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India marches for science

Dunya News

Thousands of people attended the marches demanding more investment in science. Photo: Al Jazeera

(Web Desk) - Inspired by the global March for Science that was organised earlier this year, Indians held rallies in more than 20 cities across the country for the promotion of science and technology.

According to Al Jazeera, thousands of Indian scientists and their supporters marched across the country on Wednesday. The marchers demanded that the government invest more in science and promoted scientific work.

While the rallies attracted thousands of people Meena Kharamtal, one of the rally organisers in Mumbai said that the march was "not a protest," and was for science.

Other than demanding the general promotion of science and technology the rally organisers said that they specifically wanted the government to increase the budget for scientific and technological research to at least three percent of the GDP, a far higher amount than the 0.8 percent of the GDP that India generally spends on research and development according to data reports released by the World Bank.

Commenting on the situation Anindita Brahma, a research associate at the Indian Institute of Science, stated that funding for "basic science in India is facing a grave situation,”

Another scientist, Deepak Modi from Mumbai, bluntly told that India’s current expenditure on research and development was "way smaller than anything needed to make any kind of breakthrough in science".

Scientists said that the government should give more funding to research. Photo Courtesy: Al Jazeera

When Modi had become Prime Minister many Indians had been hopeful that the country’s research situation was about to improve. Modi had emphasised the importance of scientific research and had personally stated at the Indian Science Congress that "If we want science to deliver, we must not constrain it”. He had also claimed that by 2030 India would have become one of the top three countries in science and technology.

However, many who attended Wednesday’s rallies said that the government had failed to turn its words into action. Brahma ,the research assistant said that the main issue was funding.

"Although the government expects us to achieve groundbreaking discoveries, it fails to realise that the basic necessity is infrastructure, which requires sufficient funding," Brahma stated as he attended the march in Bangalore.

Other than the demands for increased funding and recognition the rally organisers also called for an end to "propagation of unscientific, obscurantist ideas and religious intolerance" and more strict implementation of Article 51 A of the Indian Constitution (the article states that it is the duty of every citizen of India to "develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform").

While it is still unclear whether the rallies will result in any sort of change in government policy it cannot be argued that the public response to the movement was highly supportive both on social media and offline.

India’s March for Science has drawn its inspiration from the global scientific march that took place on Earth Day in April.
 

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