The Chronicle interview.

• Position: Mechai Viravaidya - Interview

Mechai Viravaidya, who was in New York to attend the 54th Annual Conference for Non-Governmental Organizations associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, is a social activist, government planner and NGO leader. He is Chairman of the Population and Community Development Association, which has spearheaded Thailand's community-based family planning, rural development and anti-AIDS programmes since the 1970s. Through the Thai Business Initiative for Rural Development (TBIRD), he has also tried to stem village migration in his country. In 1978, the Thai Government adopted the Community-Based Distribution of Contraceptives, which he started. In an interview with Vikram Sura for the UN Chronicle, Mr. Viravaidya says that poverty alleviation, fighting corruption and an increased political and social role for women are his current priorities.

What was the impetus for the Population and Community Development Association beginning its work in 1974, long before the idea of people-centred development took root in the developing world?

Well, it was basic common sense. If you want to get something done, then the people themselves must be involved, just like a soldier in a war--if the soldier doesn't want to fight he can't win the war. So our plan was that the people for whom this was being planned had to be the key element, the key player, so this was the only way we think.

You said "we think", but it was you who thought it then. Did you face any obstacles? No one around you was thinking like that then?

No, nobody opposed that at all in Thailand or from abroad that I know of.

Did you get sufficient support from the Government?

Oh, yes! We got permission from the Government to work in this field, and the output went on government statistics as their achievement also. So everyone's quite happy about it.

Globalization tries to centre capital around large, urban cities, thus proving irresistible to the rural folk to migrate. Do initiatives like TBIRD dash with the dynamics of globalization?

Globalization to me is just like a game of basketball-- the tallest always wins. When you change basketball to be more like weightlifting, when everyone has a weight, then they have a chance to win. That might be better. And I think this may be considered later on. But in our case we found that people come from upcountry into the city. This destroys the social fabric, the cultural tradition of the villages. The best thing to do is to keep them in...