Education, Health and Social Development in Northeast India: Scopes and Challenges
Organised by: School of Social Sciences, Kaziranga University, Jorhat, Assam
Venue: SET Seminar Hall, KU Campus, Koraikhowa, Jorhat, Assam
Date: 25th and 26th April 2019

A two days seminar on "Education, Health and Social Development in Northeast India: Scopes and Challenges" has been organised by the School of Social Sciences, Kaziranga University on 25th and 26th April 2019.

The seminar had three sessions - The first session was a purely interactive session with the students of the School of Social Sciences in day one. Inaugural session and a panel discussion were held during the second day of the seminar.

The inaugural session of the seminar was held on 26th April 2019 with the lighting up of the candle by the honorable Vice Chancellor of The Assam Kaziranga University, Prof. PK Mishra and invited dignitaries in the dais. The welcome address was given by the Prof. Braja Sundar Mishra, Dean, School of Social Sciences, Kaziranga University.

Invited speakers from the esteemed Jawaharlal Nehru University were addressed the audience in the inaugural session. Prof. Sanghmitra Acharya, Professor, and Chairperson of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health (CSMCH), School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi was the chief invited speaker of the session. She had spoken about the different dimesions of social development; the curriculum of the CSMCH and JNU, and how the public health education is interlinked to the health and social development in this region and how both the institutions – JNU and KU can be work together in the holistic development of the society. Dr. Sunita Reddy, Associate Professor, CSMCH, SSS, and Deputy Director, Research and Development, JNU had spoken about the major area of research and research process adopted in JNU, and how research collaborations can be done with Kaziranga University in future. She had also spoken about the ethnographic research, especially in traditional healing practices in Northeast India, sighting examples from her ongoing research projects in the region. Dr. Nemthianngai Guite, Associate Professor, CSMCH, SSS, JNU has a vast experience on Social Work teaching had spoken about the role of Social Work profession and Social Workers on social development drawing examples from the National Capital Region to Northeast and Manipur in particular.

The inaugural session was concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Hriday Ranjan Kalita.

The last session of the seminar was a panel discussion on the topic "Education, Health and Social Development in NER of India: Scopes and Challenges," with the panelists from diverse discipline, i.e., Social Work, Sociology, Public Health, Demography, Anthropology, Business, Literature and Academic Research. Three panelists from JNU, New Delhi - Prof. Sanghmitra Acharya, Dr. Sunita Reddy and Dr. Nemthianngai Guite were among other panelists, namely Prof. Dorothy Momin (Department of English, DCB College, Jorhat), Dr. Akshay Deka (Associate Professor and Associate Dean, School of Health Science, KU), Prof. Agnimitra Biswas (Professor and Dean, School of Business, KU) and Dr. Sajal Saha (Associate Professor and Dean, Research and Development, KU). Professor Braja Sundar Mishra, Dean, School of Social Sciences was the moderator of the panel discussion. The rich discussion drew some outlines for collaborative initiatives to be taken by JNU and KU in the future with MoU in between two eminent institutions.

Vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Baiarbha Massar, Assistant Professor, SSS, KU. The two days seminar was concluded with a beautiful cultural evening performed by the faculty and students of KU.