Environment
Support Group ®
S-3, Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main
Road, S. R. K. Gardens,
Jayanagar, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560
041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977/6531339 Fax:
91-80-6918051 (PP)
Email: [email protected]n Website: http://www.altindia.net/esg/index.htm
Environment Support Group and the
International Honors Programme
“Cities in the 21st
Century” India Programme
21st February 2002
Environment Support
Group (ESG) in association with Arunodaya Poirada of Hospet has over the past
month organised a very unique academic programme involving 36 students and
faculty from some of the best universities in the United States. The learning community has lived in the
cities of Chennai and Bangalore for about a month now, including with host
families, in appreciating the dynamics of Indian cities as part of the “Cities
in the 21st Century” course of the International Honors Programme, offered
in collaboration with Bard College, Boston, USA.
Now in its fourth
year, the International Honors Program
(IHP) on Cities in the 21st Century combines an innovative urban
studies academic curriculum with field experiences and interactions. As part of the programme, students travel to
cities in India, Brazil and South Africa and ESG is collaborating with IHP for
the India segment of the programme. The
overall goal of the “Cities in the 21st Century” programme is to
learn how to “read” a city. The programme
ends in Boston, when students present their findings and recommendations to a
panel selected from a number of urban academics, activists, and planners.
ESG and Arunodaya
Poirada are independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisations involved in
research, training, campaign support, and advocacy on a variety of
environmental, social, rural development and economic justice issues. Together the organizations are pleased to
have the opportunity to coordinate the India Programme of “Cities in the 21st
Century” and sought to expose students to several aspects of life in Bangalore
and Chennai. In order to gain a
holistic view of life in Bangalore, students have been exposed to various
sections of society, from Bangalore’s IT sector, to urban slums and, villages
around Bangalore and Mysore.
IHP students and
faculty met with top executives at Wipro and Sasken, two leading IT companies
based in Bangalore and discussed their corporate visions, human resource
practices, community work programmes and marketing strategies. The organisers appreciated the time spent by
both companies in presenting and discussing Bangalore’s IT sector with the IHP
learning community. The programme
exposed them to the living conditions in Lakshman Rao Nagar slum, in contrasting
with the lifestyles enjoyed in National Games Township and Koramangala.
The highlight of the
programme for students appears to have been the 2 days and 2 nights spent in
various villages near Bangalore and Mysore.
Students stayed in Ravugudlu, Kokarebelur and Mahadevapura, the aim
being to interact with villagers and gain a small sense of rural life around
Bangalore and Mysore. They also wanted
to gain an understanding of how massive infrastructure projects such as the
Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) affect rural areas and
those whose livelihoods are linked intricately with the land. The group staying in Mahadevapura in
particular, discussed the BMICP issue in great detail with villagers as 50% of
the families in this village are likely to lose their land.
Apart from field
trips where they gained first-hand experience, students have been interacting
with leading professionals, discussing issues such as women’s rights and human
rights, Chennai’s and Bangalore’s heritage, the history of urban planning in
the two cities, current Government agenda items such as the BMICP, the nexus
between Government and industry, industrial toxic waste dumping, and urban
solid and effluent management.
Such interactions
have, it is hoped, provided an appreciation of the environmental limits to
Chennai’s and Bangalore’s growth, what makes cities work, how policy decisions
are made and in whose interest, and how the various aspects of city systems
function separately and as an integrated whole.
For more details
about the programme please visit IHP’s website — www.ihp.edu
Leo F. Saldanha Prof. Dave Johnson Bhargavi Rao, Jason Fernandes,
Nagini Prasad
Coordinator For Faculty – IHP Programme Facilitators
“Cities in the 21st Century” India Programme