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<BR><A href="http://www.aidboston.org/MedhaPatkar2009/boston.html">http://www.aidboston.org/MedhaPatkar2009/boston.html</A><BR>
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<H1 class=eventDate>Monday, March 23, 2009 </H1>
<H1 class=eventTitle>People's Movements : The State and Civil Society</H1><!-- begin speaker info -->
Speaker: Medha Patkar<BR><!-- end speaker info --><!-- begin time and location -->
Time: 10:30a–12:00p <BR>
Location: <A href="http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=54-100&mapsearch=go">54-100</A> <!-- end time and location --><!-- begin series info --><!-- end series info --><!-- begin event description -->
<P>Known and loved by millions of villagers and urban poor throughout India and the world over, Medha Patkar is the founder of the Save the Narmada Movement and the National Alliance of People's Movements. After earning an M.A. in Social Work, she worked with voluntary organizations in Bombay slums for 5 years as well as in the tribal districts of Gujarat state. She left her position on the faculty of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, as well as her unfinished Ph.D., to found an alliance with the millions of villagers who are uprooted and made homeless by the Sardar Sarovar Dam and other large dams along the Narmada River of Central India. Among India's most dynamic activists, her uncompromising insistence on the right to life and livelihood has compelled the post-Independence generation in India and around the world to revisit the basic questions of natural resources, human rights, environment, and development. Despite many police beatings and jail terms, she continues to believe in the inherent goodness of people and the democratic system. She has served as a Commissioner to the World Commission on Dams, the first independent global Commission constituted to inquire on the water, power and alternative issues, related to dams, across the world.<BR><!-- end event description --><!-- Begin URL -->
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<DIV class=infourl>Web site: <A id=website href="http://www.aidboston.org/MedhaPatkar2009/boston.html"><FONT color=#810081>http://www.aidboston.org/MedhaPatkar2009/boston.html</FONT></A></DIV>
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Open to: the general public <BR><!-- end open to --><!-- begin cost --><!-- end cost --><!-- begin tickets --><!-- end tickets --><!-- End Venue Information --><!-- begin recurrance information --><!-- End Recurrence Info --><!-- begin sponsor info -->
<!--sponsors-->Sponsor(s): Association for India's Development - MIT, The South Asia Forum at MIT<BR><!-- end sponsor info --><!--More INformation -->
For more information, contact:<BR>Nikhil Mittal<BR>857 928 5463<BR>nmittal@mit.edu <BR><br /><hr />Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. <a href='http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_70faster_032009' target='_new'>Find out more.</a></body>
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