Dear All,

Lokayat is organising a number of public programs in the coming 10 days. Here is a brief list:

Program 1. 

Republic Day talk on:

Constitutional Vision of Education and Neo-liberal Assault:

Undoing Dreams of Freedom Struggle

Speaker:

Dr. Anil Sadgopal

Prof. of Education (retd.), Delhi University and

Member, Presidium, All India Forum for Right to Education

Date:   Jan 26, 2013, Saturday

Time:   6 – 8.30 pm

Venue: Lokayat Hall, Opp. Sydicate Bank, Law College Road, Near Nal Stop, Pune.

Program 2:

Lokayat is hosting

International Travelling Uranium Film Festival

Dates:  Jan 27 – 31, 2013 (five-days)
Time:   6 to 10 pm everyday (out of these 4 hours, two hours will be dedicated to the Uranium Film Festival. During the remaining 2 hours, films of the Vasundhara Film Festival will be screened.)
Venue: Balgandharva Rangmandir, Jungli Maharaj Road, Pune.

ENTRY FREE.

Concept note:

The International Uranium Film Festival (http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/is dedicated to films about the Uranium atom and the possible dangers to Planet Earth’s environment and the very survival of humanity, from both its military and peaceful uses. It includes both documentary and fiction films on issues like: Uranium mining, nuclear power plants, atomic bombs, nuclear waste, radioactive risks, nuclear medicine, Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. Many of these films screened during the festival are critically acclaimed international award winning documentaries. The best and most important productions receive the festival award “Yellow Oscar”.

This festival is unique as it is the only festival in the world dedicated to this vitally important global issue. Marcia Gomes de Oliveira, Brazilian social scientist and filmmaker, is the Executive Director of the festival, and Norbert G. Suchanek, the German writer and filmmaker, is the General Director of the festival.

The Uranium Film Festival starts from Rio de Janeiro and then travels to other cities around the world. This year, for the first time, the festival travels to India. Shriprakash, the National Award winning film-maker from Ranchi, is the festival coordinator in India. The festival is being organised in 8 Indian cities: New Delhi, Shillong, Ranchi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Trichur and Mumbai.

We will be screening a total of 16 films during these 5 days. The films are extremely rare and top-quality films by some of the world’s most famous documentary makers, and so if you are interested in the issue of atomic bombs and atomic energy, these are a must-see.

The discussion following the screenings would be coordinated by Norbert Suchanek, Marcia Gomes, Shriprakash and Neeraj Jain.

Inauguration of the festival takes place on January 27 at 6 pm at the Balgandharva Rangmandir, followed by screenings of two films, ATOMIC BOMBS ON PLANET EARTH and INTO ETERNITY. I shall be sending you the exact schedule of films in a few days.

Note: We are organising the Uranium Film Festival as a part of the Vasundhara Film Festival. We were invited to be a part of the organising committee of the Vasundhara Film Festival, and we agreed and proposed that they co-host the Uranium Film Festival, to which they agreed.

Program 3:

Seminar on:

Global Warming: Myths and Facts

Speakers:

Soumya Dutta, Scientist, Researcher and Activist, based in Delhi, National Convenor, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha; Convenor, Energy and Climate Change Group, Beyond Copenhagen Collective.

J. Srinivasana, Ph. D. from Stanford; presently Chairman of Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Lead Author of IPCC fourth assessment report, 2004-2007 and Review Editor of the IPCC report on Climate Change.

Date:  January 30, Tuesday

Time:  2 – 5 pm

Venue: College of Engineering, Shivaji Nagar, Pune.

(This seminar is being co-hosted with the Vasundhara Film Festival and Janeev, a social-environmental student club of COEP.)

Program 4:

Seminar on:

Sustainable Solutions to India’s Energy Crisis

Speakers:

Admiral (retd.) Laxminarayan Ramdas, Vir Chakra, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal awardee; former Chief of Indian Naval; awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace; active campaigner on environmental issues for many years.

Soumya Dutta, Scientist, Researcher and Activist, from Delhi; National Convenor, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha; Convenor of climate and energy group, Beyond Copenhagen Collective (India); member, South Asian Dialogue on Ecological Democracy.

Neeraj Jain, Electrical Engineer, Writer and Activist; associated with Lokayat, an activist group based in Pune; author of: Nuclear Energy, Technology from Hell, published by Aakar Books, New Delhi.

Date: January 31, Thursday

Time: 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm

Venue: Seminar Hall, Fourth Floor, Marathawada Mitra Mandal’s College of Engineering, Karve Road, Behind Vandevi Temple, Pune.

(This seminar is also being co-hosted with Vasundhara Film Festival.)

Entry is free to all the above-mentioned programs. 

Other Programs

Apart from the formal programs mentioned above, Lokayat continues its campaign to create awareness about the social roots of violence against women. After talks by Prof Uma Chakravorty, we have had numerous talks by Lokayat activists in various colleges of Pune on the subject, stagings of the play Mulgi Zhali Ho and also stagings of our play on female infanticide, Ek Nai Shuruaat, film screenings of women-related films, and street campaigns on the roads of Pune on the subject. We also continue to organise lectures on various other issues in various colleges, and our cultural group has also organised numerous cultural programs all over Pune, For more details of these programs, you may visit the Lokayat Website.

Do join us for some of these programs. And if you are interested in joining us actively, rather than just attending these programs, do come down to our Sunday meetings from 4 to 7 pm every Sunday at the Lokayat hall.

in solidarity,

Neeraj