The Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (Kerala Science Literature Association) was established in 1962 by a group of science writers in Malayalam (language of Kerala, the southwestern state of India) as their forum. Its objective was simple: to popularize science among the people of Kerala in their mother tongue i.e. Malayalam. Over the past four decades it has grown into a massive people's science movement, with a membership of about 40,000 drawn from all walks of life and distributed in about 2000 primary units within the state of Kerala. Over these years, it has also expanded its fields of interests and activities to almost all forms of human endeavor. The KSSP is involved, broadly, in three types of activities: agitative, educative and constructive, in areas like environment, health, education, energy, development, literacy, micro planning - in almost every sphere of human activities. The KSSP strives to:Popularize science and scientific outlook among the people

• Develop a sense of optimism in them, instill in them a sense of self-confidence that they can change the world and can build a better tomorrow
• Expose and oppose the abuse of scientific knowledge detrimental to the interests of the majority
• Expose and oppose abuse of environment
• Propose and help implement alternative models for development
• Carry out R&D work to transform lab technologies into field technologies

Science for social revolution The KSSP views Indian society as one divided into two groups: a minority which is continuously getting richer and a majority which is continuously getting impoverished or is facing the threat of impoverishment. It understands that today science and technology serve as efficient tools in the hands of the minority, the haves, in exploiting the majority, the have-nots. The KSSP takes, on every issue, a stand partisan to this majority and consequently against the minority. It strives to arm the majority with the weapon of science and technology in their fight against impoverishment, against the oppressors. Educating people means enhancing their power to understand and analyse social issues in a scientific way and helping them to play a more active role in the society. This is what KSSP's slogan "science for social revolution" is all about.
Area of action The area of action of KSSP is Kerala, a Southern Indian state. Kerala has a total population of nearly 30 million. Its per capita income is only about 200-210 dollars per annum at current prices. Health indices of Kerala are much higher than those of the rest of India : Life expectation at birth 72 years, crude mortality rate 6.0 (per thousand), infant mortality rate 12 (per thousand), birth rate 14 (per thousand). The nutrition level in Kerala is low, morbidity level high. Most of the diseases are either related to old age (30%) or poverty and environment (60%). The literacy rate of Kerala is near 100%, almost twice the national rate. This phenomenon of low income and high level of human development has been called the  "Kerala Model" in international development parlance. The KSSP is involved in finding out the strengths and weakness of this model so as to further improve on it and also to make it sustainable. Structure of KSSP The KSSP has a four tier structure:

• Units functioning at the village level in an area of 10-20 sq. km.
• Sub-regional committees catering to about 10-15 units
• District committees (14)
• State committee

President, Vice-presidents, General Secretary, Treasurer and 3 Secretaries are the office bearers at the state level. Elections are held every year.  No one holds the same office for more than two terms.
 KSSP's members The KSSP has more than 40,000 members, all of them working on a voluntary basis. The most predominant group is that of unemployed educated youth the next being teachers. Among the leadership, teachers outnumber everybody. In the State Executive Committee, they constitute nearly fifty percent.  But KSSP embraces all sections of society as their members come from all walks of life: engineers, doctors, lawyers, agricultural workers, administrators, technicians, nurses, teachers, peasants, students, scientists, political activists, social activists, etc.
Awards KSSP has got a number of national and international awards in recognition of its achievements in various fields of activities :
 
 Education

Out of the 40,000 members nearly 10,000 are teachers. The following are the

Activities organized in the field of education:

     In service training  of  school teachers especially to make them enjoy

     Teaching.

     Pedagogic innovations like "Living with Science", "Living with Stars",

     "Integrated Science teaching", "Environment Based Teaching", etc. to

     make learning an  enjoyable activity for children.

     Curricular studies, text book audits, etc.

     Critique on commercialization of education.

     Massive  Children's  Science  Festivals and Teacher Exchange Program.

     Mass movement for quality improvement.

     Talent festivals for children  - annual participation: 0.5 million.

     Publication of science journals and books for children.

     Leading a successful   campaign  to ma

 Environment

     Protection of forests, years long and successful campaign to protect the famous Silent Valley forest.

     Campaign against pollution, especially by chemical industries.

     Education about environmental impact of wrong land use.

     Popularizing  agro forestry methods of soil protection.

     Raising environmental awareness level of the entire Kerala society.

     Developing  the three environment concept : Physical, Biological, Socio- economic and Cultural-ethical environments.

     A consistent Champion of protecting the environment  for the future generations.                                                                       

Development

     Building models for sustainable and equitable development.

     Campaigning for decentralized democracy and local level planning.

     Initiating a large number of field experiments in local level planning.

  Empowering the local communities through volunteer based Resource mappings,         Socio-economic survey, Data analysis     etc.

     Formulation and realization of people's structures like "Neighborhoods” and village committees for participator     democracy.

     Analyzing the "Kerala Model" of development to arrive at general conclusions.

     KSSP, with the help of its members and friends, undertake regular studies in development issues of Kerala and publish     papers, monographs and  reference books.                                                                                            

 Energy

Kerala is an energy deficit state without any fuel resources. From 1975 onwards,  the KSSP has been campaigning for a

rational energy plan for Kerala. Today the organization has got within its folds some of the best energy experts in the state.

KSSP is involved in large scale energy conservation programmes both for electricity and heat energy.

Its research and development unit has developed a high efficiency wood burning stove which saves

more than 50% of firewood. More than half a million homes have installed these "Parishad Oven" as

they are called resulting in a minimum annual saving of 0.6 - 0.8 million tones of firewood - so much

less destruction of biomass to the environment and a saving of about 20-30 million US dollars

(700-800 Million Rupees).  It has also invented a "Hot Box" which saves about 50% energy in cooking rice, the staple diet of the region.

KSSP has initiated a campaign to replace a substantial portion of the nearly 20 Million 60 W

Lamps with compact fluorescent lamps and high-quality electronic ballasts.

KSSP is also helping the district level local governments to develop small hydro stations within their territory.

                                                                            

Health  

Activities in the area of health involve:

     Health education Campaign.

     Formulation  and championing for people-centered health policies, instead of profit centered policies.

     Campaigns to save the health of the people from the avarice of multinationals and national drug giants.

     Intervention in the event of epidemics like Cholera - popularization of oral dehydration techniques using safe local     materials like coconut water, rice gruel etc.

     In-depth studies on the health status of Kerala for the purpose of formulating medium and long term health policies.

     It has formulated a major five year campaign  to reduce poverty and environment related  mortality substantially. Its     components are: a minimum nutrition programme for pregnant mothers and children under 12 (a hunger free Kerala) and    a programme for safe drinking water and clean environment for a "fly less mosquito less Kerala".

     It is implementing a WHO supported programme on women's empowerment through health education.

     It campaigns for and extends support to town and panchayath bodies for safe disposal of Municipal Solid Waste through   windrow composting and vermi composting.

 Women's Issues

Like every other movement in Kerala, unfortunately the KSSP too is male dominated. Several attempts have been made in the

past to develop women leaders, but not with much success. Out of the total membership about 20-25 % are women, and of

the leadership only less than 10% . To overcome this defect the KSSP has taken the following programmes.

 

     Women's study and leadership camps

     All women street theater groups

     Women science festivals

     Movement against atrocities towards women

 Communication  

Any "movement" involves germination and formulation of "ideas" within a small group and later widespread dissemination of

them. It demands "Large scale communication", leading to "information transfer", "attitude change" and "action initiation". The

KSSP was originally formed for a Forum of science communicators using print medium. It continues to use that medium. The

KSSP was responsible for developing a market for popular science books,  especially for children, in Kerala. It has published

more than seven hundred books till now. It is the single largest science publisher in Kerala, about 30 to 40 titles per year.

 

The KSSP uses also other print media like posters, though not in a large way.

It has a long tradition of oral medium, lecture campaigns. It organizes every now and then massive lecture campaigns on a

Variety of topics. Each campaign will result in several thousand lectures, reaching out to hundreds of thousands of persons.

 Kala Jatha

    It has developed a new theater medium using elements of street theater, epic

  theater, lectures, house visits etc.This is now known all over India as "Kala jatha" meaning "art caravan". Suffice to mention that there are today in India

   several thousand "Kala Jatha" Groups and this art form was mainly

  responsible for building up a gigantic  network of Resource Persons,

  structures, Organizers and learners in the mass campaign for literacy. The

  Members are 60 to 70 million learners and 6 - 8 million volunteers. It is the

  Contribution of the KSSP to the communication tool kit.

 Research and Development  

In order to strengthen and be effective the KSSP has to acquire, digest and transform information and skills relating to a huge range of activities. In order to help the KSSP in a systematic manner it has set up in 1987 an Integrated Rural Technology Centre with the financial support of the Government of India and Government of Kerala.

Popular science books  

Universe: an introduction

    Scientific look on the universe and its origins

In search of secrets of life

    Book dealing with life, its origins and evolution

Biography of Dr S. Chandra Sekhar

    The life of the famous Indian astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate

Power to people

    The issues of development and decentralization of power

Man and nature

    Man and his relation with his environment

Wealth of Kerala

  Resources appraisal of Kerala

 

Reference books

 

Why? Why? Why?

    Science Encyclopedia

How? How?

    Science Encyclopedia

Science Curiosities

    Science Encyclopedia

History of Science

    Science history through the biographies of famous scientists

 

Science books for children

 

Science Cream

    Set of 20 books on different scientific topics

Children Science series

    Set of 10 books

Naughty Mathematics

    Mathematics for entertainment

The book without end

    Book on nature

 

Books for popular campaigns

Man, science and society

Challenges of the patent law amendments

Globalization and India

 Monographs  

KSSP publishes monographs used as technical references for local level activists on subjects like drinking water, land and water conservation, education, energy crisis in Kerala, use of electricity, etc.

 Booklets  

KSSP also publishes pamphlets on various subjects like: alternate development, women issues, energy, education, science and society, etc.

 Monthly publications  

The KSSP also publishes three monthlies dedicated to science information:

 

  Eureka, for primary school children (has a print run of about 50,000)

  Sastrakeralam, for high school children

  Sastragathi, for college students and general public

 

For more information about KSSP's publications or to place an order

In order to provide the knowledge base to support to the wide range of its activities, KSSP has established 3 institutions with support from both state and central government : the Integrated Rural Technology Centre, the Environment Centre and the Educational Research Units. Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC) The KSSP had been involved in Research and Development (R&D) in areas relating to rural technology ever since 1980. In the early 80's, KSSP ventured into R&D in areas like low cost housing and solid waste management. It all began with a very modest attempt to develop a smokeless Chulha (oven) which is also fuel-efficient. It turned out to be a phenomenal success. Soon KSSP realized that it would be necessary to have a regular scientific research team and a regular infrastructure to organize serious R&D and decided to set up a centre for these purposes. Integrated Rural Technology Centre was born in 1987 and became an independent autonomous society in 1995.       During the past fourteen years, the IRTC has worked in the fields of environment, health, local area planning, energy, education, construction, etc. The main focus being to strengthen the people's institutions like the panchayath, with knowledge and skills.         IRTC has taken up a number of research projects in areas like Wood Burning Stoves, Energy conservation and management, small hydel investigations, solar thermal devices, electronic ballasts, pump as turbine, solid waste management, bio-methanation, low-cost construction techniques, land and water management, sustainable farming practices, panchayath resource mapping, local area planning, income generating activities for rural women, like rabbitry, mushroom culture, spawn production, aquaculture, fish seed production, as well as education regarding technology, curriculum development and management.         As an offshoot of the IRTC, the Parishad Production Centre (PPC) was created with the objective of organizing commercial production of its technological innovations like Electronic Ballast, for benefiting the Society. The Centre has conceptualized its production ensuring maximum decentralization of the production process along with centralized procurement and quality control.  Recently Samatha Production Centre has been added to the group to take care of Income Generating Activities for women, like soap making, mushroom cultivation, etc. IRTC objectives are:

• To adapt technologies known elsewhere for the people's needs
• To diffuse innovative practices and technologies
• To work out local level development plans
• To take new technologies out of its R&D institution for field trials
• To develop innovative methods and technologies in education and mass communication
• To organize and maintain libraries and to undertake the documentation of important developments in Science and Technology
• To promote human resources and skill development

Environment Centre The idea of extending KSSP's activities to environmental issues began in 1972 with United Nations International Conference on Protection of Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. The first direct involvement of KSSP in environmental protection was against the industrial pollution of a major river in Kerala, the Chaliyar river. KSSP's biggest fight so far for the protection of the environment has been for the protection of the Silent Valley, which is a protected evergreen forest with unique ecosystem and rich biodiversity. Silent Valley was threatened by a major hydro power project. KSSP's campaign raised widespread discussion regarding development and environment. The campaign put enough pressure on government and the project was abandoned. Soon it became obvious to KSSP to have a centre to lend technical support to such campaigns.  The Environment Centre was born thus. The main activities of Environment Centre are:

• To create awareness among every sections of the people regarding environmental protection.
• To raise people's resistance against activities that affect the ecosystem.
• To take up case studies of projects that affect the environment.
• To take up environmental impact assessment studies.
• To document the environmental issues of Kerala, national as well as international.
• To network with other similar organizations.
• To conduct regular awareness programs like eco-development camps for college and school students.
• To conduct summer classes to school children.
• To propagate KSSP's views regarding the environment and development.
• To workout developmental alternatives.

KSSP is not against industrial development but thinks that development should be for the people, taking care of the environment. It should be a sustainable one. Educational Research Units (ERU) ERU is a project of KSSP, operated by the IRTC.  At present it is operated from three campuses, Trivandrum, Thrissur and Kozhikode.  Its objectives include Curriculum Development, Content Analysis of Text Books, Pedagogical experiments and studies on evaluation.  It has a few full time faculty, consisting of retired teachers and academics.