As we enter the period of the hottest season, I need to report what we have done in the 40+ temperatures of Bihar! If we have managed to build up a new, well-organised state-level movement in a very short time, it is in the state of Bihar, thanks to Science for Society, Bihar and its well-organised structure. Though one of the earliest executive committee meetings of FIRA was held at Patna, the activity in that state had been zero until we got our links with Science for Society, Bihar—and that was by accident.

In Bihar in 2003, if I am right, there was a public function organised by the MP of Nawada, Sanjay Paswan, who was also the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Govt. of India. He had honoured some tantriks because he felt that they had divine powers using which they could do miraculous things like holding snakes, walking on fire, swallowing fire, etc. Enraged by this, the director of the Patna Planetarium had invited Premanand to conduct a training program there, which he did very successfully. During that, Prof. Verma had met Premanand and asked him to conduct training camps for his organisation for the Year of Scientific Awareness, which was to be held in the year 2004. That training camp was held in June 2004, and with that started our relationship with this organisation, Science for Society, Bihar. I have gone on many tours of Bihar afterwards, sponsored by various organisations and also on my own. We have managed a network of contacts in almost every district through the units of Science for Society, Bihar, and have also built up the same in Jharkhand with their unit in that state. Now, we are planning to have an organisation for the promotion of rationalism in Bihar with branches in all districts. That may materialise within a year or so. We could start with Uttar Pradesh after that.

Why Bihar and Uttar Pradesh? These two are the most backward states in India. The infant mortality rates are quite shocking. The superstitions are appalling, and no social-political movement seems to be bothering about it. The main reason for this is the mindset of the people, which makes them believe that these things are predestined! I was reading an interview with Melinda Gates of the Bill Gates Foundation about these two states. This foundation would like to bring about a paradigmatic change in the thinking of the people in these two states. To get out of these mindsets is possible only if the people can be persuaded to change their very outlook, and I do think that our activities are the best ways to do that. We are exploring the possibilities of tie-ups with them to do that. We are given to understand that this foundation usually works through governmental agencies, and we have been collaborating with quite a few of them in developing scientific temper. However, that may be wishful thinking! But we are taking concrete steps in this direction. We have been conducting quite a few training programs in Bihar and have now lined up some young activists. In the month of April, we have had three training programs in which three people from each of the districts of the state have been taken and given a five-day orientation on inculcating scientific temper among the people, concentrating on the younger generation. In the month of June, we have been invited for three such programs in Uttar Pradesh—in Lucknow, Bareilly, and Moradabad. The details of these will soon be available. We are also planning three more in the state of Bihar.

We have plans to call a meeting of interested groups in North India. The movement needs to be developed in the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh (the BIMARU states, as they are usually called). The eastern states of Jharkhand and Odisha too need our attention, as the superstitions there are quite appalling and life-threatening. In Karnataka, we have made a beginning by calling a state-level conference at Bangalore in March. We are now planning divisional conferences at Dharwad and Gulbarga, and district-level conferences at Mysore and Kodagu. In these days of the onslaught of superstitions in the media, an aggressive counter-campaign is needed by us to promote scientific temper.

We have training programs lined up at Bangalore and Vijayawada this month. The Bangalore one is being organised by the Science Society, while the Vijayawada one is by the Atheist Centre. There is a one-day interaction at the Science Museum, Chennai, being organised by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of Tamil Nadu. These were called miracle exposure workshops, but now we call them workshops on developing scientific temper, and we have also included many topics which are superstitions but cannot be called miracles. These have become quite popular among activists of our movement, and we need many activists to become trainers and start the chain reaction needed to sustain a movement on a larger scale. I am sorry to say that we have not made the sort of progress that should have been made. That may be due to a variety of reasons, but unless the movement grows stronger, our objectives will not be achieved at all. It is for all of us to introspect about that and bring about the much-needed changes in our ways of thinking.