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Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva to address seminar

A P Kamath

Some of the biggest names in the alternative development movements will address a one-day seminar in Chicago next month. The event, Called 'Sustainable Development: Challenges & Promises', is being organized by the India Development Service on March 25 at the Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park.

Among the speakers is Satish Kumar, who gave up being a monk after meeting with the Mahatma and joined the Sarvodaya movement. Now settled in England, he heads the Schumacher College and has authored several articles on Gandhian way of life. The successor to 'Small Is Beautiful' guru Schumacher, Satish Kumar edits The Resurgence magazine.

His emphasis is to bring the message of individual responsibility for sustainable development along Gandhian philosophy. His autobiography, Path With No Destination, has received favorable reviews. The book was published in America about a year ago. His analysis of Gandhian principles and their relevance in our lives will be the subject of his talk.

Vandana Shiva, an ecologist, a feminist, a physicist and a social justice campaigner, is the recipient of 'The Right Livelihood Award', known as 'The Alternate Nobel Prize'. She is the founder and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India. Shiva has been campaigning on bio-safety, and on the issue of genetic engineering.

M C Mehta is an environmental lawyer whose main message has been to raise awareness about the importance of environmental issues in India. Mehta is also a member of the National Environment Council in India. He is also a recipient of Ramon Magsaysay and UNEP Global 500 Award.

Mehta will talk about the problems of environmental degradation in India and his work as a public interest litigation lawyer.

Dr Debashis Banerjee was a professor and head of the department of botany at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University until 1993 when he was inspired by Baba Amte's work for the tribal poor. Currently he is the director of the Baba Amte Centre for People's Empowerment. His work has been in bio-diversity conservation and in agricultural improvement.

Banerjee will address us on agriculture/water resource management in sustainable development.

Nathaneal Goldberg, the chief of the Staff at the Microcredit Summit in Washington DC, is very active in promoting Micro credit work globally with an aim to reach 100 million poor families in the world to improve their lives by providing them access to credit by year 2005.

Goldberg will talk about the role of empowered women in local community development.

For more information, contact Nila Vora at 630.637.9301, nilavora@pol.net or Anita Sinha at 847.475.1806, anisinh@aol.com.

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