PG Common News

Spandana International student’s social work symposium
Sustainable development – initiatives and practices for smart villages” October 6 & 7, 2022

School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, hosted a two-day international symposium 'Spandana' on October 6th and 7th 2022. The theme of the programme was sustainable Development: Innitiatives and Practices for smart villages, The students depicted the theme in a dance form that included Yasahganam, Mohiniyatam, and Baratnatyam. This dance depicted, how Goddess of nature protected the mother earth.Dr P P Devan, well known ENT specialist from A J Medical College, Mangalore having 16 years of teaching experience was the chief guest and keynote speaker for the symposium. In his address, he mainly stressed on sustainability of physical health. He began his speech with a reality of Mangaluru stating the situation of seven medical colleges with 700 beds each, filled with people suffering from various minor and major sicknesses. He shed light on the cause that we consume affects the growth and contributes to our immunity system. This also results in deficiency of vitamins, iron, zinc and calcium. He invited his listeners to think over this situation and prevent it.

As the saying goes 'prevention is better than cure', he further spoke on the things that would help in sustainability of health. He stressed that we should avoid consuming things that hampers our health and makes us sick. For example avoid consuming tea for it reduces the iron in body. Iron is the backbone of immune system. We can check haemoglobin count once in every year. One can easily avoid any kind of sickness if he/ she know what to eat and what to avoid. He stressed on consumption of the foods that contain rich iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins.

Emphasising on the role of social workers, he said that the social workers need to have the basic knowledge of the food habit that enhances better lifestyle for the people of the society. The Nature and the history are the best teachers for us. We can learn from the lifestyle of our ancestors to live a healthy life. Nature provides all the things that our human body needs. He spoke all these basic things to the people to know how to live a normal and healthy life. Dr Juliet C J, in her presidential address started with a quoting Gandhiji, "A smart village provides its inhabitant with all the basic facilities in an efficient mannner. In a smart villlage the community, individually and collectively will be empowered to take smart decisions using smart technologies and with the support of smart man power and managaing to be self sufficient." She cited the example of one of the villages in Andhra Pradesh that turned itself into a smart village after facing problems. The problem faced by this village was the low demand for millet production due to the easy availability of rice in the ration shop. However, they started to work hard and smart by focusing on the problem. They came up with a plan to make millet once again the regular consuming product by the people. They did research on various types of millet productions which can be easily available for people. They prepared various types of packages of millet and started selling to the people which eventually turned into sustainable market. Therefore, smart decision by smart man power can bring sustainable smart villages.

Dr Jenis P Mary, Vice principal, Professor Eveleen Bennis, Head, Department of MSW, Dr Meena Juliet Monteiro, organising secretary, Spandana 2022, , Ms. Jinsa Joseph, Student welfare officer, Student convenor Devika P, Secretary, Sandra Prince and Gina - student representative of volda university Norway were present at the occasion.

Fr. Arun Lobo, Director Counselling Centre, Bajjodi was the resource person for the first session on Stake Holder’s Wellness for Smart Villages” Fr Lobo Spoke on Stake holder’s wellness for Smart Villages. Fr. Lobo highlighted the contribution of family in the present context.

Session two on Social Sustainability: The need for health Promotion. The resource person Dr. Kavitha Jangam, Department of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, Bangalore highlighted the importance of Social Sustainability & the importance of being connected with each other. She discussed about the three pillars of sustainable development those are economic, social, and environmental. As a social worker she believes it is critical to reach out to the community who are experiencing hardships and are vulnerable. Not only economic sustainability should be prioritised, but also social and environmental sustainability should also be given equal importance.

The inaugurator for day two was Dr. P.L.Dharma, Registrar (Evaluation) Mangalore University in His inaugural address Dr. Dharma spoke on the need for sustainability and how sustainable development can contribute to building a smart village. Prof. Dharma narrated an incident from his own life. He mentioned that, he was born and brought up, in a village that had no taboos, no discriminations; conflicts were resolved within a day. During festivals, the whole village comes together as one family, irrespective of religion & caste. The speaker highlighted the differences between the present smart village life, and the village life that was existing earlier. To conclude, DR. Dharma insisted everyone, to build a smart village, so that heritage and fundamental values are brought back.

DR. Rita Norhona, retired professor, Department of MSW, Roshni Nilaya, was the keynote speaker of the day. Dr. Noronha spoke on the Three perspective of social work, Welfare perspective, Therapeutic perspective and developmental perspective. She insisted that we need to treat all human beings with dignity and respect. As a social worker we need to be aware of all government policies, rights, plans designed for Social Sustainability. She concluded her speech, by saying we need to build good character and strong ethical values and that will enable in making a society more sustainable.

Dr. S Shudarshan. Was the resource person for the first session. He spoke about Sustainable Initiatives for Smart Villages Dr. Sudharshan further continued saying that village has three levels cluster, house, village. He showed the audience a video clipping on smart energy, smart connectivity for the villagers, e-commerce for viewers for one of the villages in Andra Pradesh. He continued by speaking about smart agriculture in Punjab and how they grew nutrition based food energy, knowledge etc. Smart education in west Bengal that people use to do co-operative development plan. Smart environment in Madhya Pradesh. And the last one, smart infrastructure, they did solar system, pure drinking water in Rajasthan. He showed one video clip regarding a smart village. He gave example of Ruler Colony and why it is smart village. To conclude, he urged all the social workers to put theory into practice more effectively.

Mr Brian Fernandes, Director, Spearhead Media Pvt. Ltd., Magaluru was the resource person for the second session. Mr. Fernandes highlighted the Role of HR in Sustainable business culture. He began his session by comparing business as a psychopathic person and, how the business can be sustainable by including four pillars namely, social, economic, human, and environmental. These pillars can help in formulating various sustainable business strategies in minimizing global issues.

He also mentioned on how CSR helps the business to be involved with the society and fulfil its social obligation by using ESG as a measurable tool. As human resource management is the profession that deals with people in the organization, they have a significant role to play in this journey of sustainability, by developing commitment and staff up skilling, policy coherence and equality. He spoke on how various HR interventions can build holistic wellness, manage wealth and help in development of the employees, community and office. Mr. Fernandes concluded the session by mentioning various social enterprises such as digital green say tree etc. that helps in sustainability. The session concluded at 1:45pm with the vote of thanks

In the afternoon at 2.00 p.m paper presentations were conducted. Eighteen participants from various colleges from across the country presented papers on various sub themes. Dr. Saritha D’souza, Head, Department of Criminology & Forensic science chaired the session.

The Valedictory program began at 4.30 p.m. Dr Erlend Walseth, Volda University College, Norway was the chief guest. Dr.Jenis Mary, Vice Principal, School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, presided over the function. Ms. Jinsa Joseph, Student Welfare Officer read the report of the International conference and expressed her gratitude. At 5:15 pm, the event continued with cultural program. It gave each participant the opportunity to showcase their talent. Variety of dances depicting the culture of different states of India was performed. The International Conference Spandana-2022 concluded with the National Anthem.