1. Reaching the unreached: Empowering women through knowledge centres Subbiah Arunachalam Member, ExCom, GKP and Distnguished Fellow M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India 600 113 World Conference of Science Journalists Subbiah Arunachalam, GKP Ambassador 16-20 April 2007, Melbourne, Australia

2. All of you science journalists try to communicate developments in science through the media – print, broadcast, TV, film, blog – to the lay public. At MSSRF we work very closely with the people. While they could eventually become part of your audience, at the moment their concerns are much more basic. And we use science-based knowledge to help them transform their lives. Also for most of us gender concerns largely mean issues relating to equality for women in education, employment, household responsibilities, participation in political and economic activities and so on. The women I will be talking about have much more basic concerns.

4. How do we make development inclusive? How do we get rid of poverty and disease? How can we ensure that the benefits of science and technology percolate to the people at the bottom of the pyramid?

7. Rural families are ready to subscribe to a cable TV service, even though they are poor. People are ready to adopt technologies if they see some value.

8. Reaching the unreached: Empowering rural women through knowledge centres THANK YOU