Dr. Roop Rekha Verma (Founder & Secretary : Saajhi Duniya)

Dr. Roop Rekha Verma, Ph.D, formerly, the Vice-chancellor, Professor & Head of the Philosophy Department and Dean, Faculty of Arts Lucknow University has taught there from 1964–2003. She has also been a recipient of the Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship for Oxford and has had the honor to be invited to deliver lectures and present research papers in various conferences/international seminars at many Indian and foreign Universities.


She is a prolific writer and has published more than four dozen research papers in various books and journals, in India and abroad. Her publications include Philosophy of P.F. Strawson co-edited with Pranab Kumar Sen, published by ICPR in 1995. Her academic interest includes pursuit of Philosophical Logic and Epistemology, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind and Metaphysics. She has been nominated by the government of India as Executive Council Members of Aligarh Muslim University, Mahila Samakhya and in the Academic Committees of NCERT, Bhatkhande Music University and UP Social Welfare Board. Besides, she had occupied higher advisory positions as Honorary Advisor, ICPR and Member of UGC Philosophy panel, thrice. She was also selected as National Lecturer of University Grants Commission. She established the Institute of Women's Studies in Lucknow University and remained its Director since inception in 1997 till 2005.

Professor Verma is a well- known Social Activist also and has intervened in several dozen cases of Violence on Women and Communal Violence, and fought for justice for the victims. She has been awarded Begum Hazrat Mahal Award for Communal Harmony and Life Time Achievement Award in 2006 by Indian Social Science Association. She is the founder Secretary of social organisation called Saajhi Duniya which initially function under the name Nagrik-Dharam Samaj.

She is secretary of Saajhi Duniya, Non Governmental Organization that battles violence against women, advocates for the equal and full participation of women in all efforts, promotes communal harmony and secularism, betterment of Indian educational system, Farmer Issues, etc.

About : Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Germany

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is one of the largest political education institutions in Germany today and sees itself as part of the intellectual current of democratic socialism The foundation evolved from a small political group, “Social Analysis and Political Education Association“, founded in 1990 in Berlin into a nationwide political education organisation, a discussion forum for critical thought and political alternatives as well a research facility for progressive social analysis.

Forming the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation are:

• The general and sustaining members of the association and the executive board members with Heinz Vietze serving as chairman and Dr. Florian Weis as chief executive officer
• Academic scholars and scientists in advisory boards and as authors of our publications, scholarship recipients; liaison professors and hundreds of volunteers
• More than 100 employees that work in either the Academy of political Education, the Centre for International Communication and Collaboration, the “Studienwerk” (organisation providing social, financial and cultural support services to students in Germany), the Institute for Social Analysis, the Archive of Democratic Socialism or areas of public relations, bookkeeping or finances

In 1996 the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was officially recognised as a nationwide affiliated trust of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), presently known as “DIE LINKE “ (The Left).  As such it works closely with DIE LINKE affiliated state foundations and associations nationwide.

Goals

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation aims to:

• Organise political education and disseminate knowledge about social relations in a globalized, unjust and hostile world
• Provide a venue for critical analysis of current capitalism;  act as a hub for programmatic discussions about a modern democratic socialism, act as a socialistic think-tank for political alternatives
• Be a forum in Germany and internationally that supports dialogue between left-socialistic powers, socialistic movements and organisations, left-minded intellectuals and non-governmental organisations
• Grant funding to young scholars via undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships
• Give impulses to self-defining socialistic political activities and support commitment to peace and international understanding for a socially just and solidary union.

Since 2001, the Foundation has been undertaking a wide range of political education projects with funds from the Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation. Since 1999, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has been able to grant scholarships to nearly 900 students (including doctoral students) from Germany and abroad.
The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has been recognised by The Left as the political education institution related to it. Within the framework of a network of foundations, it cooperates closely with independent local foundations. The foundation has about 100 staff in its Berlin headquarters, and offices in Brussels, Belgrade, Warsaw, Moscow, São Paulo, Quito, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Dakar, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, New Delhi, Beijing and Hanoi.

             
Rosa Luxemburg  (5 March 1871-15 January 1919) was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen. She was successively a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the Social Democratic Party of Germany(SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.

Sources : 

*) - Official site (English)

*) - Wikipedia