(Sociology club, Fergusson College, had observed 3rd-10th December 2010 as Human Rights Week. This is an account of the entire ‘making’ process……. from scratch to the final day)
Conceptualizing the theme: Human Rights and Environment.
From the very beginning human beings have been bringing about changes in the environment. Environment, dynamic as it is, could essentially cope up with these changes. However, with the advent of industrial societies, the resilience of environment on the face of stress has been severely dismantled. The present mode of production which focuses on harnessing /exploiting the environment to its maximum limit has further aggravated the problem.
Sociology Club, in many of its formal and informal gatherings had discussed how human beings are increasingly getting disconnected with nature. This ‘divorce’, which is a result of many structural processes, has raised serious environmental concerns. Chief Seattle’s reply to Washington, 1854, considered as one of the best documents ever written on the inter-connectedness of all life on earth, inspired the club. The theme, Human Rights and Environment, was precisely the result of all these thought initiations. In many discussions that followed we comprehended that human rights are intrinsically linked to environment and the realization of basic human rights is possible only in a healthy and clean environment. Supreme Court of India in 1983 interpreted Right to life (Article 21) as Right to wholesome environment.
To further contextualize this ‘linkage’ (in the background of the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy), we decided to view Bhopal Gas Tragedy primarily as an ‘Environmental Disaster’, pointing at the ‘environmental cost’ of the present model of hegemonic development. Through our posters, street plays and other activities we wanted to address the structural problems related to economic integration and its environmental consequences. We wanted to unravel the complexity/ies of the issue/s. When we further investigated the theme we realized that how the livelihood of certain groups/communities are threatened with increasing environmental degradation. Bhopal Gas tragedy as a disaster is not part of our recent memory. As a group, we realized that the issues that the tragedy has been revealing since the past 26 years are extremely relevant. Bhopal gas tragedy points out at the laxity of the government to protect its citizens, essentially because of the state-corporate collusion among many other reasons.
Prior to ‘Human Rights Week’ Sociology Club had organized a group discussion on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (with a focus on the judgment given by the special court on the tragedy). Sociology Club had earlier engaged itself with similar topics through its diverse activities.
Thus in short the conceptualization of the theme ‘Human Rights and Environment’ was a result of many interactions which were possible through various activities of Sociology Club.
Process more enjoyable than Product!
Once clear on the certain key ideas of the theme, we started off with the process of implementing them. It was decided that Human Rights Week would be observed from the 3rd of December 2010(marking the 26th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy) to 10th December 2010 (World Human Rights Day).
We planned out a scheme of activities, for the week. The activities were poster exhibition, street play, film screening and ‘thought- provoking’ games. We also decided to take our posters and street play to other colleges in Pune as well.
Poster Exhibition: Though we started working on the posters from the 25th of November 2010, we had several meetings prior to 25th, where in we finalized many ideas. The most interesting part during these informal meetings and while working was that certain aspects of the theme were becoming clearer while certain other aspects were becoming even more complex! After many brainstorming sessions we decided the broad categories in our poster exhibition. They were- ‘Industries and Environment’,’ Daily Life and Environment’ and ‘Livelihood and Environment’. We were mindful of the fact, that these categories are not ‘air tight’ and that they are intricately over lapping and linked. In ‘Industries and Environment’ we focused on different Industrial-environmental disasters (Bhopal Gas Tragedy, BP oil spill etc). We had informative and critical posters on the same. We had a number of introductory posters on simple but relevant questions such as ‘what are human rights?’, ‘How are Human rights linked to Environment?’Etc. Livelihood and Environment was a section where we tried to unravel several issues such as global inequality, privatization of water and other commonly owned resources and the consequences.
Daily Life and environment primarily focused on the issue of consumerism. Consumerism is a matter of vital importance as we are moving away from our role of ‘producers’ and increasingly becoming ‘only consumers’ there by straining the limited resources. We earnestly worked on posters, aiming at solutions. The solutions depicted in the posters were centered on what one do on an individual level. On one hand we exposed the magnitude of the environmental issues and on the other hand we underlined the fact that individual forms of resistance do make a difference.
Street Play: Our street play ‘paniless Panipur’ precisely discussed the relevance of individual choices and the difference it could bring about. (……boond boond se hi to samandar bharta hain). In the street play we dealt with the issue of privatization of water. It creatively portrayed the nexus between the State and Corporate and how the state is ready to disrupt the livelihood and survival of the rural poor to safeguard corporate interests. The street play exposes how privatization of commonly owned resources violates basic human rights. Finally we urge the audience to make an ‘environment friendly’ and ‘humane’ decision to quit bottled water.
Thus, explaining the implication of individual choices on the larger process of privatization of water. We also tried to link the lives of ‘rural poor’ and ‘urban dwellers’, pointing at the issue of livelihood.
Thought – provoking games: Games were also a result of our engagement with the theme. We had two games, namely ‘power walk’ and ‘snake and ladder’. Power walk was a game which aimed at transcending ones identity, for example- an urban middle class boy would be given an identity of a Dalit rural woman be briefed on the given identity. Once this was done the participants were asked questions to check their ‘ecological footprints’. According to the answers given they were asked to either move a step ahead or stay where they are. By the end of the game we get a pattern of ‘different identities’ placed at ‘different (unequal) levels’ of consumption.
This game was quite interesting because on one hand it unleashed our inability to transcend our own identity, proving our unawareness and on the other hand it was insightful as it displayed the wide disparity in the consumption of resources. ‘Snake and Ladder’ was a fun game which aimed at spreading environment friendly choices.
Throughout the process we got an opportunity to dwell upon a particular theme for a considerable time period. This helped us in developing a holistic perspective on issues of environmental concerns.
The week: visiting different colleges……
The first and the last day of the week i.e., 3rd December and 10th December, were observed in our college campus. On the 3rd, we thematically displayed posters, staged the street play and organized the above mentioned games. On the 10th we displayed our posters in D.E.S Law College and thereafter observed the final day with poetry and music. The poetry and music session was organized in collaboration with ‘Students for Free Tibet’ and ‘Open Space’. Participants recited poems which dealt with an array of human rights issues such as communalism, hunger, systemic inequality, domestic violence to mention a few. The final day concluded with a group song, popularly known as the RTI anthem.
During the week we visited St. Mira’s College, Camp on the 4th of December with our poster exhibition and street play. On the 7th, 8th & 9th we visited Modern College, B.M.C.C and S.P. College respectively. In all our college visits we were welcome with great hospitality, though the level of curiosity among the students startlingly differed. The entire experience helped us in initiating discussions regarding human rights and environmental concerns (at different levels) among students belonging to varied backgrounds.
On the 6th we organized a screening of a BBC documentary ‘One Night in Bhopal’, based on the Bhopal Gas tragedy. The documentary was a ‘first person’ account of the survivors of the tragedy. The audience was shocked to know the gravity of injustice done to the victims and survivors. After the screening it was unanimously decided to observe two minutes of silence for the victims who were killed and to cherish the courage exhibited by the survivors.
Thus if I were to sum up the entire experience…. I would say it was an ‘engaging’ process which convinced us to appreciate the difference between ‘being literate’ and ‘being ecologically literate’!
-N. Shobhana
Kaanda-Lehsun 