Screening of Mahua Memoirs

In a seminar focused on 21st November 2009, on the theme of pollution and environment, with Rural Management and Mass Communication students, the documentary Mahua Memoirs seemed very 'out of the context' at the first instance.

 Later there was a realisation that the issue of impact of mining on the rural environment is very much, part of the larger debate on environment sustainability (climate change debate).

Vinod Raja’s Mahua Memoirs , a documentary film featuring Saloo, the bard and Thirku Baiga takes us on a journey through the lives of the Adivasi’s, living in the mountain tracts of the Eastern Ghats across Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. The regions being rich in natural resources including minerals; the same resources have become the source of their greatest insecurities consuming their lands and their lives.

Iron is Hot .. Or Even Climate

On 31st October, under the hosting of Vriksh, Openspace (Ranchi) organized a seminar on Fire in Coal Mines and Human Settlement. About 100 youngsters from Xavier’s Institute of Social Sciences and Xavier’s College, participated. The discussions highlighted issues of climate change in the context of people inhabiting near mining areas.

Stan Lourdswamy (Human Rights Activist)

While on one hand the whole world is talking about climate change and how to counter it, the Indian State is ramping over the land and forests of the adivasis who have the history of coexistence with nature, and infact contribute through their lifestyles, in making the eco-system balanced.

There is people’s movement against displacement which is building up. And people are saying ‘We won’t give away our lands’. The intellectuals need to take position to stand in favour of the thousands of Adivasis.

Nitish Priyadarshi (Environmentalist)

The issue of climate change is not a new one. It has even been in our Tribal history, when the Asurs were making iron, and there are narrations that this will lead to more and more heat and the streams drying up.

Towards a Consensus View

The issues of climate change though a macro one, has to be tacked through sustainable practices at the grassroots with the communities. And the accountability with the Corporates needs to be defined, by the State.

Films like ‘Iron is Hot’ have to be screened more and more amongst the youth.

Social Networking Sites .. Worthwhile ?

Social Networking sites like Facebook and Orkut have a lot of easy chatting spaces. And many of the times a user might not like to see everything come as feeds. This can be controlled by setting ones privacy settings etc. But rarely anybody does it, and these sites too keep on changing their settings.

The sites have been mis-used and there is a big campaign in Delhi University where the sites were used for sexually harassing the student or academic colleagues with the ‘Let’s have tea at 5 pm at the canteen’, ‘Let’s meet at ..’ comments.

While internet has crossed barriers like age and caste in facilitating communication there are certain norms in communications which need to be learnt through personal endeavour, so that the personal borders are not crossed and rights are not violated.

Some of my friends are using social networking sites for the best of their social messages and sharing of their work. Surya Shankar Dash is sharing on ‘Save Niyamgiri Campaign’ (check site )Kamayani Bali Mahabal is sharing on human rights fronts ‘Repeal AFSPA & Irom Sharmila’ and likewise. Thus it is possible to create a community of your own and use the site for social purposes.

Check 'Irom’s iron in the soul' interview article on Tehelka site.

YouTube has been well used in these campaigns and the movement has been captured through small digital cameras. This has become easier with the improvement in internet technology, its access and expansion of bandwidths.

In this manner advancement in communication technology has created new opportunities for the social movements. These opportunities need to be grabbed.

Discussion rolled on as to how the Pink Chaddi Campaign (check Blog) against the Mangalore Pub incident created a large public support.

Blogs can be use to express your opinions on certain issues and these can be linked to your social networking sites so that postings in the blog are automatically fed in the network profiles. This helps to create a community of friends who are ready to receive and respond to your feeds. But for Blogs to be read by more and more people, 'aggregators' should be used.