Science for common man during the pandemic: A success story from Kerala, India

Desciption

Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad is a People’s Science Movement of Kerala, India. Founded in 1962.Over the past five decades it has grown into a massive people’s science movement, with a membership over 50000, distributed in more than 1200 units spread all over Kerala.Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) literally means The Kerala Forum for Science Literature. In fact it was founded as a forum of science writers with the limited objective of publishing science literature in Malayalam, the local language, and popularizing science. KSSP became convinced that at present a privileged minority was monopolizing the benefits of science and technology, and it results in their enrichment, at the expense of the majority. KSSP chose as its mission, the challenge of arming the people with the tools of science and technology so that the underprivileged sections of the society attain better living conditions. Thus in 1972, KSSP decided to become a People’s Science Movement and adopted “Science for Social Revolution” as its motto.Over these years, it has also expanded its fields of interests and activities to almost all fields of human endeavor. The KSSP is involved in activities in various areas like environment, health, education, energy, literacy, micro planning and development in general.KSSP bagged the Right Livelihood Award in 1996 “for its major contribution to a model of development rooted in social justice and popular participation.” KSSP is regularly publishing three print magazines to popularise science among common people in addition to its online popular science magazine Luca. KSSP has also published over a thousand book titles in popular science and allied subjects including Ecology, Gender, Scientific history and so on.