IMPHAL, March 18: A two days National Seminar on “Development Discourse: Expanding Horizons” started today , 2013 at the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) in the Adimjati Complex, Chingmeirong, Imphal organized by the Department of Social Work, IGNTU, RCM, Imphal. In addition to the inaugural function today, two academic sessions were held.
In her Key Note Address, Dr. Kamei Beeju, Co-coordinator of the Seminar elaborated on 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, 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.
Professor Gangumei Kamei, Former National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advance Studies, stated that development today has become a global issue. 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, he said.
Rev. Dr. Tamthing Ruivanao Chairperson, United NGOs Mission, Manipur 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, he maintained.
Laifungbam Debabrata Convenor, Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN emphasized upon the importance of values and beliefs in understanding development. He recalled the existence of a paradigm of development in Manipur during the second century AD, where two brothers dredged the Imphal River upto Sugnu for human habitation.
Professor Vanlalnghak, Director, IGNTU, Regional Campus Manipur, stated that first thing we’ve to ask about development is development for whom. “It is 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,” he said.
Th. Oliver Monsang, Former Director, IGNTU, RCM was the Special Guest. He 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.
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 panel, “Livelihood, Environment and Development” started at around 11.30 am.
The panel was chaired by Dr R.K Ranjan, Manipur University.
Four resource persons presented papers during the session.
Majabung Gangmei speaking on “Oil Exploration in Manipur and the Indigenous Peoples Rights” contended the project was undertaken without free, prior and informed consent of the people. Adding tjat community leaders, civil society and human rights groups started studying the issue and held series of public meetings to spread awareness among the people since 2011, he said that the Government also undertook Public Hearings, organised by Pollution Control Board, Government of Manipur, since July 2012 but when affected people and students agitated against the Public Hearings in Jiribam, Tamenglong and Churachandpur, they were met with brute police commandos along with para-military forces who stopped the agitating people from entering the premise of the public hearing. The affected people along with numerous civil society bodies are resisting against the oil drilling and exploration but Jubiliant Energy, the State Government and Central Government are silent on violation of rights of the indigenous people.
Jiten Yumnam reflected on the issues concerning Loktak and the proposed Tipaimukh dam. “Loktak Development Authority decides what development means and how to manage the lake, who does not belong to the lake – a new class of people and when people resist and demand rights, the state falls back to the use of military forces resulting in a cycle of human cycle violations,” he said. He went on to add that military and corporate forces find dams beneficial but affected people are against it. “Militarization is a reality in and around the development sites and will result in series of human rights violation already under the situation of AFSFA,” he said.
P. Grace presented a paper entitled “Mapithel Dam and Human Rights Violations”. He stated that Mapithel dam is an issue not only about the directly affected people but it is an issue for the whole world because environment and ecology is interconnected throughout the world.
The second Panel on “Conflict, Security and Development” in the afternoon was Chaired by Khelen Thokchom of The Telegraph and t hree resource persons presented papers.
Jiten Yumnam spoke on “Development and Conflict in Manipur” while Dr. Chinglen Maisnam spoke on “Neoliberal Growth Trajectory and Conflict in Northeast Region”. Soihiamlung Dangmei spoke on “Distributive Justice and Development: Some Theoretical reflections”.