Leadership Development Training

on Humanism
November 17-20, Kathmandu, Nepal

International Humanist and Ethical Union, London (www.iheu.org)

International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization, Brussels (www.iheyo.org)
Federation of Indian Rationalist Association(FIRA)
Social Development Foundation (SDF), India
Society for Humanism, SOCH Nepal (www.sochnepal.org)
Participants from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan nearly numbered to 60. This leadership program developed leadership skills
among the Participants working for humanism in their respective home country. The program highlighted on miracle expose, critical
thinking, secularism, and rationality. Not only this, the program was a platform to exchange the ideas and experiences among the youths
of different nationality.

Objective:

Sharing and exchanging knowledge

Network development
Learning unique thoughts/dreams to promote sustainable
humanist activism.
Increasing the humanist cadres
Mainstreaming the humanist movement
Forming a Humanist Alliance to boost up the Humanist
Movement in South Asia

The program was successful in meeting the objective of the

program.

Day 1st:
The Program was inaugurated by Uttam Niraula, Vice president of IHEYO by
welcoming all participants. He focused on the importance of the program. Prof.
Narendra Nayak was invited then to deliver his speech on "leadership".

He talked about who leaders are, and what are the qualities that take to be a good
leader, and what traits a leaders should not possess. The session was very
interactive. The participants were asked to name a good leader, and a Bad leader,
and explain why they choose them. This developed them the opportunity to
present their view and help them become confident in mass too. The session
ended in Lunch break.

Second Session was carried by Mr. Rabindra Bhattarai, President of SOCH Nepal,
who is a professionally advocate. His presentation was on "Human life, Sociality
and Leadership". He gave an in-depth analysis of the inter relation of Human life
with not only biological or physical existence, but also with the psychological and social existence. He then summarized his presentation
with the message of Equality of Humanity, non -Violence, Co-existence and commonality, Peace, fraternity and harmony, Open and
Scientific harmony.
Tea Break was followed by Narendra Nayak session. He differentiated the general understanding of the
terminology such as Atheist, Atheism, Materialist, Rationalist, Humanist and Secularism. This session
really cleared the confusion among the participant regarding those terminologies.

V. B. Rawat, president of SDF, who is a human Right

activist in India, informed us about the caste discrimination
and human rights violation due to superstition. V. B Rawat
puts 'caste is a politics to dominate others.' He described
the caste system in India, which is very similar to Nepal
context. It was the session of V. B.
Rawat that many participants realized
that the root cause of caste
discrimination is due to religious
dogmas.

Day 2nd:Second day session was on

Secularism. The recourse person was V. B. Rawat, who talked on the importance of
secularism, and how a secular country can only respect all human beings. According
to him "we can work for the
common welfare of the people
irrespective of caste, creed,
religion, race, ethnicity, region,
and secure the rights of minority
only through the path of
Secularism. He welcomed the fact
that Nepal is constitutionally a secular
country but still there is religious influence
over administration and politics, so he
emphasize Humanist organization or
individual to advocate for the real secularism,
not only in constitution, but also in practice.

Rabindra Bhattarai grabs the stage to deliver

his thought on "Scientific Mindedness". He stated that unless and until we have scientific
thinking, superstition and paranormal practices cannot be kicked out from our society. His
presentation was focused on rationality, and how can we be more critical and open minded.
Session ended with Lunch Break.
The stage was handed to Prof. Narendra Nayak and Suman, a young Humanist from Bihar rationalist forum. They demonstrated the so
called miracle clamed by the God Man. The participants were surprised to see such unexplained miracles. But later on when Dr
Narendra Nayak said it was all a trick
indeed. And revealed the trick behind his
entire miracle shown, the stage was
overwhelmed with thunder of clouds and
cheers. He proved that no miracle exist in
the world, only magical tricks exist, and
also that the God man and religious person
uses this tricks to fool the large mass, and
spread the superstition for their personal
benefit, which is ruining our mind,
making us all dull. Thus he asked us to act
wisely by not getting in the trap of such
ridiculous fraud so called God man.

Day 3rd:
Third day begin with Prof. Nayak
presentation which was focused on
scientific approaches to Vastu, Rasifal, Jyotisi, Palm reading, Graha dasha, puran,
withcraft, paranormal doctors etc. He also highlighted on the different system of
medicines practiced in our society and explained clearly why only allopathic is only
evidence based system of medicine and not others like homeopathy, Ayurvedic etc.
He also alert us how homeopathy has exploited the people in the name of medicine.
Prof. Nayak also talked about the
placebo effect and its role in quack
doctor's treatment. He also explained
the baptism, marriage and death
ceremonies from humanist point of
view. This session ended with the
lunch.

After lunch documentary was shown focusing on how the so called god man exploit the
people in the name of religion and spread the superstition. Documentary was followed by
the miracle exposure by Prof. Nayak supported by Suman in presence of the press. Then
after was the interaction between the Nayak and participants along with the media persons
regarding the miracle exposure. he program concluded with the lively cultural program.
There was singing and dancing program in different languages reflecting different
 cultures. The
program was full
of fun outputting
the exchange of
cultures.

Day 4th: Last day

session was
focused on group
discussion for
boost upping the
humanist
movements in
south Asia. In first
session, Mr. Bal
Krishna Nebha, a
famous humanist writer, highlighted on how the religion has
suppressed or exploited the Dalits and women in our society. How the
religion is spreading the superstition and how it has slow down the
development of society was explained by Mr. Nebha.

In the second part of the

session, the group was
divided on the basis of their
nationality and was asked to
find out the problems in
theirs society and the
solutions to those problem
from their side. Then the
problems and solution was
presented by each group.
Mr. Uttam facilitated to find
out the common problems
among the groups and got
committed to work out
jointly to speed up the
humanist movements in south Asia.
 Outcomes:

 Network formation
 Cultural exchange between the participants of
south Asia
 Mutual Learning experience
 Humanist Initiative boost up
 Commitment to work in their respective
countries
 Identifying background of mutual cooperation
and Support
 Increase knowledge and leadership skills
 Humanist Alliance formed

•Thank you•