IASSI Quarterly
Year : 2005, Volume : 24, Issue : 1
First page : ( 5) Last page : ( 23)
Print ISSN : 0970-9061.

Policy needs for making social sciences relevant and purposeful: (IASSI in house note)

Prologue

In one meeting of the Executive Committee of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions Late Prof. Ramlal Parikh, then Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith, urged the Association to work for getting a Social Science Policy Statement issued by Government. His suggestion arose from his feeling that the state of social science activity in the country was in a deplorable state and needed very strong support of Government for making it relevant, useful and purposeful. He illustrated in support for his suggestion the advances which the area of national science recorded after the adoption of the Science Policy resolution by Government immediately after independence.

The IASSI accepted the suggestion as part of its agenda of action. A colloquium on the subject was organized for discussion about the nuances of the issue. Among others, the colloquium suggested that the IASSI should evolve, through discussions in all parts of the country, (i) what should be the content of such a policy statement, (ii) how policies in this area could benefit society and (iii) what instrument would need to be formed for giving effect to the policies and present the ideas in the form of a memorandum to Government, holding out same as the collective suggestion of the community of social scientists in the country.

A number of seminars, workshops and other forms of meets were organized by the IASSI accordingly. Those were held all over the country and many social scientists participated in the discussions keeping in view the direction provided by the initial colloquium. Drafts of the memorandum to be submitted to Government and of the policy statement which the community of social scientists would like Government to consider have also been produced. The IASSI is now working for giving a final touch to the documents in a workshop.

The present paper summarizes the discussions at all the fora as a basis for the forthcoming workshop.

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