People's Science Movements

The contributions of People’s Science Movements (PSMs) in India for the creation of ‘alternative’ technologies and forms of organization are best known through the work of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), a state-wide active PSM group (to be introduced later), but are much broader. Academic writings focus on the state-wide introduction of decentralized people’s planning, diffusion of fuel-efficient smokeless cook stoves and hot cases for food storage, mass installation of biogas, promotion of micro-hydro systems and electronic chokes, and the establishment of Kudumbashree (women’s self-help groups) and labour collectives in the southern Indian state of Kerala (Chathukulam and John, 2002; Chattopadhyay and Franke, 2006; Franke and Chasin, 1997; Parayil, 1992; Prasad, 2001; Zachariah and Sooryamoorthy, 1994).