizes the complexity of the issues involved. However, once one cuts through all the rhetoric, lies and subterfuge of the vested interests, she believes that the gross inequities are clear. Large numbers of poor and underprivileged communities (mostly tribals and dalits) are being dispossessed of their livelihood and even their ways of living to make way for dams being built on the basis of incredibly dubious claims of common benefit and "national interest".

Ms. Patkar presents a quick look at the “ground reality” of the real nature of the dam-builder's enterprise. Large dams imply large budgets for related projects leading to large profits for a small group of people. A mass of research shows that even on purely technical grounds, large dams have been colossal failures. While they have delivered only a fraction of their purported benefits, they have had an extremely devastating effect on the riverine ecosystem and have rendered destitute large numbers of people (whose entire sustenance and modes of living are centered around the river). For no large dam in India has it been shown that the resettled people have been provided with just compensation and rehabilitation. At a more abstract level, the questions that arise in the Narmada Struggle challenge the dominant model of development (of which is a prime example) that holds out the chimerical promise of material wealth through modernization but perpetuates an iniquitous distribution of resources and wreaks social and environmental havoc.

Ms. emphasizes that the water problems of drought-prone areas of Gujarat, like Kutch, Saurashtra and North Gujarat are admittedly real. However given the nature of the plans for Sardar Sarovar, it will never solve these problems. On the contrary, in the shadow of the costliest project ever

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Link: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154311516837845 About Ms. Medha Patkar:

Over the last quarter of a century, Ms. Patkar has come to symbolize the voice of people struggling for a just, sustainable and peaceful society. Coming from a family that was involved in India’s freedom movement, she embraced social action as her natural vocation. She gave up her position as a faculty member at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and immersed herself in the struggles of the indigenous communities in the states of , Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. She started the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement) which has been at the forefront of the struggle to uphold the lives and lands of the people of the Narmada valley.

Since then, she has directly led several important people’s struggles across India including Lavasa, Golibar slum demolition, Adarsh land scams among many others. Apart from these, she has lent her support to many people’s movements against displacement, corruption, and communal violence. She takes keen interest in developing people friendly and planet friendly constructive projects to the current development model symbolizing her simultaneous involvement in Sangharsh (Struggle) and Nirman (constructive action). She has been one of the leading voices that has shaped the discourse in India regarding development induced displacement and exposed the structural violence of such actions.

She is the recipient of several awards, including Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender Award and the BBC Green Ribbon Award for the best international political campaigner. Many AIDers have been closely involved with almost all struggles lead by her and NBA.

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6. Mr. Kiran Vissa Topic: Agriculture and Farmers’ Issues

In the past 15 years, over 300,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide, devastating families and communities across India, particularly in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The agrarian crisis and its myriad impacts on food production, the environment and rural communities have been the focus of Mr. Vissa's work. Farmers' suicides indicate the deep crisis in agriculture. Farmers are caught in a trap of high-input agriculture – the cost of seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides has increased along with the cost of labor. Meanwhile, produce prices have remained stagnant, squeezing their margins. Secondly, government support systems are failing miserably: farmers need timely bank loans, crop insurance and compensation in case of disaster. Unsustainable models of agriculture are depleting soil fertility, groundwater levels and farmer health. Mr. Vissa and his team is campaigning to make the government accept how deep the crisis is, that thousands of farmers commit suicide every year, not the 100-150 that they officially recognize. They also promote sustainable agriculture; organizations in their network help farmers move away from high-cost, high-input agriculture that spoils soil fertility, depletes groundwater, and deepens the whole crisis. They encourage farmers to rely on local, organic inputs; save their own seeds; grow a diversity of crops instead of a single crop; and grow food for basic food security. They also advocate with the government to adopt sustainable agriculture practices at a large scale. They also focus on disadvantaged sections within the farming community - tenant farmers, small or landless farmers and women farmers. Excluded from government support systems such as bank loans, these farmers depend on money lenders. They don’t get crop insurance or compensation when there is a disaster. Although women do 70% of agricultural work, they do not own the land. We are working with these farmers to access government support and assert their rights. Through the work with farmers, organizations, governments and the media, Mr. Vissa and his team has been able to bring about the following: Thousands of farmers have switched to sustainable agriculture methods and formed cooperatives to market their produce. Their work inspired a scale- up program by the government reaching a million farmers. Dry land farmers are growing millets, which we help to process and market for higher return. The government has recognized many of the farmers’ suicide cases, enabling affected families to get compensation to settle their outstanding loans. The number of tenant farmers who got Loan Eligibility Cards in Telangana went from zero to 25,000 this year and are expected to reach 200,000 next year. Andhra Pradesh government introduced a separate agriculture budget to improve financial allocations towards schemes for farmers. They made a model agriculture budget and are pushing the government to adopt. Their approach is not to wage a lone battle, but to build our agenda into the agenda of the majority of the governments and the media, and succeed on these issues.

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Link: https://www.facebook.com/AIDindia/videos About Mr. Kiran Vissa:

Mr. Vissa has been a key AID figure since its formative years and has worn many hats of leadership and organizational roles. He focus interests have been agriculture and farmers’ issues, consumer awareness on food, volunteer mobilization and citizen activism, and tackling organizational challenges in AID.

Mr. Vissa played an important role in setting up many early chapters of AID, and continued to provide inspirational and organizational support to budding chapters and emerging leadership. He was in the Board of Directors, and was an important part of many of AID’s initiatives. He played a key role in promoting the sangharsh aspect in AID through the Narmada struggle, the anti- communalism campaign and other human rights campaigns.

Mr. Vissa holds a B.Tech. from IIT, Chennai and an M.S. from University of Maryland. He became active in AID in his very early days at College Park, inspired by the ideas and energy of volunteers like Ravi, Balaji and Aravinda, as well as by meeting many social activists from India.

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7. Dr. Balaji Sampath Topic: Eureka! Kids and Homes

While some elite schools in urban India are trying to change the way science is taught through expensively equipped labs and well-trained teachers, most rural government schools continue to suffer from rote memorization techniques. To counter this methodology, Dr. Balaji Sampath is introducing “Science Dialogues” into middle and high schools through a “reach-and-teach” strategy uses simple teaching techniques of dialogues and experiments that bring materials to life and helps students internalize concepts far better. After developing his materials, Dr. Sampath created a program to train volunteers to disseminate and demonstrate his techniques and the use of his materials in schools. He uses a volunteer base of rural young people, most of them high school dropouts, to spread his Eureka Science Experiment Kit — a collection of 300 low-cost experiments. In effect a mobile lab, the Eureka Kit, along with a training manual for teachers, is offered to schools at a minimal cost of Rs 5,000 (US$120). He believes that overhauling the framework of traditional teaching techniques and materials can form a whole new generation of thinkers who can apply well-understood, progressive principles to all aspects of life and become catalysts in the advancement and development Indian society. About Dr. Balaji Sampath:

Dr. Balaji Sampath is a central figure in AID. He has made several vital contributions in planning and executing large-scale campaigns in health, literacy and improving quality of education in India. His work has led to the Eureka Child program, which reaches out to 1 million children in Tamil Nadu to improve reading, math and science skills.

Dr. Sampath is a graduate of IIT-Chennai where he stood All India No. 4 in the Joint Entrance Examination. He received his doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park’s Electrical Engineering program in 1997. At graduate school Dr. Sampath became a volunteer for AID- College Park. As a graduate student, he mobilized many volunteers and helped start 25 chapters of Association for India’s Development in the USA.

Dr. Sampath returned to India and started working full time on social issues in 1997. He started AID India, whose work has been mainly in education, and worked with the Center for Ecology and Rural Development and the People’s Science Movement on various health and education programs. He was also a National Organizer of the People’s Health Assembly Campaign in 2000.

Dr. Sampath is a recipient of several awards for AID India’s work in reading and science education — the Ashoka Fellowship, the Lemelson Innovator’s Award and the Rotary Distinguished Service Award. He also demonstrates a popular weekly science program for children on TV.

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Contacts No. Name Chapter Possible Collaboration 1. Mrs. Sonali Tamhankar Seattle Donation for Murshidabad project 2. Mr. Jayson Dmello Colorado State University Any potential farmer distress/organic farming related projects 3. Mr. Mahesh Rajan None Donation for Murshidabad project

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