Contents

1. Highlights
2. Selection Procedure
3. Summary of each LSS with assessment of program design
4. Objective and subjective feedback from participants
5. Key Highlights of each seminar
6. Resources mobilised
7. Analysis on action plans made by participants & follow up
8. Specific Case Studies
9. Participants interface with the society
10. Monitoring & Impact Assessment System Revised (Benchmarks)

Highlights

Selection Procedure

Students applied through the application form. This year we added two new questions in the application form - one on the reason for applying for the seminar and second on the issues closest to them and its probable causes and solutions. The objective was to analyse their critical skills on the socio-economic-political issues.

The top 45 applicants were short listed on the basis of fifteen-point scale on the basis of academic performance; reason for applying for LSS, extra-curricular activities ,one 500-word essay and one issue based essay. Though 35 students were only selected for attending the seminar with objective of increasing the interactions, discussions both between the faculty and the participants.

Summary of each LSS with assessment of program design

This section would reflect firstly on the structure of the seminar and than would reflect on the sessions which would give a summary of all the common sessions covered in the seminar. That section would also cover the changing pattern of some sessions throughout the year.

The last of the section speaks about various stereotypes that get broken during LSSs sessions and the objective and subjective feedback of participants on the sessions.

Structure

Majority of the sessions at LSS are common across cities. The objective is to set a curriculum for the LSS which is followed in all the seminars.  In 2006, the LSS design had seen changes not only in the overall approach but as well as internal session designs.  The focus was more on holistic— me, society and Public Policy.

Table 2: Change in session design: More group activities & Interactive Discussions

Tools	2005 (out of average 19 sessions,8 seminars)	2006  (out of average 19 sessions, 6 seminars)
Lectures & presentations	47%	41%
Group activities	26%	30%
Screening documentaries	11%	11%
Field exercise	11%	5%
Panel discussions	0-5%	0%
Interactive Discussions	0%	13%

Sessions

5 new sessions were introduced this year: two on “Public Policy” and three on “holistic-me, state & society.” Whereas 5 sessions from 2005 were repeated – Why Is India Poor? Education-Choice & Competition, Environment: The Tragedy of the Collective, Economic Freedom: The Forgotten Human Right and Researching Reality. 2-3 sessions out of the total 19 are meant to cover specific issues which are distinct from every city and mostly are conducted by local speakers.

We screened documentaries like: “Greed”, “Philosophy of Liberty” in almost all the seminars. Other documentaries like –“Sex, Drugs & Consenting adults” were screened in Delhi, Goa whereas “Jal Swaraj” was screened in Jaipur. Apart from these documentaries, participants watched few other documentaries like “Final Solutions”, “In Search of a Job”, “Fight for Survival”, “Tales of Night Fairies”, “Zarina” and many more after the end of the day. It was amazing to see them awake, watch and discuss films till 1 or 2 am in the morning and get ready at 8 am next day for attending the sessions.

Table 3: Stereotypes challenged at LSS through various sessions [3]

No	Session at LSS	Examples of some stereotypes addressed
1	What makes a good society	·        There will be chaos in a world without borders, force, self interest, and central planning
2	Why is India poor?	·        Poor are irrational ·        Population is the main cause of poverty ·        Illiteracy is the cause of poverty   ·        Indians cant be effective and are lazy ·        India is at the best at its best mode of its globalization ·        Economic freedom is not the basic requirement of a prosperous society
3	Education	·        Poor parents don’t like to send their children to school ·        Poor parents cant understand the need of education ·        Central government can only provide quality education ·        Education is Charity for poor ·        Government schools are better than private schools
4	Environment: Tragedy of the Collectives	·        Tribals can’t take care of the forest ·        Self sufficiency is not economic suicide
5	Economic Freedom	·        Poor are irrational ·        Street hawkers are menace ·        Need of licence and regulations for social security for the marginalised section ·        Economic freedom is only for the rich ·        Rich have become richer at the cost of poor ·        Free enterprise is always bad ·        Markets can’t help poorest of poor
7	Public Policy & Social Change	·        Direct action is the only way of causing social change ·        Direct action is better than public policy action
10	Researching Reality	·        Education leads to Employment ·        Poor parents don’t want to spend money on their children education ·        Poor people don’t spend money on basic amenities like water, education, electricity Rickshaw pullers, street hawkers are reason for traffic chaos

No	Session at LSS	Examples of some stereotypes addressed
11	Designing Sound Public Policy	·        Centre should have more powers as compare to State ·        Welfare state is the best solution for all the problems.
12	Documentary: Greed	·        Being Greedy is Sin ·        Big Industrialist doesn’t provide any support to poor families

Resource Materials

All participants were given the following:

The resource materials were also translated in Hindi for the LSS Hindi Seminar.

Objective and subjective feedback from participants

We refer to this data to better the programs, to build on sessions which get high ratings and to drop or modify sessions which do not. For instance, LSS sessions on education, Public Policy & social Change, Economic Freedom -The Forgotten Human Rights, Why India is poor, Environment - The Tragedy of the Collective, Beyond Perceptions, Documentary Films: Greed, Philosophy of Liberty have been getting high ratings across programs. Speakers who have received lowest or very low ratings are not invited again.

The following table provides a glimpse of which sessions and speakers have been ranked highest at the LSS programs.

Table 4: Table for top three Session & Speakers ratings throughout LSS [4]

LSS Cities	Top rated Session	Session Type	Top rated speakers	Ratings
Delhi	Greed	Documentary	Parth J Shah	4.56
	Poverty & Economic Incentive	Lecture	Sachin Rao (CCS Faculty)	4.33
	Researching Reality	Field Exercise	Mayank Singhal & Sushmita Pratihast	4.27
Goa	Beyond perception	Interactive Session	Swati Chawla	4.54
	Environment - The Tragedy of the Collective	Lecture	Parth J Shah	4.48
	Public Policy & Social Change	Lecture	Anupam Seraph	4.42
Kolkata	Political System Reforms	Lecture	Raj Cherubal	4.32
	Beyond Perception	Interactive Session	Swati Chawla	4.31
LSS Cities	Top rated Session	Session Type	Top rated speakers	Ratings
	Education Policy: Choice & Competition	Lecture	Raj Cherubal	4.20
Cochin	Researching Reality	Field Exercise	Dhanu raj	4.52
	Beyond Perception	Interactive Session	Swati Chawla	4.31
	Designing Sound Public Policy Labour and liberal world	Interactive Session Lecture	Parth J Shah Saji Gopinath	4.28
Jaipur	Drinking & Irrigation Water	Lecture	Rajender Singh	4.79
	Jal Swaraj	Documentary		4.75
	Education Policy: Choice & Competition	Lecture	Kaushal Kishore	4.74
Chennai	Researching Reality	Field Exercise		4.26
	Environment - The Tragedy of the Collective Public Policy & Social Change	Lecture	Parth J Shah	4.17
	India & Market Economics	Lecture	M R Venkatesh	4.16

Key highlights per LSS

Goa Seminar

Date: August 24-27, 2006

Venue: Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC)

Graduates during working group exercise

“LSS has helped me to see things on issues in a different way. We usually see our surrounding and curse the government. Now, after attending the seminar, I am in better position to analyse the problem and try to find a solution to it and discuss it with others rather than just blame the system.”                                                       LSS Graduate

“I honestly expected the LSS to be very socialist-leaning. No reason particularly why but I imagined all NGO’s have! I was very pleasantly surprised. Found myself getting very interested, almost emotional during working groups.” Shyam Kapadia

“The idea of liberty makes me value myself as free Individual.” Tanvi Garg

Date: August 31-September 3, 2006

Venue: Jamia Hamdard

 

 

Cochin Seminar

Date: September 21-24, 2006

Venue: Ashir Bhawan

“A Small group of dedicated people can transform the society, it is true.” Harishankar KS

 “The seminar was an eye-opener regarding various issues that I was totally ignorant of. The presentations on the whole were nice--very thought-provoking. It has enabled me & my students, who attended the seminar to see things which we had taken for granted and things we had often not given much thought, in a different perspective. I feel motivation and exposure to ground realities is a must for the young minds to broaden their minds to new horizons. What I liked most was the field work done by the participants & the interactive sessions. As an observer, it was engrossing to watch how the young minds work, their response & queries to the problem being discussed. I appreciate the chance  given for attending the seminar and for  knowing at first -hand what really is CCS & LSS, its mission , goals & objectives”  Prof. Lata Marina Varghese.

Kolkata Seminar

Date: October 12 -15, 2006

Venue: Indian Institute of Training & Development (IITD)

“Any view could be challenged just step back & look at it in a different perspective, that’s what we learned here at LSS!!” LSS Kolkata Graduate

Group photograph of LSS Kolkata Graduates

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Date: November 9 -12, 2006

Venue: HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration 

“I always favoured borders but after attending LSS I realised how important it is to live in a society without borders, competition for economic development. It is after attending LSS Seminar; I have gained confidence to speak about my ideas. ” Raj Kumar Verma

 

Chennai Seminar

Date: November 23- 6, 2006

Venue: Crenieo

“It’s easy to criticize, but it’s difficult to realize that what I learnt here. I feel all what I have learnt through my text books is complete waste.”    

Sam Mathew

The Follow up plan includes

Some Highlights of the LSS 2006 Profiling [6]

Siddhartha Chakraborti, LSS Kolkata 2006

Siddhartha was one of the most left-leaning participants we have had this year. He was a very enthusiastic listener and an articulate speaker. Although at first put off by “all the liberalism rhetoric” that he thought LSS was about, Siddhartha came out most touched from the four days. The turning points for him were the sessions on What Makes a Good Society and Why is India Poor? Where he realized that all that he had grown up believing was factually and logically flawed. When the participants were asked to design a public policy on the last day, Siddhartha’s group (where his input had been the most critical) presented a case for a liberal solution to oil prices. The facilitators were pleasantly surprised at his application of what was discussed in the past three days. He extended the argument to indirect taxes and that the government levied on the poorest of the poor and said that the prices of oil were artificially low.

After the seminar too, Siddhartha tried to get a Friends of Freedom group started in Kolkata. He mobilized recent and ex-graduates but because of exams and Diwali, he did not get the response that he expected. Siddhartha also started a community on Orkut for graduates of the Kolkata seminar and has been actively moderating discussions on topics ranging from 2007 annual budget, the violence in Nandigram and child labour. For future activities with CCS, Siddhartha feels that for a student body in Kolkata to create impact, it should be engaged in active politics. He has given some valuable suggestions on how liberal ideas can be promoted in Kolkata (and West Bengal) and how he can contribute. Siddhartha feels that the seminar has contributed to his intellectual growth and given him a fresh perspective (of public policy) to analyze things around him.

Madhumita Das, LSS Goa 2006

Madhumita Das was affected deeply at a personal level. What struck her most about LSS was the fact that she could sit the way she wanted and be herself in the seminar room; a clear contrast from the classrooms that she had spent her student life in. Although she was liberal-leaning from the beginning, the researching reality exercise helped break some of her stereotypes. She shared in the Reflections session that the visit to a fishing community changed her perspective about the profession. She had hitherto seem them as “violent” people who were killing the fish; the researching reality field visit helped her respect them as people earning an honest livelihood like any other professional. It helped her look at herself differently, “Earlier I used to think I am being selfish, now I know, taking complete care of myself is the best I can do for my parents and people around me.” At the professional level- “I am a freelance journalist. After attending LSS, I have covered a few visits by these ministers and have tried to put in a sarcastic perspective on the tall claims they make.” And as a citizen too- “I have become a lot more observant and keep making mental notes on how certain basic issues can be better handled in a liberalized set up.

She said in her ALCS application that “being a student of Political Science and International Relations helped me to read a lot of related material after I went back from LSS. Now, I am brimming over with questions and also with nascent ideas for applying the LSS learning to practice. Attending the ALCS will give vent to both these urges and refine my understanding of the Liberal model, thus helping me defend it better.” After attending the ALCS in Mumbai, she facilitated the discussion on livelihood at the Jeevika screenings in Kolkata and interviewed Dr Parth J Shah on school choice for The Telegraph.

Participants interface with the society

We clearly understands and believes that opportunities provided or taken by the participants in applying their learnings with society or people associated with the social movements as the participants interface with the society. We have categorised in two ways: During the LSS and After LSS.

During LSS, participants interface with society is reflected in many different ways:

It is through organising CCS youth seminars that we provide a platform to the youth to interface with the society. We conduct “Researching Reality” exercise which itself provides a platform for the seminar participants to move out from the class room sittings, lectures, and see the existing grassroots realities. The seminar experience breaks their various stereotypes be it on social, economic or political issue. (Find above the list of stereotypes addressed through the sessions above, table num. 3).

We also screen various documentaries both as part of our sessions and also during the reflection sessions which reflects on the social issues as a whole. During the seminar, CCS tries to get speakers associated with some social organisation who can come to the seminar and can share their experience with the graduates. Eg: During LSS Jaipur, we got Rajendra Singh from TBS (Tarun Bharat Sangh) who shared with the graduates on his learning’s and experiences while working in the sector. Majority of the LSS Jaipur graduates shared in the feedback form as how would they like to go and work with TBS and apply their learning there. This clearly reflects the participants interface with society.

After the Seminars [7]

We encourage the seminar graduates to get involve in some campaigns, be it of CCS or any other organisation. Most of the graduates become part of Friends of Freedom and carry on various activities.

[1] This information is based on the information collected during LSS 2006 profiling calls made in March 2007. 144 graduates were profiled out of 207. The information is calculated accordingly.

[2]   The quotes and the participants observations has been collected from LSS 2006 feedback form and reflection sessions

[3] The examples of the stereotypes addressed during sessions have been collected from LSS 2006 feedback forms and the reflection sessions.

Detailed session and speaker - wise ratings are shared in the annexure. The information is collected from the LSS 2006 feedback form with a question on speaker and session ratings on the scale of 1-5.

[5] The information has been collected through taking in the numbers by the LSS 2006 feedback form with a question on career

[6] Find detail on LSS 2006 profiling under the section of Graduate activities.

[7] Find detail on Participants interface with society after LSS in Graduate activities section.