The Wide-Ranging Activities of People Science Movements

When most people think of science, they picture laboratories, universities, and expert researchers. But in India, science has long had another home – the streets, villages, schools, and community halls where People Science Movements (PSMs) do their work. PSMs are grassroots organizations that aim to bring scientific knowledge and rational thinking to ordinary people, especially those in rural and marginalized communities. What makes them remarkable is not just their mission, but the sheer range of activities through which they pursue it – from staging street plays and writing children’s books to pushing back against harmful drug policies and developing renewable energy technologies. This post breaks down the four major categories of PSM activity and the real-world impact they have generated.

Science communication: taking knowledge to the people 🔗

The most visible work of PSMs has always been communication – getting science out of academic institutions and into everyday life. PSM communication activities include popular science lectures, science publications, street plays, and school science programs. Cultural art forms play a central role: the Kala Jatha – or “Art Caravan” – is a travelling cultural troupe format pioneered by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) that uses music, dance, and theatre to reach village populations who might never pick up a science textbook.

PSMs have evolved from early linear models of one-way science dissemination to richer, two-way exchanges with communities, drawing on puppetry, theatre, literature, and other cultural forms alongside more conventional educational approaches. This shift reflects an understanding that meaningful science communication isn’t just about transmitting facts – it requires dialogue, cultural relevance, and community participation.

Science for children 🔗

A major focus of PSM communication efforts is children. PSM organizations reach young people through children’s science festivals, quiz contests, science tours, and dedicated science books. KSSP, for example, publishes three separate periodicals for different age groups: Shastragati for general audiences, Shastrakeralam for high school students, and Eureka, a bilingual magazine aimed at primary school children that uses games and songs to nurture scientific curiosity. KSSP is India’s largest science publisher, having produced over 1,200 books with 30-40 new titles added each year. Their books are often sold door-to-door, turning fundraising itself into a form of science outreach.

Fighting superstition through reason 🔗

A persistent thread running through PSM communication work is the fight against superstition. In its early years, the PSM focused on explaining complex phenomena in everyday language and countering superstitious beliefs that attributed disease, death, and disaster to witchcraft. This work continues today. The Haryana Vigyan Manch, for instance, has made anti-superstition campaigning one of its core sustained activities, using public demonstrations and educational programs to replace fear-based beliefs with evidence-based understanding. PSMs explicitly identify two opposing forces: godmen who use supernatural beliefs to control the poor, and a development model that enriches the few at the expense of the majority.

Policy critiques: giving communities a voice in decisions 🔗

Beyond public education, PSMs engage directly with policymakers and institutions. The underlying logic is straightforward: a critical understanding of development policies empowers people’s organizations to intervene in decision-making processes. PSMs don’t just raise awareness – they analyze, critique, and push for alternatives.

Working groups made up of domain experts, social scientists, and science activists prepare detailed critiques of policies and articulate concrete alternatives. These are backed up by alliances with other democratic movements, lobbying with legislators and administrators, and organized public agitation. One prominent example is the “Save the Girl Child” campaign, which PSMs led in coalition with women’s rights activists and health advocates – a campaign that was subsequently adopted as a formal government program.

Science and technology policy 🔗

PSMs have also been particularly active in shaping science and technology (S&T) policy itself. The All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) played a significant role in mobilizing opposition to the introduction of genetically modified crops, and a parliamentary committee imposed a moratorium in 2012 following widespread protests in which AIPSN participated. This shows that grassroots science movements can influence high-stakes national policy debates – not just through street campaigns but through sustained, evidence-based engagement with legislative processes.

KSSP has widened its scope of policy engagement to include women’s rights, national integration, consumer protection, and resource planning and management at the local level. These aren’t tangential concerns – they are areas where science-based decision-making directly affects people’s lives, and where PSMs argue that communities have a right to participate meaningfully.

Development interventions: addressing real-world needs 🔗

PSM development work moves from awareness to action. Rather than simply educating communities about problems, PSMs design and implement practical solutions. PSMs have built pilot models in areas such as literacy, health, agriculture, credit cooperatives, watershed development, local planning, and promotion of small enterprises – all aimed at giving communities the tools to improve their own conditions.

Health interventions 🔗

Health has been one of the most active areas of PSM intervention. PSM health work has resulted in the withdrawal of hazardous drugs from the market and the initiation of legal action against others. Groups have also engaged in health education at the community level and participated in decentralized health planning – pushing decision-making about local health needs down to the communities most affected. The Medico-Friend Circle (MFC), a nationwide group of socially conscious health workers active since 1974, is a prominent example of this, critically analyzing India’s existing healthcare system and working to develop more humane, needs-based alternatives.

Organizations like the Tamil Nadu Science Forum (TNSF) have trained village women to use health information effectively and have engaged in income-generation projects alongside their health education work. The underlying philosophy is that health is inseparable from social and economic conditions, and that communities cannot benefit from health information unless they also have the material security to act on it.

Environment and ecology 🔗

PSMs have consistently linked development concerns to environmental ones. KSSP has been involved in building sustainable development models, campaigning for decentralized governance, and initiating local field experiments in environmental management. Its campaigns against pollution from the Gwalior Rayon Factory at Mavoor and against the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project brought it national prominence, demonstrating that PSMs are willing to challenge powerful industrial and state actors when environmental and community interests are at stake.

Half a million homes in Kerala have installed KSSP-designed high-efficiency wood-burning stoves, saving an estimated 0.6-0.8 million tonnes of firewood per year. KSSP has also worked with local governments to install small-scale hydroelectric stations and to replace conventional light bulbs with energy-efficient alternatives. These are not symbolic gestures – they represent tangible, measurable environmental and economic benefits at the household level.

Technology development: appropriate solutions for ordinary people 🔗

One of the more distinctive aspects of PSM activity is their engagement in developing and promoting technologies suited to the needs of ordinary people – particularly those in rural areas. PSM organizations have focused on people-oriented alternative technologies that are less capital-intensive and that empower workers, craftsmen, and artisans. This is a direct challenge to the dominant assumption that technological progress means large-scale, capital-heavy industrialization.

Specific examples of PSM technology initiatives include wireless telecommunications for local loops, village information software, biomass-based alternatives to cement in civil construction, windmills and biomass energy systems, non-chemical inputs to boost agricultural productivity, improved small-scale mechanized looms, small-scale oil presses and food processing units, and mechanized blacksmithry. These are not high-tech solutions designed in distant laboratories – they are practical tools developed with and for communities, designed to be locally maintainable and economically accessible.

KSSP’s Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC) is the research wing behind many of these innovations, including a portable biogas plant and the energy-saving “hot box” – an insulated cooking device that conserves fuel by maintaining temperature without additional heating. These products are distributed and marketed through KSSP’s local units, keeping the economic benefits within communities rather than channeling them to outside enterprises.

Achievements and lasting influence 🔗

The cumulative impact of PSM activities across these four domains has been substantial. KSSP played a significant role in Kerala becoming a fully literate state by 1991, and has contributed to the state’s notably high human development indicators despite relatively low income levels. The AIPSN reached 60,000 villages through its partnership with the National Literacy Mission in the late 1980s and early 1990s – an unprecedented mobilization through which thousands of activists, teachers, and students spread across the country to promote literacy and scientific thinking.

PSMs have also demonstrated lasting influence in education policy. Many of KSSP’s educational experiments – initially conducted outside formal structures – have gradually been mainstreamed into the official education system. Science clubs, science fairs, and child-centered learning approaches that PSMs pioneered are now standard features of school education in several Indian states.

PSMs have moved from simply disseminating scientific information to actively involving communities in advocacy, policy discussions, and interventions on science-related development issues. In doing so, they have built a model that is increasingly relevant as the adverse effects of economic liberalization fall disproportionately on the poor – a model that insists science must serve people, not just power.

What do you think? PSMs have shown that science communication and community development can be deeply intertwined – but they often operate with limited resources against powerful political and economic interests. Do you think grassroots science movements can sustain this kind of influence in an era of rapid technological change and growing misinformation? And should formal scientific institutions do more to support and collaborate with movements like PSMs, rather than leaving this work entirely to voluntary organizations?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_science_movement
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4. https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/kerala-sastra-sahitya/
5. https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-73-peoples-science-movement-karnataka-india/
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10. https://issuu.com/wiprofoundation/docs/samuhik_pahal_vol_3_issue_2/s/17662993