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The reporting year witnessed concerted efforts directed at networking with cultural organisations interested in economic, social and political empowerment of the underprivileged as well as human rights movements working in the state. Routine activities like seminars, lectures and documentations also went ahead. Workshops A major workshop was organized by the chapter on the theme of “Indian Muslims: Issues, Problems and Solutions”. This helped the Chapter in reestablishing its status as a major social science think tank in the state. The workshop was held at Calicut on Sunday 2 February 2003 and it was formally opened by Prof. Z.M. Khan the Secretary General of IOS. There were six sessions in the workshop in which the following papers were presented.
Seminars The chapter assisted the Cultural Initiative, a Calicut-based group of intellectuals to organize a series of lectures on the future of Kerala. Kerala, after being in the lime light as a paragon of equitable social development, is facing serious crisis as the existing model of development is becoming increasingly unsustainable. The return migration of the Gulf immigrants coupled with the neo-liberal tendencies of the present ruling class is calling in to question the current concepts of development. The lecture series highlighted the various dimensions of the theme. Some of the prominent social activists and economists like Dr. M. Gangadaran, C.K. Abdul Azeez, R.V.G. Menon and Mathew Tharakan delivered lectures. The series started in March 2002 and concluded in May 2002. Human
Rights Workshop The Chapter, in association with the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, organized a Human Rights Workshop on 9 February 2003 at Trisur. The workshop started at 10.00 A.M. and had 4 sessions. Each session included an introduction to the topic and interaction with the participants. The four sessions were devoted to the following topics: 1. Leadership skills 2. Human Rights and law 3. Human Rights and Constitutional Provisions 4. How to Become an Effective Human Rights Activist? E.M. Abdul Rahiman, Mukundan C. menon, Adv. K.P. Muhammed Shareef and Dr. V.M. Abdul Salam were the resource persons. Tribal
Convention The Chapter also extended a helping hand to Adivasi Aikya Dardya Samiti to organize a convention to highlight the land issues of the tribals in the wake of police atrocities against landless tribals in Muthanga in Wynad district of Kerala. The Convention was held at Calicut on 22 March 2003. Human
Rights Activities The Chapter paid attention to the improvement of advocacy skills of human rights activists. Prof. P. Koya, the Chapter’s Secretary, attended an advanced training camp organized by Amnesty International at Chennai on 14, 15 and 16 March 2003. The Chapter is also planning to run a series of workshops on Human Rights Education for college students in various cities of Kerala during the next academic year. Scholarships Wide publicity was given to the IOS Scholarships through the print media. The Chapter also circulated a letter among the college principals highlighting the scholarship programme. Clippings
and Documentation The Chapter is running a clipping service. All the major newspapers are scanned and news items relevant to various topics are stored. There is a plan to computerize the service to help researchers and students. The chapter has a library with 450 titles. The Chapter also subscribes to serious journals like the Economist and the Economic and Political Weekly. |
