The March for Science, organised since 2017 in hundreds of cities and towns around the world, including India, voices the aspirations of scientists, researchers, science communicators, students, and the science-loving people at large, for a society that supports unhindered progress of science, promotes scientific temper as the basis of thinking and takes adequate measures to avoid a climate and environmental catastrophe. The scientific community came out of their workplaces and took to the streets because there was a general perception that science was increasingly under attack. Funding for scientific research is drying up, unscientific ideas are being propagated, and governments have been consistently ignoring scientific advice, especially in matters concerning protecting the planet Earth.
Global warming and climate change are now evidenced by extreme weather conditions, frequent floods and droughts, landslides and mudslides, disappearing ice cover, rising sea levels, destabilised ecosystems, and mass extinctions. Yet, apart from summit meetings, debates and discussions, no concrete, tangible action is in sight, as national leaders’ priority seems to be protecting the business interests of the respective countries. In India, we see rampant deforestation, depletion of groundwater, pollution of rivers and water bodies, and handing over vast tracts of forest land to corporates in the name of ‘development’.
Scientific temper is coming under severe attack in our country as various shades of obscurantist and pseudoscientific ideas are being spread. Such ideas no longer remain matters of individual belief as these are finding a place in courses introduced in the name of Indian Knowledge Systems as a part of the New Education Policy 2020. Last year, the central government-run NCERT dropped several topics from the school syllabus, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendeleev’s periodic table, and even chapters on human rights and democracy. Unfortunately, none of these vital topics have been reintroduced despite the storm of nationwide protests. These changes would create obstacles to developing rational and democratic minds among students.
Education and research have long been underfunded in our country, and the allocation continues to decline every year. While most developed and developing countries spend 2.8 to 3.5 per cent of GDP on science and technology research, India spends less than 0.8%. In the budgets presented after the adoption of NEP 2020, the government’s commitment to education and research is at rock bottom. The total allocation for the education sector in the financial year 2023-24 was only 2.5% of the total budget. The expenditure in the science and technology sector has also been reduced, and educational institutions are being asked to manage by increasing student fees.
In a drastic change to the science funding system, Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) has been formed, which will henceforth be the primary source of financing scientific and technological research. The top-heavy administrative structure constituted for the ANRF, starting from the Prime Minister as the chairman of the governing body to secretaries of various government departments as members, signals poorly about its autonomous status. The involvement of scientists and engineers in making decisions concerning the direction of research and support is essential.
Entry to research and medical education has been brought under central control through the NET and NEET exams, and the freedom of universities and institutions to set their own criteria for admission has been curtailed. The pitfalls of such centralised control on critical sectors of education and research have been glaringly demonstrated by the exposure of rampant corruption in these instruments of centralisation. As per the federal structure envisaged in our constitution, control of state institutions must remain with the states instead of being centralised.
In spite of our appeals to the Central Government over the past few years to pay attention to the serious problems in the R&D, education, health, environment, promotion of scientific temper and many other critical sectors, very little has been done. In this situation, we request the scientific community to participate in the ‘India March for Science’ in different cities of the country through various programs to raise the following demands:
- Take effective measures to counter the impending climate crisis and environmental degradation and protect people from adverse impacts. Enact policies based on scientific evidence.
- Stop the propagation of unscientific and obscurantist ideas, and develop a scientific temper in conformity with Article 51A of the Constitution.
- Stop introducing irrational ideas in educational curricula and ensure that the education system does not impart ideas that contradict evidence.
- Allocate at least 10% of the Central Budget and 30% of the State budgets to education; reduce student fees in all educational institutions.
- Spend at least 3% of the country’s GDP on scientific, technological, and social science research.
- Repeal the decision to drop Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendeleev’s periodic table, etc., from the school syllabi.
- Scrap the centralisation of admission and research-support systems.
Signatories
- Prof S G Dani, former Professor, TIFR and former President of, National Board for Higher Mathematics
- Prof S Mahadevan, former Professor, Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, IISc Bengaluru
- Prof Amitava Datta, former Professor of Physics, Jadavpur University and IISER Kolkata
- Prof C P Rajendran, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru
- Prof S C Lakhotia, Banaras Hindu University
- Prof S Marla, former Principal Scientist, ICAR- National Bureau of Plant Genomic Resources, Delhi
- Prof Sudeshna Sinha, IISER Mohali
- Prof Aniket Sule, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai
- Prof Prajval Shastri, former Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics
- Prof R Ramanujam, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
- Dr Anil Jagalur, Senior Consultant at LexOrbis, Bengaluru.
- Prof Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru
- Pappootty K, Malayalam science writer
- Prof B M Arora, IIT Bombay
- Dr D Zarena, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Anantapur, AP
- Prof Guruprasad Kar, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
- Dr R V Subba Rao, former scientist, IGCAR Kalpakam
- Prof Probal Choudhury, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
- Prof Palash Baran Pal, science writer and former Professor, at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
- S.Thangasamy, former scientist, Dept of Atomic Energy
- Prof K N Jha, former Principal, Govt. Polytechnic College, Ashoknagar, MP
- Prof Deb Shankar Ray, former Professor, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
- Prof. Debashis Mukherjee, former Director, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
- Prof Ayan Banerjee, IISER Kolkata
- Prof Anindita Bhadra, IISER Kolkata
- Dr Ansuman Lahiri, Professor, Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics, Calcutta University
- Dr Sanatan Chattopadhyay, Professor, Department of Electronic Science, Calcutta University
- Dr Anirban Kundu, Professor, Department of Physics, Calcutta University
- Dr Deepsikha Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Calcutta University
- Dr Kaushik Ganguly, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Calcutta University