2009

Report of National Seminar on
Peace for Sustainable Development
22nd February 2009, New Delhi.

The Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) called for an end to culture of violence of all kinds so as to achieve sustainable development. Violence of any kind is a serious threat to the health of society and causes more diseases and infirmity than any other causes combined. Therefore it is the responsibility of health professionals to come forward to campaign against it. It affects development process by diverting finances towards arms race. Nuclear weapons have added manifold seriousness to the issue as these can cause very extinction of life on earth. These were the points that emerged out of discussion at a National seminar on PEACE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT organized by the IDPD at the India International Centre Annexe, New Delhi on 22nd February 2009. Seminar was attended by doctors and medical students from 14 different states of the country.

Speaking on the Challenge of Global Terrorism, Dr Ajay Patnaik, Professor of Russian and Central Asian Studies at School of International Studies Jawahar Lal Nehru University cautioned that though terrorism of all kinds is a threat to the civil society, the war on terror unleashed by the US is a farce and aimed at achieving its control over natural reserves in south Asia and central Asia. This will add to the terrorist violence by the non state groups. Terrorism should not be equated with any religious or ethnic group. Increasing unemployment and drug addiction provides fertile ground to the fundamentalists to recruit youth in the movement, who try to impose their ideology and diktat through violent means. Referring to the Taliban he said that they are out to distort the basic tenets of Islam. They are forcing women to stay indoors and loose their identity. Any terrorist violence thus creates incoherence in the society. The left extreme violence is a result of lack of basic life support system to the people. Terrorism by the states, like in Iraq by the US or Gaza by the Israelis is even worse as it is an effort to subjugate the whole society or a nation. To check the proliferation of terrorism, basic needs of the society like education, health, food security, employment and over all development have to be looked into seriously.

Dr.S.S.Soodan, Medical Director Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences making presentation on Strategies for lasting peace in Indian Subcontinent highlighted the role of IDPD in defusing tension in the J & K and between India and Pakistan and suggested the need for more people to people exchange between India and Pakistan and continuation of dialogue. Democracy in Pakistan is still in a very fragile state. Strengthening of this will be step forward toward reducing tension in South Asia. The situation in Sri Lanka is also a cause of concern. The Tamil Civilians must be protected.

Dr Shakeel Ur Rahman, Secretary IDPD in his presentation on Is Nuclear Power a sustainable option for Energy Security? said that nuclear energy is neither safe nor economical and is no solution to the energy security. It has serious consequences on health at every step right from mining to the utilization of radioactive resources. The technology for producing electricity through nuclear power or making nuclear weapons is same. Therefore it always carries a threat of nuclear weaponisation.

Participating in the panel discussion, Maj Gen (Retd) Vinod Saighal said that the arms race affects ecology and causes serious climate change. If immediate measures are not taken by the society and the governments, the situation on earth could be havoc in another 20-30 years to come. The world expects the Obama regime in the US to cut down expenditure on arms race particularly the programme of weaponisation of space. He went ahead to say that there is a need for the international community to view the 9/11 attack on world trade centre from a different perspective. The events at that time are a pointer to that the fundamentalists in Afghanistan did not require to indulge in this act. It appears that those made victims for this crime are not the perpetrators.

Prof Kalim Bahadur (Retd.), School of International studies JNU, said that India and Pakistan have to shed mistrust on each other. Unfortunately the 26/11 incident has worsened the relationship between the two countries. The dialogue must continue he said.

Shri Anil Chaudhary, convener of Coalition for Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) said that we should pay more attention to the renewable resources of energy. The nuclear energy in any way is no good for the differences in base load and peak load of electricity. It can only serve the base load that too at a high cost. Absence of any mechanism top dump the nuclear waste safely makes the things worse. Any addition to the nuclear energy resources will add to the power to produce nuclear weapons which could be disastrous.

Many students also participated in the discussion. Ms.Tanvi from Pune spoke on the effect on nuclear explosion on human life and environment. Ms.Soumya said that evidence points to that the 9/11 World Trade Centre event was preplanned by some US agencies. Ms Laluva and Mr.Rajesh Patil from D Y Patil Medical Colege, Dental College and Nasik Medical College. Students from D Y Patil Dental College gave a presentation on the visit of Dr.Tilman Ruff from MAPW Australia to their institution at Pune.

Other who actively participated in the seminar and the interactive session include Dr.Jeetendra Singh, Dr.Ankita Chaudhary, Dr.Usha Shrivastav, Dr.Rajesh Garg, Dr.Nilima Pathak, Dr.Anil Pathak and Dr.Ananda Naidu.

The seminar decided to step up campaign for complete nuclear disarmament, stoppage of arms race, launch campaign against communalism, organize health awareness camps and also put forward proposals for a people oriented national health policy. On the proposal by Sh.Anil Chaudhary it was decided to coordinate with the CNDP and other likeminded organizations to educate the public on hazardous effects of radioactive radiations. The seminar was chaired by Dr.N.S Bawa,Dr S S Soodan and Dr.Satyajit Kumar Singh and compeered by Dr.Arun Mitra.