Seminar on devt discourse begins
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 18 2013:
A two-day National Seminar on "Development Discourse: Expanding Horizons" kicked off from today at the hall of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU), Regional Campus located inside Adimjati Complex, Chingmeirong here.
The seminar is being organised by the Department of Social Work, IGNTU, RCM, Imphal.
The inaugural function of the seminar was attended by Profr Gangmumei Kamei, former National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, as Chief Guest; Professor Vanlalnghak, Director of IGNTU, RCM as President and Rev.Dr.Tamthing Ruivanao, Chairperson of United NGOs Mission, Manipur and Dr.Laifungbam Debabrata, Convenor, Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN, as Guests of Honour.
In her Key Note Address of the function, Dr.Kamei Beeju, Co-coordinator of the Seminar elaborated how the concept of development has changed over the years and how the State of Manipur has failed to grasp many of the opportunities provided to her.
The state remains backward and underdeveloped in many aspects.
At the same time, development projects in recent years have brought about destruction of livelihood and the violation of human rights in the state.
The very idea of the seminar is to capture many of the aspects of development and an attempt to evolve one which is sensitive to local culture, tradition and value system.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof Gangumei Kamei stated that development today has become a global issue and all (developed, developing and underdevelopment) are engaged in it.
One way of understanding development is that it is about giving to human being what is necessary for human life including educational institutions.
It is about raising the quality of life and must take into account human values and human rights issues.
Rev.Dr.Tamthing Ruivanao stated that development has to be defined in terms of five "Ws" such as what is it we're going to do it? Why development? For whom? Who has to be implemented? And Where to do it? At the same time, development has to take into account four dimensions such as physical, spiritual life, mental life and cultural life.
These have not been taken into account in any development agenda in the case of Manipur.
Professor Vanlalnghak stated that first thing we've to ask about development is development for whom.
It's about human beings - food, cloth and shelter are the three basic needs.
The second issue is human values have to be ensured while undertaking development.
Nowadays, killing of human beings are taken for granted.
It shows that the core issue of human values has degraded in our society.
Without human values, there is no point in talking about development in hi-fi language such as globalization.
Th.Oliver Monsang, Former Director, IGNTU, RCM, who attended the inaugural function as Special Guest, officially released a book titled "Hybridising Theory and Practice: Social Work Towards Meeting the Challenges of Global and Local", edited by Hanjabam Shukhdeba, Aheibam Koireng and Grace Laltizo on the occasion.
During the Inaugural Function, Field Work Agencies associated with the Department of Sociual Work were facilitated.
Altogether there were around 13 NGOs where MA Social Work Students of the University had field work experiences.
The first academic session of the seminar held under the theme of "Livelihood, Environment and Development" with Dr R.K Ranjan of Manipur University as moderator, Majabung Gangmei, Jiten Yumnam and P.Grace presented papers as resource persons.
The second session on "Conflict, Security and Development" was chaired by Khelen Thokchom of The Telegraph, Kolkota and three resource persons namely, Jiten Yumnam, Dr.Chinglen Maisnam and Soihiamlung Dangmei presented papers.
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