From Vd Srinivas Rao Surabhidoclosra@gmail.com
I am happy to inform you all that an initiative to start a Vocational
school (Gougram-Gurukul) near Mathura is being taken up by
GOU-Federation very soon.
(And the same will be extended to Alipur, Tarasa, Muramba and Basar
clusters in the next academic year)
Initial discussions in this direction will be held in Mathura dist
soon after the upcoming UBA meet scheduled for this weekend (13-14
Nov).
Also the Concept note on 'Green Economy' Programme, being prepared by
the CSBE team, will be taken up for discussion and further refinement
on 14th Nov.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LUCKNOW: Amid row over beef and rising intolerance in the country, UP
government will hold a Cow Conservation fortnight from November 12-25.
With animal husbandry minister Rajkishore Singh claiming that the
number of cows had come down in the state during the BSP regime, the
fortnight's aim is to increase the cow count by bringing good
varieties from other states. The government will also encourage people
to buy good breed cows. He said directives have been issued that no
cow slaughter incidents should take place and claimed that five crore
vaccines have been used this year in the state to protect cows from
any disease.
Plans to mark cow conservation fortnight comes days after chief
minister Akhilesh Yadav's statement at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on
October 18 that the BJP had nothing to do with the cow and that it was
theirs, hinting towards the fact that the Yadavs were mythlogically
associated with rearing of cows. The CM had also accused the BJP and
other parties of stoking communal passions on the issue of cows.
The animal husbandry minister denied any politics behind the cow
conservation fortnight. "Had we been into politics, UP would not have
been declared the best state in the country as far as cow conservation
was concerned," Singh said.
The fortnight would be organized in every district.
Besides the fortnight on cow conservation, the government has also
launched a scheme to encourage cow rearing through Kaamdhenu dairy
scheme, Singh said. He added that dairy farmers who would rear 100
cows and no buffaloes through the scheme would be given a cash reward
of Rs 5 lakh, while those opening dairy farm with 50 cows would get Rs
2.5 lakh and so on.
Under the Kaamdhenu dairy scheme, the UP government pays the interest
on the loan amount for the dairy besides giving other benefits.
----------------------------------------------------------------
following three major developments
> after the follow-up meet with Dr Vijay Bhatkar ji on 30th Oct @ IIT-D :
>
> (I) Last evening there was a meeting in CRDT Dept of IIT-D to initiate
> drafting a concept note of 'Green Economy' based on the suggestions given
> by Dr Bhatkar ji last week.
> Following members participated in the discussion:
> - Dr Virendra Kumar Vijay (Head, CRDT, IIT-Delhi)
> - Dr SN Naik (Prof, CRDT, IIT-Delhi)
> - Er Subodh Kumar (Advisor, MDS Gosamvardhan Kendra, UP)
> - Brig Rajaram Yadav (Ion Farms, HR)
> - Dr Tejaram (Prof & Head, Dept of Economics, Gurgaon, HR)
> - Vaidya Indrasenji (OVMO, Pondicherry)
> - Adv Rajeev K Deshpande (HVPM & Tilak Vidyalaya, MH)
> - Shri Shripad Dattatreya Borikar (Nagpur, MH)
> - Shri Shabd Prakash (Samarth Trust, Delhi)
> - Er Gajanan Hazare (Chindwada, MP)
>
> And following points emerged from this meet:
> - To constitute a 10-member Core-Committee for the proposed 'Green Economy'
> project under the aegis of UBA & the name of the Committee shall be
> 'Sustainable Bio-Economy Committee'
> (suggested by Prof VK Vijay ji & supported by all other members).
>
> Members for this Core-Committee nominated by Prof VK Vijay ji:
> 1. Prof SN Naik
> 2. Er Subodh Kumar
> 3. Brig RR Yadav
> 4. Prof Tejaram
> 5. Adv Rajeev K Deshpande
> 6. Shri Shripad D Borikar
> 7. Dr Srinivas Rao Surabhi (Convenor)
> 8. Representative from ICAR / Animal Husbandry
> 9. Representative from Dept of Rural Development
> 10. Representative from Dept of Environment, Forestry & Climate Change
>
> This Committee shall draft an initial concept-note on 'Green Economy'
> project within 10 days and present the same before UBA Group on 14th Nov.
>
> (II) Four representative of GOU-Federation (Shri Arun Bansal, Adv Rajeev
> Deshpande, Shri Shripad Borikar & myself) have attended the 2nd meeting of
> Task Force Committee on National Biogas Mission on 2nd Nov at MNRE, New
> Delhi. (And we are grateful to Prof VK Vijay ji for his kindly invitation
> in this regard)
> Amongst the many points discussed, GOU-Federation members contributed
> majorly on these 3 points: (i) drafting Commercially viable projects (ii)
> means for making Biogas slurry a marketable product & (iii) seeking
> NABARD's support for proposed entrepreneurship models.
>
> (III) Meeting with core Sarvodaya leaders on the very first day of 46th All
> India Sarvodaya Samaj Conference @ Gandhi Ashram, Delhi (whole credit goes
> to Adv Rajeev Deshpande ji for arranging to introduce the UBA concept to
> them)..
> - Shri Sankar Kumar Sanyal (President, Harijan Sevak Sangh)
> - Shri Rajnish Kumar (Secretary, Rajghat Samadhi Committee)
> - Shri Mahesh Chandra Shrama (President, Delhi Hindi Sahitya Sammelan)
> - Shri P Maruthi
> - Dr Ramesh Sharma
> - Su Shri Urmila Srivastava
> - Su Shri Veena Behen &
> - Dr Mahesh Sharma
> And the President of Harijan Sevak Sangh has extended full support to make
> Gandhi Ashram as the nodal center for training youth from Alipur block.
For the follow-up of the resolutions made during the recent Seminar at
>>>> Nagpur, a 2-day National Coordinators meet is being held in Delhi from
>>>> tomorrow.
>>>>
>>>> Venue : ICAR Bhavan, Pusa Campus, Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi
>>>> Timing : 2 pm to 5 pm (26th Oct) & 10 am to 1 pm (27th Oct)
>>>>
>>>> Agenda for the meet:
>>>> 1. Follow-up discussions on Nagpur' resolutions
>>>> 2. Finalizing the schedule for next month's Conference (26-29 Nov ::
>>>> Cow-5)
>>>> 3. Convergence of Schemes of different Ministries of GoI for the
>>>> rural-clusters being proposed to be taken up under 'Unnat Bharat
>>>> Abhiyan'
>>>> 4. Fixing the dates for a public event in Delhi for the release of CD
>>>> and Souvenir of the August' Conference held at Vigyan Bhavan. (being
>>>> coordinated by Shri Rajendra Singh Rajpurohit of AWARI, Jodhpur)
>>>> 5. Refining the drafts of two project proposals (on 'Gavya-Chikitsa' &
>>>> 'Yagya-Therapy') and preparing a budget-estimate for the same.
Please find the 'Resolutions of Nagpur-Seminar' forwarded herewith:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1. To propose and seek approval of following Govt / Non-Govt
>>>>>> Organizations to be included as partnering Institutes of UBA for
>>>>>> Vidarbha
>>>>>> region:
>>>>>> * MGIRI, Wardha
>>>>>> * VNIT, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Govt College of Engineering, Amaravati
>>>>>> * Govt Veterinary College, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Kasturba Health Society, Sevagram
>>>>>> * Shree Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, Amaravati
>>>>>> * Society for Ethno-pharmacology, Nagpur Chapter
>>>>>> * Centre of Science for Villages, Dattapur
>>>>>> * Sukrut Nirman Charitable Trust, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Gavyam Social Welfare Society, Akola
>>>>>> * Kisan Sahayata Manch, Nagpur
>>>>>> * DMIMS, Sawangi, Wardha
>>>>>> * Govt Ayurved College, Nagpur
>>>>>> * PDKV, Akola
>>>>>> * IGNOU Regional Directorate, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Tilak Vidyalaya, Nagpur
>>>>>> * India International Multiversity, Muramba
>>>>>> * Bharatiya Utkarsha Mandal, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Wardha
>>>>>> * Deendayal BahuUddeshiya Prasarak Mandal, Yavatmal
>>>>>> * Shri Krishna Gorakshan, Akola
>>>>>> * Gorakshan Sabha, Dhantoli, Nagpur
>>>>>> * Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Vidarbha
>>>>>> * Vijnana Bharati, Vidarbha
>>>>>> * Shakti Sangathan, Vidarbha
>>>>>> * Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Vidarbha.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2. To nominate MGIRI (Wardha), HVPM (Amaravati), GAC (Nagpur) and
>>>>>> DBPM
>>>>>> (Yavatmal) as Centres-of-Excellence for 'Govidya' (Panchagavya).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3. To constitute a Vidarbha-level Committee of 'Gougram Mahasangh'
>>>>>> with representatives from all collaborating organizations to execute
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> Sustainable Rural Development program in proposed Cluster-villages of
>>>>>> Vidarbha region.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Further discussions on the resolutions will be held in the follow-up
>>>>>> events in Delhi (26-27 Oct), Basar (26-29 Nov) & Shegaon (11-12 Jan
>>>>>> 2016).
Monday, November 16, 2015
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
INDIA'S ROLE IN ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION
205+1 ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCES (2012-2014)
FOR AWARENESS, ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC DIALOGUE, ENGAGING WITH LOCAL PEOPLE
ACROSS INDIA
http://www.
http://localgovernance.org/
1 WHY INDIA PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
India is a vast country with a large population, amazing social diversities,
social & economic biases and inequalities. India is a growing consumer economy
and will one day have amongst the largest group of consumers in the world.
However, the population of India must be seen beyond that of potential
consumers for international markets. The Indian population must play an
important role in protecting the environment. It is therefore increasingly
important that work is done to create environmental awareness with the common
people of India towards sustainable development. We need to explore the
people, groups and organizations working for environmental issues on the real
ground if we are serious about protecting the environment. Exclusive awareness
and participatory dialogue programs with the common people is needed that
promote decentralized methods of protecting the environment.
However, currently in India there is little public dialogue or community
awareness about the local and global issues facing the environment. What is
climate change? What are other issues facing the environment? And what are
roles people can play to protect the environment? In answering these
questions, it is our view that environmental issues cannot be resolved only by
funded academic research, or through grants and programs supported by
government agencies. Environmental problems need to be resolved by and
between individuals, which includes common people, the corporate sector,
academics, NGOs and government. All sectors and all individuals need to
consider their role in protecting the environment and work together towards a
common goal.
In order to begin to work towards sustainable development, we propose a chain
of environment conferences. The most important activity of this chain of
environment conferences is a dialogue with common people about their
environment, its problems and potential solutions. If common people will
understand how environmental issues are related to them and their future
generations, then they can start to work for the environment sincerely,
including advocating to government and private sector to make better policies
for the environment that promote its sustainability.
2 THE ACTIVITY
Ground Report India (GRI) was founded as an accountable media platform. The
people of GRI go to the ground for their reports. In this process they found
that there is a missing gap - most people didn’t understand or were not aware
about environmental issues, even though it is one of the most important issues
of the world today. GRI has also published special editions on water,
agriculture and tribal issues. Through this, GRI found that many common
people and local communities are supporting sustainable development and could
play larger roles in working to resolve environmental issues.
Based on this work, we have decided to initiate a sincere dialogue and
awareness program for the environment in India. We plan to organize a chain of
conferences. There are hundreds conferences currently going on across the
globe and in India, but they do not touch the common people. This chain of
conferences will not be limited to research in academic institutions. If a
person, a local community, a voluntary group is doing works or making efforts
for the environment on the ground then they will have the opportunity to
present and speak at these conferences. Various stratums of the human systems
co-related with the environment will also be participate. This includes
people in urban and rural areas; the media; lawyers; local administration;
research institutes; policy activists; students; local leaders; NGOs;
corporate sector; central and state governments including government
bureaucrats, political leaders and common leaders.
The environment is not limited to the planting of trees, or building of water
bodies. The use of natural resources depends on the community mentality,
customs and social behaviours. This chain of conferences will try to
understand the solution locally with relation to society as a whole.
With the support of local people, academics, government, private sector, civil
society and you, Ground Report India Group will conduct three levels of
conferences over two years from July 2012 to October 2014 for mass awareness
and public dialogues on environmental issues. This includes:
- 1 international conference
- 10 regional conferences in different states in India
- 195 local conferences in different regions of many states across India
- A 1,00,000 kilometres exclusive national tour covering different areas of
India
- Talks, quizzes and debates in colleges, institutes and universities
3 THE OBJECTIVES
After the conferences, we hope that people will at least begin to think about
their local environmental issues, to know about the global environmental
problems and how humans impact upon it. Presently, we see that people don’t
understand the important role they can personally play to protect the
environment. At the moment, environmental activism in India is elite or is
considered an elitist activity in the mind set of many people. People think
they cannot do anything to protect the environment. But we hope that the
conferences will break this and that people will recognise that protecting the
environment can be done by anyone. We also recognise that in a country of
such diversity as India, each individual has a different role to play, no
matter which layer of society they are in and what assets they may or may not
have. We also believe that environmental protection and sustainable
development can have many positive impacts for people’s livelihoods and well-
being. We start from the point that rather than looking only at the
government to provide the answers, we also need to start how as a society we
can collectively work together to resolve environmental issues.
Overall, through this activity we hope to:
• Change people’s behaviour in their daily lives to have more
consideration for their individual impact on the environment, as well as those
in their locality. At each local and regional conference we will facilitate
discussion on major environmental topics related to the local area. This
could include, for example, water quality issues, energy security, waste
management and air pollution.
• Catalyse a people’s movement to advocate and work for the environment.
At each local and regional conference, leaders will be identified who are
passionate to continue working for environmental issues in their locality. At
the international conference, organised in the year 2014, these leaders will
come together to share experiences, learn from each other, and unite with
others nationally and internationally.
• Popularise environmental issues/education and catalyse environmental
advocacy in India. Environmental movements are strong in western countries,
for example through Al Gore’s campaign. But because of India’s poverty,
population, diversity and complexity, a different awareness is needed, that
allows people to improve their livelihood and well-being while also protecting
their natural resources.
• Record and summarise the outcomes of each conference. We acknowledge
that across such an amazing country like India, not all environmental issues
will be the same. Different pressures exist for different resources. For
example, water is too much in some places, and less in others. Mining is
common in some states, while issues related to urbanisation is more relevant
in some towns and cities. We aim to present findings from each local and
regional conference at the international conference. We plan to channel the
questions that come up at the conferences, then synthesise to achieve some key
points that can be easily communicated.
• Invite all layers of society to discuss and debate about environmental
issues in local/regional conferences. We want to see all sectors engaged in
working for the environment. To encourage people to attend the conferences,
the organisers will run smaller forums prior to the local/regional conferences
will target specific groups of people and leaders in sectors including
government, academia, education, spiritual/religious leaders, activists,
lawyers and students. At the international conference, we hope that the
leaders from each sector in the local/regional conferences will attend at the
international conference.
We will work to support people, in whatever position they are in, to do as
they can – we will work with them on issues that will be relevant to them and
their ability.
4 THE METHOD
4.1 LOCAL CONFERENCES
195 local conferences on environmental issues relevant to the locality will be
undertaken. Each local conference will be a one day dialogue with local
people from schools, universities, other institutes, villages nearby, suburban
areas of the township of a particular area. The expected gathering for each
local conference will be around 200-1,000 people.
The tour team will spend a few days in an area, covering many villages and
townships, before the local conference. We will meet local youth, local public
representatives, farmers, students, voluntary organisations, school teachers
and government officials. This will be supported by the network of Ground
Report India and partner organisations already have on the ground. From this
activity, we aim to find interested and influential people who want to work
for, or are already working for, environmental issues. We will explore with
them how many conferences could happen or are needed in the locality. The
local people will decide the day and venue and then we will all sit together.
The venue will be decided by the local communities after the local tour.
We will talk with them about their local environmental issues (smaller scale)
and try to explore ways that they could further resolve environmental issues
locally (large scale issues). The local conferences will cover the issues
related to water, agriculture, energy, consumerism, community health and
education. The local conferences will be up to 10 to 50 villages. It will be
important to talk with people about issues relevant to them, and also to
balance with their economic development and livelihoods.
Through the local conferences, we will document what are their environmental
issues. Considering the scale and number of local conferences, we anticipate
a large number of environmental issues being highlighted. These important
issues will be distilled and become the starting discussion point at the
regional conferences and ultimately the international conference, where
experts will also attend to meet and discuss with local leaders.
4.2 REGIONAL CONFERENCES
The ten two-day regional conferences will start in 2013 after organizing the
local conferences. Each regional conference will be a two day dialogue with
an expected gathering of around 1000-5000 people.
The tour team will spend around 40-130 days in a region of various states
covering hundreds of villages and townships. The venues will be decided by the
communities after the first round of the dialogue with the voluntary and
social organisations. The regional conferences will be held in the states of
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland and
Kerala. Each regional conference will try to cover a few states. Interested
and influential people will be invited to the regional conference, and many of
them will be found from the local conferences. Academic institutes will also
be invited. The regional conferences will reach policy makers. Documentation
and follow-up to each conference will ensure that the discussions and
conclusions are bought to the attention of policy makers and others.
The regional conferences will begin to consider ideas to support local
communities to protect their environment and will cover similar issues as the
local conferences including, water, agriculture, forestation, waste management
and pollution. At the regional conference, discussion of the environmental
issues highlighted at the local conferences will be discussed and the most
important issues and how collectively the local issues could be resolved.
Also, because the regional conferences will cover a greater geographic area,
environmental issues will still be locally relevant, but also encompass
environmental issues that are present at a larger scale and could be tackled
collectively at a this scale.
4.3 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
A four-day international conference on the environment and climate change will
take place in 2014. Experts from many countries will meet with national
leaders in India over four days. This conference will occur at the end of the
chain of conferences, thereby bringing all the lessons and stories learnt from
the local and regional conferences, in addition to the national tour, to a
culmination point at the international conference. The expected gathering
will be around 5,000-15000 people. The international conference will cover
the following issues: climate change; conservation; water reservoirs; energy;
environment degradation; farming and agriculture; land degradation and use;
waste management; health; resource depletion; water pollution; air pollution;
industrial pollution; food pollution; population; consumerism. All the
environmental issues from the local and regional conferences will be brought
to this conference and discussed. The role of each sector and each community
will be discussed to see how each can assist the other.
The two main aims of the international conference are to:
• Link the network of people working in the environment, with the hope
that it could join India’s local environmental leaders with international
campaigns/movements for environmental and climate change. At the international
conference, the ground environmental leaders and genuine interested people
will be introduced to the international community – that is people who are
really interested in environmental issues and have been working for it.
Because the Indian population is very large thus it could play a larger role
in global environmental movements. The international conference will provide
an opportunity to explore how this could be done. The local conferences,
regional conferences and 100,000 kilometres exclusive national tour will build
a ground network in thousands of villages, sub-urban and urban areas for the
international environment movements.
• Discuss the recorded documentation of environmental problems and
issues from the local and regional conferences. Through this activity we hope
that participants will begin to see the important role of each individual and
organisation in working to assist local communities across the nation to solve
the identified environmental issues.
4.4 THE TOUR
To make this chain of conferences worthwhile and down to earth, which means
that it will cover various stratums of the human made systems with the best
involvement of common people, we will conduct a 100,000 km national tour and
talks, quizzes and debates in thousands of colleges, institutes and
universities consecutively as the conferences. Through the national tour,
talks, quizzes, debates and local conferences, we will connect with the common
people. Through connecting with local people during the national tour, we will
hold the local, regional and international conferences. The local conferences
will be organic – they will occur as the local people suggest.
A 100,000 kilometres national tour will be done for participatory dialogues
covering thousands of villages, townships and metro-cities in next around two
years. The tour will be in two parts, whereby 50,000 kms will be an exclusive
national tour covering all over India, and the second 50,000 kms will be the
chain of various local and regional tours supporting local and regional
conferences.
4.5 Talks, quizzes and debates in colleges, institutes and universities:
Talks, quizzes and debates based on environment issues in thousands of
colleges, institutes and universities will be organized on the national tour.
Awards, lucky draws and certificates will be given to the students at local
level and at international conference.
******************************
The International Advisory Board:
http://localgovernance.org/
******************************
Credits for the concept note:
Vivek Umrao Glendenning
Prof. Willem Vervoort, PhD, University of Sydney, Australia
John Szemerey, Belgium
Dr Madeleine Florin, PhD, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Dr Madan Thangavelu, PhD, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Dr B. K. Sharma, U.K.
Shankar Sharma, India
FOR AWARENESS, ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC DIALOGUE, ENGAGING WITH LOCAL PEOPLE
ACROSS INDIA
http://www.
http://localgovernance.org/
1 WHY INDIA PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
India is a vast country with a large population, amazing social diversities,
social & economic biases and inequalities. India is a growing consumer economy
and will one day have amongst the largest group of consumers in the world.
However, the population of India must be seen beyond that of potential
consumers for international markets. The Indian population must play an
important role in protecting the environment. It is therefore increasingly
important that work is done to create environmental awareness with the common
people of India towards sustainable development. We need to explore the
people, groups and organizations working for environmental issues on the real
ground if we are serious about protecting the environment. Exclusive awareness
and participatory dialogue programs with the common people is needed that
promote decentralized methods of protecting the environment.
However, currently in India there is little public dialogue or community
awareness about the local and global issues facing the environment. What is
climate change? What are other issues facing the environment? And what are
roles people can play to protect the environment? In answering these
questions, it is our view that environmental issues cannot be resolved only by
funded academic research, or through grants and programs supported by
government agencies. Environmental problems need to be resolved by and
between individuals, which includes common people, the corporate sector,
academics, NGOs and government. All sectors and all individuals need to
consider their role in protecting the environment and work together towards a
common goal.
In order to begin to work towards sustainable development, we propose a chain
of environment conferences. The most important activity of this chain of
environment conferences is a dialogue with common people about their
environment, its problems and potential solutions. If common people will
understand how environmental issues are related to them and their future
generations, then they can start to work for the environment sincerely,
including advocating to government and private sector to make better policies
for the environment that promote its sustainability.
2 THE ACTIVITY
Ground Report India (GRI) was founded as an accountable media platform. The
people of GRI go to the ground for their reports. In this process they found
that there is a missing gap - most people didn’t understand or were not aware
about environmental issues, even though it is one of the most important issues
of the world today. GRI has also published special editions on water,
agriculture and tribal issues. Through this, GRI found that many common
people and local communities are supporting sustainable development and could
play larger roles in working to resolve environmental issues.
Based on this work, we have decided to initiate a sincere dialogue and
awareness program for the environment in India. We plan to organize a chain of
conferences. There are hundreds conferences currently going on across the
globe and in India, but they do not touch the common people. This chain of
conferences will not be limited to research in academic institutions. If a
person, a local community, a voluntary group is doing works or making efforts
for the environment on the ground then they will have the opportunity to
present and speak at these conferences. Various stratums of the human systems
co-related with the environment will also be participate. This includes
people in urban and rural areas; the media; lawyers; local administration;
research institutes; policy activists; students; local leaders; NGOs;
corporate sector; central and state governments including government
bureaucrats, political leaders and common leaders.
The environment is not limited to the planting of trees, or building of water
bodies. The use of natural resources depends on the community mentality,
customs and social behaviours. This chain of conferences will try to
understand the solution locally with relation to society as a whole.
With the support of local people, academics, government, private sector, civil
society and you, Ground Report India Group will conduct three levels of
conferences over two years from July 2012 to October 2014 for mass awareness
and public dialogues on environmental issues. This includes:
- 1 international conference
- 10 regional conferences in different states in India
- 195 local conferences in different regions of many states across India
- A 1,00,000 kilometres exclusive national tour covering different areas of
India
- Talks, quizzes and debates in colleges, institutes and universities
3 THE OBJECTIVES
After the conferences, we hope that people will at least begin to think about
their local environmental issues, to know about the global environmental
problems and how humans impact upon it. Presently, we see that people don’t
understand the important role they can personally play to protect the
environment. At the moment, environmental activism in India is elite or is
considered an elitist activity in the mind set of many people. People think
they cannot do anything to protect the environment. But we hope that the
conferences will break this and that people will recognise that protecting the
environment can be done by anyone. We also recognise that in a country of
such diversity as India, each individual has a different role to play, no
matter which layer of society they are in and what assets they may or may not
have. We also believe that environmental protection and sustainable
development can have many positive impacts for people’s livelihoods and well-
being. We start from the point that rather than looking only at the
government to provide the answers, we also need to start how as a society we
can collectively work together to resolve environmental issues.
Overall, through this activity we hope to:
• Change people’s behaviour in their daily lives to have more
consideration for their individual impact on the environment, as well as those
in their locality. At each local and regional conference we will facilitate
discussion on major environmental topics related to the local area. This
could include, for example, water quality issues, energy security, waste
management and air pollution.
• Catalyse a people’s movement to advocate and work for the environment.
At each local and regional conference, leaders will be identified who are
passionate to continue working for environmental issues in their locality. At
the international conference, organised in the year 2014, these leaders will
come together to share experiences, learn from each other, and unite with
others nationally and internationally.
• Popularise environmental issues/education and catalyse environmental
advocacy in India. Environmental movements are strong in western countries,
for example through Al Gore’s campaign. But because of India’s poverty,
population, diversity and complexity, a different awareness is needed, that
allows people to improve their livelihood and well-being while also protecting
their natural resources.
• Record and summarise the outcomes of each conference. We acknowledge
that across such an amazing country like India, not all environmental issues
will be the same. Different pressures exist for different resources. For
example, water is too much in some places, and less in others. Mining is
common in some states, while issues related to urbanisation is more relevant
in some towns and cities. We aim to present findings from each local and
regional conference at the international conference. We plan to channel the
questions that come up at the conferences, then synthesise to achieve some key
points that can be easily communicated.
• Invite all layers of society to discuss and debate about environmental
issues in local/regional conferences. We want to see all sectors engaged in
working for the environment. To encourage people to attend the conferences,
the organisers will run smaller forums prior to the local/regional conferences
will target specific groups of people and leaders in sectors including
government, academia, education, spiritual/religious leaders, activists,
lawyers and students. At the international conference, we hope that the
leaders from each sector in the local/regional conferences will attend at the
international conference.
We will work to support people, in whatever position they are in, to do as
they can – we will work with them on issues that will be relevant to them and
their ability.
4 THE METHOD
4.1 LOCAL CONFERENCES
195 local conferences on environmental issues relevant to the locality will be
undertaken. Each local conference will be a one day dialogue with local
people from schools, universities, other institutes, villages nearby, suburban
areas of the township of a particular area. The expected gathering for each
local conference will be around 200-1,000 people.
The tour team will spend a few days in an area, covering many villages and
townships, before the local conference. We will meet local youth, local public
representatives, farmers, students, voluntary organisations, school teachers
and government officials. This will be supported by the network of Ground
Report India and partner organisations already have on the ground. From this
activity, we aim to find interested and influential people who want to work
for, or are already working for, environmental issues. We will explore with
them how many conferences could happen or are needed in the locality. The
local people will decide the day and venue and then we will all sit together.
The venue will be decided by the local communities after the local tour.
We will talk with them about their local environmental issues (smaller scale)
and try to explore ways that they could further resolve environmental issues
locally (large scale issues). The local conferences will cover the issues
related to water, agriculture, energy, consumerism, community health and
education. The local conferences will be up to 10 to 50 villages. It will be
important to talk with people about issues relevant to them, and also to
balance with their economic development and livelihoods.
Through the local conferences, we will document what are their environmental
issues. Considering the scale and number of local conferences, we anticipate
a large number of environmental issues being highlighted. These important
issues will be distilled and become the starting discussion point at the
regional conferences and ultimately the international conference, where
experts will also attend to meet and discuss with local leaders.
4.2 REGIONAL CONFERENCES
The ten two-day regional conferences will start in 2013 after organizing the
local conferences. Each regional conference will be a two day dialogue with
an expected gathering of around 1000-5000 people.
The tour team will spend around 40-130 days in a region of various states
covering hundreds of villages and townships. The venues will be decided by the
communities after the first round of the dialogue with the voluntary and
social organisations. The regional conferences will be held in the states of
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland and
Kerala. Each regional conference will try to cover a few states. Interested
and influential people will be invited to the regional conference, and many of
them will be found from the local conferences. Academic institutes will also
be invited. The regional conferences will reach policy makers. Documentation
and follow-up to each conference will ensure that the discussions and
conclusions are bought to the attention of policy makers and others.
The regional conferences will begin to consider ideas to support local
communities to protect their environment and will cover similar issues as the
local conferences including, water, agriculture, forestation, waste management
and pollution. At the regional conference, discussion of the environmental
issues highlighted at the local conferences will be discussed and the most
important issues and how collectively the local issues could be resolved.
Also, because the regional conferences will cover a greater geographic area,
environmental issues will still be locally relevant, but also encompass
environmental issues that are present at a larger scale and could be tackled
collectively at a this scale.
4.3 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
A four-day international conference on the environment and climate change will
take place in 2014. Experts from many countries will meet with national
leaders in India over four days. This conference will occur at the end of the
chain of conferences, thereby bringing all the lessons and stories learnt from
the local and regional conferences, in addition to the national tour, to a
culmination point at the international conference. The expected gathering
will be around 5,000-15000 people. The international conference will cover
the following issues: climate change; conservation; water reservoirs; energy;
environment degradation; farming and agriculture; land degradation and use;
waste management; health; resource depletion; water pollution; air pollution;
industrial pollution; food pollution; population; consumerism. All the
environmental issues from the local and regional conferences will be brought
to this conference and discussed. The role of each sector and each community
will be discussed to see how each can assist the other.
The two main aims of the international conference are to:
• Link the network of people working in the environment, with the hope
that it could join India’s local environmental leaders with international
campaigns/movements for environmental and climate change. At the international
conference, the ground environmental leaders and genuine interested people
will be introduced to the international community – that is people who are
really interested in environmental issues and have been working for it.
Because the Indian population is very large thus it could play a larger role
in global environmental movements. The international conference will provide
an opportunity to explore how this could be done. The local conferences,
regional conferences and 100,000 kilometres exclusive national tour will build
a ground network in thousands of villages, sub-urban and urban areas for the
international environment movements.
• Discuss the recorded documentation of environmental problems and
issues from the local and regional conferences. Through this activity we hope
that participants will begin to see the important role of each individual and
organisation in working to assist local communities across the nation to solve
the identified environmental issues.
4.4 THE TOUR
To make this chain of conferences worthwhile and down to earth, which means
that it will cover various stratums of the human made systems with the best
involvement of common people, we will conduct a 100,000 km national tour and
talks, quizzes and debates in thousands of colleges, institutes and
universities consecutively as the conferences. Through the national tour,
talks, quizzes, debates and local conferences, we will connect with the common
people. Through connecting with local people during the national tour, we will
hold the local, regional and international conferences. The local conferences
will be organic – they will occur as the local people suggest.
A 100,000 kilometres national tour will be done for participatory dialogues
covering thousands of villages, townships and metro-cities in next around two
years. The tour will be in two parts, whereby 50,000 kms will be an exclusive
national tour covering all over India, and the second 50,000 kms will be the
chain of various local and regional tours supporting local and regional
conferences.
4.5 Talks, quizzes and debates in colleges, institutes and universities:
Talks, quizzes and debates based on environment issues in thousands of
colleges, institutes and universities will be organized on the national tour.
Awards, lucky draws and certificates will be given to the students at local
level and at international conference.
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The International Advisory Board:
http://localgovernance.org/
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Credits for the concept note:
Vivek Umrao Glendenning
Prof. Willem Vervoort, PhD, University of Sydney, Australia
John Szemerey, Belgium
Dr Madeleine Florin, PhD, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Dr Madan Thangavelu, PhD, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Dr B. K. Sharma, U.K.
Shankar Sharma, India
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