Gandhi still inspires; youths observe fast against Bt Brinjal at Jantar Mantar

Date      : 30th Jan 2010
Location:  Jantar Mantar, CP,New Delhi, INDIA

Around 50 youths in the Capital sought to follow Mahatma Gandhi's footsteps on Martyrs' Day by observing one-day fast to protest the introduction of Bt Brinjal in India and protect country's food sovereignty.

These youths, who were also joined by lakhs of people across the country, also held a candle-light vigil at Jantar Mantar and walked to Raj Ghat to pay their homage to the Father of the Nation. The one-day fast was observed in support of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Hind Swaraj and to uphold the food sovereignty of the country from the onslaught of technologies like GM seeds, Mr Arun Raj of GM Free India Campaign said.

Explaining the harmful effects of Bt Brinjal, Mr Raj informed that in these crops, genes from unrelated organisms like bacteria and viruses are being inserted into our food plants.
''The insertion of these foreign genes into brinjal causes a lot of disruptions at the genomic level that will lead to several health and environmental impacts,'' he added.
These foods have been documented to cause a lot of adverse health impacts like allergies, damaging liver, kidneys, pancreas and also lead to infertility problems.
He said they have three demands from the government. First, it should ensure health safety through legitimate and adequate studies on the Bt Brinjal. Second, all the environmental hazards should be ascertained through studies and dealt with beforehand. Third, the Committee that cleared Bt Brinjal did not have impartial members as some of them were associated with the industry.
''Even the Chairman of the Committee, Arjula Reddy, had confessed that it was approved under Agriculture Ministry's pressure,'' Mr Raj stated.

The fast was observed in more than 64 cities throughout the country and was supported by people's movements, farmers' unions and NGOs.

                                         -- (UNI) -Read more >> http://aidindia.org/main/content/blogcategory/0/442/

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Congratulate AID-Delhi(NCR) team for hosting 12th AID-India Conference successfully

Dear Friends ,

Let me first Congratulate AID-Delhi(NCR) team for hosting 12th AID-India Conference successfully .Before I thank all the volunteers individually I would extend my warm gratitude for the veteran torch bearer of AID India who could infuse a new energy and gave us a new direction for social causes.

     I on behalf of Conference Organizing team thank our Sathi's/Activist Balaji Sampath,Arvind Kejariwal,Dhanada Mishra,Ravi Kuchimachi,Ravi Shankar,Dharmendra ji ,Revathi ,Kamayani,Kajal Bhardwaaj,Shrinivashan,Pritha,Peter,Shuryanarayan ji,Suresh,AID-Bihar team,AID-Shrikakulum team,AID-Odisha team for guiding us and for making their presence to the Conference . I may forget to name few of our guest so kindly forgive me for the same.

If I have to describe a single word for the conference then I would say "Strength " is the right word.Yes when Sathi's & Activist( I have mentioned the name above) shared their work & experience then it gave us immense Strength to follow the path and to look at multiple aspect of social causes we work for . 

The very first day of the conference , It was indeed great learning for all of us when we privileged to hear how "Patent Laws & Globalization" is affecting a common man in terms of health by Kajal Bhardwaaj , How "Swaraaj(Self Governance)" can bring the real democracy in India by Arvind Kejariwal,How "Appropriate Technologies in Rural environment" can make a big positive changes in rural Indians and their life by Ravi Kuchimachi & How scalable & Effective solutions can ensure "Waste Management" on national level by Shrinivashan .

Second day of Conference was an eye opener when Revathi expressed the grief & pain of the Indian Farmers and Agriculture industry and suggested that Organic & Sustainable Agri is the need of the nation .Dhanada andDharmendra ji enlightened us with the inspirational work AID-Odisha & AID-Bihar is doing .After Lunch, It was a Success story of AID-Chennai and its marvelous work in the field of Education through Eureka methodologies byBalaji Sampath & informative session of Pritha. Individual Social Responsibility session emphasized how much conscious we should be for our environment & Hamsini from "Behtar Dilli " emphasized why we should think of using the Public Mode of Transport instead of private.

The Final day was again an eye opener where Kamayani briefed us about the Gender issues and how Elite and urban Indian are more involved in Genocide in terms of female infanticide . Balaji Briefed us about the organization structure of AID-India and Ravi Shankar informed how Mathematics can be be made interesting to kids. 

            AID-Delhi Volunteer Model Presented by AID-Delhi volunteers got a good response from other chapters .

Summarizing three wonderful day in a mail is impossible but i tried to give a glimpse of each session through this mail .

I feel there are always learnings after any event and I am including my personal inputs after the conference which I would like to share . 

• Conference may be hosted in and around September-October for better attendance .
  
•  We had to use disposable cups for tea on very first day which although we managed to correct for next two days by using reusable glass cups .So ensuring 100% Eco friendly conference should be mandatory :) .
  
• There were some technical errors when using projector or sound system became difficult so our apologies for the same.

If by any means we as a hosting team of AID-Delhi could not fulfill any of our guest(s) expectations then we apologies for the same .

At the End I thank AID-NCR Team ( Selva,Pulkit,Arun,Sejal,Anand,Abhinav,Sanjeev,Linkan,Sonika,Sonia,Dileep,Anshul,Anchit, Prachi, Rajiv, Sugandha,Sugam,Asam,Ruchi,Rahul,Nayani,Roli,Nishank,Gurgaon Volunteers & Others )for their constant support & hard work to organize such a good conference .

Warm Regards
Darshan Mehra

+919818361122

On Behalf of Organizing team !!

"Happiness is a Decision !! "
http://darshanmehra.blogspot.com