people of Indian Institute of Technology initiative, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Shiksha Sopan continued its activities in all three sections of Shiksha, Sanskar and Swavalamban. There were contact programmes in Hostels, visit by eminent personalities, Special lectures, a Science workshop for teachers of local schools close to IITK Campus etc., apart from regular activities of Evening Learning Centers, Sopsan Vidyalaya, GAK, SSK, PPY etc.
Visit of Information Commissioner Mr Shailesh Gandhi
Mr Shailesh Gandhi is one among the handful of people who have not detached from the common masses after occupying high positions in the administration. Down to earth person he is the Information Commissioner, in India’s Central Information Commission (CIC) and convener of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information. During his visit to IIT Kanpur in connection to setting up RTI cell in Kanpur, he came to know about Shiksha Sopan and made it a point to personally visit centers and meet children and the workers. He visited Sopan Vidyalaya and Swavalamban Kendra on 7th Sept, 2009. In very simple words, he addressed the children and gave the concept of social responsibilities and the relevance of RTI for common people as individuals and as society. Dr. H.C.Verma delivered a presentation to him in which he summarized about the various activities of Shiksha Sopan, and how Shiksha Sopan is striving hard for the upliftment of the children of the weaker society. All this impressed Mr. Gandhi immensely and he asked for Shiksha Sopan’s support for the same cause in Delhi municipal schools.
Vishwakarma Puja
On17thSeptemberSopan Swavalamban Kendra conducted Vishvakarma puja, dedicated to the divine architect of the universe according to Hindu Scriptures. It is celebrated on Bhadra sankranti, the day when the sun transits from Singha (Leo) to Kanya (Virgo) sign. Artisans, craftsmen, mechanic, smiths, welders, industrial workers, factory workers and workers of all kind perform the puja on this day and pray for a better future, safe working conditions and above all success in their respective fields. Dr. O. P. Mishra and Mrs. Pooja Mishra also participated in the ceremony. ‘Prasad’ was distributed to everybody present there.
LWIST (Local Workshop on Innovative Science Teaching)
There are a large number of schools in the vicinity of IITK Campus, many of them having minimal facilities and exposures. They cater to a large number of population but there is no arrangement for any empowerment of teachers in terms of subject knowledge or teaching methodologies. Shiksha Sopan conducted a Science Teachers’ workshop named ‘Local Workshop on Innovative Science Teaching (LWIST)’ on 20th September 2009 in L13 at IITK in which 32 teachers from 22 nearby schools (up to 2km) participated.
The workshop started with Lamp lighting and Sarasawati Vandana. In the inaugural speech Dr. Kunal Ghosh emphasised the need of developing the culture of working with own hands together with theoretical knowledge. It was followed by a presentation by Prof. H.C. Verma on the theme ‘Science in Ancient India and inspiration for future’. He said that it is the responsibility of the teachers to recognize the inherent scientific aptitude of the student and provide him/her a strong initial backing so that he/she is capable of carving his/her own niche in the world of science.
The presentation was followed by sessions in which small experiments related to concepts like centre of gravity, air pressure, light and heat were conducted. Using very low cost materials like balloon, bottles, clips, scale, magnets etc., a large number of Physics demo experiments were demonstrated which can be performed in the classrooms in 2 to 5 minutes while teaching a particular topic. The sessions were divided into three parts and each part was followed by a tea break/lunch break. The experiments were performed by Mr. Amit Bajpai, Deepak Agnihotri, Ranjit kumar and Deepak Mishra. All these are students in Kanpur University and active Shiksha Sopan workers in the Science Cell.
During the sessions the teachers equally participated in performing the experiments and at the same time they raised all kinds of queries which were satisfactorily answered by the team members. It was heartening to see that many of the teachers of much less reputed schools also had a good amount of enthusiasm towards learning. The workshop proved to be a success as the teachers really got to know how they can use waste materials to teach their students the basic concepts. These workshops make us all the more enthusiastic and give us the encouragement to hold such activities on a regular basis.
SHIKSHA SOPAN CONTACT PROGRAMME AT VARIOUS HALLS
Power Point Presentations were delivered by active members of the Sopan family at various halls of IITK in September, 2009. The presentations basically were aimed at providing the students of IITK the information regarding the various activities in which Shiksha Sopan was involved. They told the students about the pathetic condition of the children who belong to the lower strata of the society, and also brought out the fact that there was extreme dearth of good schools for such children who can’t afford education in big and expensive schools. Information about how the various Sopan centers support the children in various ways was given through facts and photographs.
These presentations were given in Hall 4, Hall 7and GH1 by Dr. H.C. Verma and Mr. Ashish Bhateja while the same were given in GH2 and Hall 8 by Dr. Sameer Khandekar and Mr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma. They also asked the students to support these activities by volunteering to work for Shiksha Sopan and also by generating funds for the same cause. The team members received a good response from the IITK students who participated in the discussion actively. After the presentation Mr Someshwar Pandey of Hall-7 actively persuaded a number of his friends to donate for Shiksha Sopan on Monthly basis from their bank accounts.
GAK celebrates Teachers Day
Gahan Adhyayan Kendra celebrated the auspicious occasion of teacher’s day on 5th September, 2009. The children, the teachers and the volunteers involved in the management of Gahan Adhyayan Kendra dedicated this function to Dr H C verma whom they all symbolized as their TEACHER. All of them promised that they will work harder to attain the goals of Shiksha Sopan. The teachers of GAK presented a beautiful Ganesh idol to Dr. H.C. Verma to pay respect and gratitude. The teachers also expressed their commitment towards the noble cause of Shiksha Sopan. The feeling of belongingness to Shiksha Sopan could be sensed from the very faces of the students and the teachers on that day.
NEWS
Lecture on “Rediscovery of India”
A lecture was given by Mr Vikas Trivedi, a final year student of BSBE department at SAC on 13th September, 2009 titled “Rediscovery of India” where he brought out the Indian tradition of doing Science. He brought out amazing details about important dates of Lord Rama’s life based on the astronomical data given in the scriptures and the modern softwares capable of calculating constellations at any given time. His lecture helped the audience learn many concepts related to our mythology and differentiate between the objective reality and the myth.
Shiksha Sopan to set up Science lab for “Children of Mother Earth”
Children of Mother Earth is an NGO run by Mr Ravi Manas and his team for the abondoned children who spend their life on Railway platforms. At four centers at Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Delhi, they keep such children with them and give them shelter, food and education. They have requested Shiksha Sopan to set up a Science Lab at the standard 6-10 for their centers and we are working at it.
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is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his forty year family practice career. He is a contributor to and an endorser of the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and was a member of MindFreedom International, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
While running his independent clinic, he published over 400 issues of his Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, which was emailed to a variety of subscribers. (They have not been archived at any website.) In the early 2000s, Dr Kohls taught a graduate level psychology course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Mind-Body Connection”.
Since his retirement, Dr Kohls has been writing a weekly column (titled “Duty to Warn”) for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota. He offers teaching seminars to the public and to healthcare professionals.
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">Gary G Kohls George Monbiot[/caption]
Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature and other.
Prof Johan Galtung was born in Oslo. He earned the PhD degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956, and in 1957 a year later completed the PhD degree in sociology at the same university.
Prof Johan Galtung received nine honorary doctorates in the fields of Peace studies, Future studies, Social sciences, Buddhism, Sociology of law, Philosophy, Sociology and Law.
State Councilor of St. Petersburg, Russia. Founding President, Global Harmony Association (GHA) since 2005. Honorary President, GHA since 2016. Director: Tetrasociology Public Institute, Russia. Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony. Author of more than 400 scientific publications, including 18 books in 1-12 languages. Author of Tetrism as the unity of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology – science of social harmony, global peace and harmonious civilisation. Director, GHA Web portal “Peace from Harmony”. Initiator, Manager, Coauthor and Editor in Chief of the book project “Global Peace Science” (GPS).
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First published at :
">Leo M Semashko Robert C Koehler[/caption]
writes for the Huffington Post, Common Dreams, OpEd News and TruthOut. He considers himself a “peace journalist.” He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, Chicago. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Robert Koehler has received numerous writing and journalism awards over a 30-year career in USA. He writes about values and meaning with reverence for life. He is praised as “blatantly relevant” and “a hero of democracy”.
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First published at :
">Robert C Koehler Robert J Burrowes PhD[/caption]
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?‘
He has been a radio producer (Earthstar Radio, San Francisco), organized and worked with the homeless, and is an advocate/activist in the nonviolent protest movement for safe energy, human rights, and peaceful solutions.
He is USA Vice President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association whose mission is to build a parallel world body to the United Nations, an emerging Earth Federation with a Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
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First published at:
">Roger Kotila PhD Prof Richard Falk[/caption]
an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.
Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
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First published at :
">Richard Falk Dr Gray Corseri, PhD[/caption]
is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch.
He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.
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First published at :
">Gary CorseriAntonio Carlos Silva Rosa, Editor, TMS[/caption]
born 1946, is the editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, and Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
He completed the required coursework for a Ph.D. in Political Science-Peace Studies (1994), has a Masters in Political Science-International Relations (1990), and a B.A. in Communication (1988) from the University of Hawai’i.
Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe/India since 1994.
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First published at :
">Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist, Associate Professor Emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory.
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist;He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, tribal development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek had been organising national or semi-national tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
worked as a mediator for the church in Belfast; as faculty at The School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. He has founded several Indian NGOs, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
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">Vithal RajanRene Wadlow[/caption]
is the President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social issues.
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">Rene WadlowBaher Kamal[/caption]
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Baher Kamal
Egyptian-born, Spanish-national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of Human Wrongs Watch. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, coexistence defender, with more than 45 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.
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Credits :
">Baher KamalRosa Dalmiglio with Lama Mongolia[/caption]
She is a member of the China Council Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (special art, culture and humanity), which touches the hearts of all people and portrays the strong willpower so encouraging to 60 million Chinese disabled persons.
Ms. Dalmiglio is Intermediary Agent of CICE, Centre International Cultural Exchange, a direct subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. CICE is a comprehensive institution engaged in cultural exchange programs, professional publication and presentation of cultural art works such as exhibits, receiving foreign art troupes and artists, holding international cultural research programs, and producing intercultural and interreligious documentary films.
She is a member of China Disabled Person’s Federation, CDPF. She is also a member of the International Women Federation, which is concerned with the financial ethics of women s enterprises in underdeveloped areas.
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credits:
">Rosa Dalmiglio
Director, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies.
A recipient of Cultural Doctorate of Philosophy of Economics from USA. He is an active member of various professional bodies, namely -
He participated and presented papers in various International/national/regional seminars, conferences etc.. He remained member of the Academic Council of Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. An unwearied researcher has about 200 research papers published in various international and national journals of repute and 15 research monographs to his kitty. Besides, he has authored/co-authored /edited 15 books which have been well received and highly acclaimed during his three decades of professional career. He was honoured by various national and international awards, namely, Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award and so on.
Dr Ron Paul served in U.S. House of Representatives three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.
During his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics. In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group founded by Charles Koch and David Koch 'to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.' CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.
Dr Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving a few terms in the House of Representatives. In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that 'Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.'
He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry.
In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces.
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Credits:
">Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.Jason Hickel[/caption]
He is international consultant of the UN – FAO and international consultant for sustainable development and sustainable future of humankind of Universal State of the Earth - USE.
On 8th October 2016 he was appointed as The Chairman of the Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment protection Committee of the USE, the Supreme Council of Humanity - SCH from Athens, Greece and London, UK.
He is researcher working on: Nature; the Nature, Space and Environment protection; the Climate change system; System thinking; Globalization and global studies; Networking, Complexity and Swarm research: Sustainable Development and Sustainable Future of Humankind. He was among the pioneers researchers (1986 – 1994) to apply nature, space, and environment protection in a local community by activities we call today Local Agenda 21 Processes – a holistic program for survival of our civilization under new challenges of the third millennium.“Commencing from Local Community Sustainable Future and moving towards Sustainable Future of the Global Community of Humankind”.
He is independent researchers with many domestic and international publications and talks. Together with many researchers in co-operation worldwide within philosophy, operational research, global studies, case studies and complex problem solving research, system thinking, requisitely holism, networking and complexity, swarm research, integration and disintegration of matter and energy and universal upbringing, education and lifelong learning. He is contributing a systemic, requisitely holistic and a better understanding of the present. His latest research within the system theory, system thinking, networking, complexity and swarm research may provide a possible answer enabling people to better understand our world of humans.
During 2014 he completed 50 years of research work (1964 - 2014). This year he completed 50 years of been Dr. Vet. Med. Since 1986 he worked on the protection of Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment and completed 30 years of research.
For research on the climate change system and the book “System Thinking and Climate Change System (Against a big “Tragedy of Commons” of all of us), Ecimovic, Mayur, Mulej and co-authors, 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 2003. His work on “The Information Theory of Nature” was his second nomination for The Nobel Prize during 2007 in Physics. His third nomination for The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was for “The Environment Theory of the Nature”, published in the book “Three Applications of the System Thinking”, Ecimovic, 2010. Within last 10 years he has contributed trilogies: “The Nature”, “The Sustainable Future of Mankind” and “The Life 2017” – please see at: www.institut-climatechange.si
I grew up in Chile, got my medical degree there, began an academic career in 1970, and left for the USA due to the military coup in early 1974. My first job in the USA was working as a public nutrition professor in the international programme of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
I started to travel to Africa in 1975, and worked a year in Cameroun in 1980 helping to prepare their five-year nutrition plan. I then moved to New Orleans, to Tulane University’s School of Public Health, and taught in the department of nutrition for ten years, before moving to Nairobi where I was an advisor in the Ministry of Health. Seven years there got me into extensive consulting in Africa, often on nutritional issues. In 1995 moved to Vietnam where I worked for two and a half years in the Ministry of Health as a senior primary health care advisor.
Many years of touching the reality on the ground, in Latin America, then the USA, then Africa and Asia, has made me understand that the real challenge is in the social and political determinants of malnutrition. I have devoted my writings and teaching to that. Over the years, I have found an important shift in my colleagues’ attitude and understanding towards acknowledging the basic causes of malnutrition. But yet I see little happening as a result. I submit that it is our guild’s lack of experience in the political arena that explains this dichotomy. I devote much of my energy to bridge this gap, and am a fervent advocate of empowering claim holders to demand needed changes from duty bearers. Nutrition is a perfect port of entry for that. Equity, social justice and people’s empowerment in a human rights sense is what really will make a difference.
There is no alternative but to deal with nutrition problems as indivisibly linked to social, political and environmental problems. We need to address them as such. The question is: are we all prepared to do that? The answer, in my view, decides whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. Travelling and living in different parts of the world has reinforced my conviction that we need to get down from our academic ivory towers, and need to change the curricula of our young and upcoming colleagues, to give them the tools to act in such a context. To me, public health nutrition cannot be anything but that.
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">Claudio Schuftan Dr MDProf. Ram Puniyani[/caption]
