Activists' Mahakumbh comes to the Capital

Amit Bhattacharya / TNN / Nov 3, 2006, 00:02 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

In a five-day jamboree, at least 50,000 people will discuss and debate in over 600 conferences, seminars and workshops.

Activists' Mahakumbh comes to the Capital

NEW DELHI: It's being billed the 'Mahakumbh' of social activists and organisations. In a five-day jamboree, at least 50,000 people will discuss and debate in over 600 conferences, seminars and workshops, issues as diverse as the Dalit movement, AIDS, debt and agriculture, SEZs and displacement, urban poor and so on.
That's not all. These interactions will be punctuated by a cultural explosion of music, films and theatre.
Organisers are calling it the India Social Forum, whose inaugural edition kicks off on November 9 in the Capital.
ISF is being organised by World Social Forum India as a regional variant of the mega World Social Forum meets, one of which was held in Mumbai in 2004.

WSF was formed as a global platform for anti-capitalist movements. It held its first meet in 2001 at Porto Alegre, Brazil, as a 'people's' alternative to the annual World Economic Forum.
Frenetic activity is on at the exhibition grounds outside Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where three makeshift auditoriums are coming up, along with spaces for conferences, open forum interaction and various other activities of the ISF meet.

The theme for ISF, as with other WSF-linked events, is 'Another World Is Possible'. Mukul Sharma, member of the ISF organising committee, said, "The big idea behind ISF is to provide space to thousands of organisations working for social change to interact, strategise and energise themselves.
"There will be no official statements from ISF. In fact, 95% of the programmes are self-organised activities by participating groups."
These organisations have been preparing for months. For instance, Child Rights for WSF, a forum representing 150 organisations, held conferences for children in 14 states.
Participating children formulated state-level declarations on their problems as well as their vision for the future. These children then elected 250 representatives who will read papers, hold discussions and present cultural programmes at 'Bal Chaupal', a dedicated space for kids at ISF.
Sharma said 50-75 foreign delegates are expected, mainly from Asia and Africa. "There will be a team from Pakistan to discuss issues of war and peace, among other things. There are well-known activists coming from West Asia and Africa. ISF aims to generating energy for WSF 2007, which takes place in January at Nairobi. That is also why the closing ceremony theme is Asian-African solidarity," he said.
The opening ceremony will be addressed by an all-women panel which includes Hannan Ashrawi (from Palestine), Medha Patekar, Ruth Manorama, Subhashini Ali, Tulsi Mai Munda, Radhika Kumaraswamy (from Sri Lanka) and Shubha Mudgal.
In keeping with the WSF tradition of artistic abandon, there will be a surfeit of music, mostly of the folk and fusion genres.
Said Shefali Bhushan, the cultural coordinator for ISF, "Though the opening and closing ceremonies will be the cultural high points of ISF, there are numerous interesting programmes for each day including street and proscenium theatre, dance as well as film shows."
Among the interesting performers expected at ISF is the popular fusion band, Raghu Dixit Project. Then, there will be Rewben Mashangva, a 'Naga folk blues' singer from Imphal popularly known as the Naga Bob Dylan.

End of Article