The words of PK Das, an organiser of the World Social Forum (WSF), explained in sum the idea behind their campaign ‘Another World is Possible’.

WSF, a forum which encourages social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organisation to come together to share ideas and experiences on human rights, kicked of the Global Week of Action and Mobilisation on Tuesday with week-long programmes and meetings.

On Tuesday, the World Social Forum screened a film ‘Palestine is still the issue’, a documentary on the Palestinian struggle at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh, CST.

Speaking at a conference, presided by Pakistani journalist Hussain Naqi, Datta Ishwalkar and Meena Menon among other social activists, Das said, “India wants to be Shanghai. We celebrate economic growth, keep our eyes peeled on the stock market and every inch of land is seeing developments. Hospitals and schools are coming up but the irony is all these services are becoming inaccessible to more and more people.”

Pointing at the double standards that exists in the society, Das asked, “What is point of such development when a majority of people can’t access its benefits?”

Naqi, who has in the past put up a fight for the people’s growth said, “We pay high taxes. But only 5 percent of the government exchequer trickles down to us as benefits. On the contrary millions are spent in the country’s defence — this is the case every where.”