Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network- Mangalore (RS/SB)
Mangalore, Oct 13: A two-day southern regional workshop on Re-affirming Plurality, Seeking Justice and Democracy was inaugurated at School of Social work, Roshni Nilaya. The workshop is organized by Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS) in collaboration with Centre for Women’s studies, University of Mysore on Monday October 12.
Inaugurating the workshop, Dr Jacinta D’Souza, principal, School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya said that the city which has become infamous outside the region after the attacks on minorities, pub incident and moral policing. Hence it is an appropriate move to host the workshop from here with the aim of facing challenges and seeking justice.
“The democratic way of life, we have believed that will provide humanity with the necessary frame work through which Utopia could be realized,” she said adding that the scenario in the district makes us question where is our district heading and what are the possibilities for enhancing individual freedom and moving towards collective goals of social justice and emancipation.
Dr Jacinta said that the challenges contemporary India is facing are how to relate and join the deeper drives of citizens and communities to the broader challenge of socio-political transformation and still larger challenge of emancipation, how to engage in the preservation of freedom and autonomy in the face of external confrontation and confrontation found within the more threatening communal and fundamental drives that are overtaking a vast variety of religious constellations, castes and communities, she added.
Presenting the keynote address, Sumi Krishna, IAWS past president said that Plurality, Justice and Democracy are critical themes around which a range of discussions have taken place within academic disciplines and in society. But in recent decades, the culture of plurality and ideas of justice and democracy have faced challenges from both old and new forms of cultural, socio-economic and political exclusion, she said.
Adding further, Sumi Krishna said that these challenges have come from the institutions and arms of the state, global economic processes, fundamentalist religious and caste forces and vigilante groups. Caste based brutalities against the dalit affirmation of dignity and rights, pan religious backlash against the discrimination of queer communities by courts and cultural violence against the social freedoms are few instances,. The workshop will focus on all these challenges, she said.
On the first day of the two-day southern regional workshop, sessions on Plurality, Patriarchy and Religion as well as Marginalized Spaces ad Moral Codes were held. A panel discussion on Reflections on/from the Media was also organized.
Prof Rita Norohna, head of the postgraduation department in Roshni Nilaya, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Mysore director and IAWS Southern regional co-ordinator M Indira, Meera Velayudhan, vice-president of IAWS, Kalpana Kannabeeran of Asmita Resource Centre for Women from Hyderabad, Garbriele Dietrich, National Alliance for People’ Movement, Madurai, R Santosh, Centre for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, University of Mangalore, Muzaffer Assadi, Department of Political Science, University of Mysore, Arvind Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, Jameela Nishant, director, Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Organization, Sudeshna Mukherjee, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Bangalore, J Devika, Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum, R Malarmuthan from Dinamalar, Chennai, Shobahna Masoor from Samatha Vedike, Mysore, Suchitra, from Women in Media, Kochi and Tanushree Gangopadhyay, Network of Women in Media – Bangalore were the participants at the workshop and discussions.
Nandita Dhawan, IAWS and School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University in Kolkata and Ammel Sharon from Institute for Social Studies Trust in Bangalore are the rapporteurs. Workshop will conclude on October 13.