National Seminar on topic: Tea Tribe Community: The Contours and Continuum of their Exclusion, Organised by the School of Social Sciences, The Assam Kaziranga University, Jorhat, Assam

Sponsored by: ICSSR, NE Region Date : 27-28 Aug, 2020.

Participation There was 33 paper presenters and seven invited speakers in the seminar. Due to COVID-19 pandemic about 70 percent of the paper presenters and 80 percent of invited speakers made their deliberations through video conferencing. About 100students and 20 teachers from different universities also took the advantage of participating through online.

The Objective of National Seminar is designed to deliberate on the continuum and contours of their exclusion from the mainstream of development. Academics, researchers, practitioners, law makers, policy makers, and the leaders from the tea workers community (popularly known as Tea Tribe) are going to participate in the proposed seminar. Apart from cross learning the outcome of the seminar is expected to strengthen the argument and therefore the advocacy initiatives for ameliorating the socio-economic condition of the community. Both empirical and secondary based research papers will be presented and deliberated.

The Inaugural Session of the seminar was held on 27th August from 10:00 AM onwards. The occasion was graced by the presence of Prof. P.K. Mishra, honourable vice-chancellor, Kaziranga University, Prof.Sanghamitra Acharya, CSMCH, SSS, JNU, Prof. R.K. Satapahy, Director, ICSSR (NE Region)who joined the event through virtual mode. Besides these dignitaries, the occasion was also graced by the presence of invited guests Prof. Archana Bhattacharya, Social Activists Philanthropist, Mr. Jagdish Baraik, Asst. Gen. Secretary, ATTSA, Dr. Diganta Munshi,Registrar, Kaziranga University, Prof. P.G. Ramesh, Dean, School of Engineering &Technology, KU and Prof. Braja S. Mishra, Dean, School of Social Sciences KU.The occasion commenced with lighting of the ceremonial lamp by the dignitaries.

The National seminar was divided into 6 technical sessions. Technical Session was dated on 27/8/2020. The first technical session was held on the theme of Livelihood Challenges of the Tea Tribewhere different presenters analyzed the various livelihood challenges faced by the tea gardenlaborers. The problems faced by the young tea garden laborers, livelihood challenges of thetea tribes and Ex- tea garden laborers, socio-economic status of women workers in tea gardens these are some of the key issues highlighted by the researchers in their presentations. Technical session – B was started from 12 pm to 1 pm(27/08/2020). “Health & Mental Health Issues” was the theme for the Technical Session B, the session was chaired by Prof Archana Bhattacharjee and Debismita Bora was the moderator for the session. Technical Session-C held on Day 1 927/08/2021) was chaired by Prof PG Ramesh, Dean, School of Engineering and Technology and COE, Professor and it was moderated by Rituparna Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, School of Social Science, Kaziranga University. The theme of the Session was Livelihood Challenges of Tea Tribe. Technical Session – D session dated (27/8/2020).,theme of this session was “Health and Mental Health Issues”. The session was chaired by Dr. Apurba Saha pf Tezpur University and moderated by Dr. Golak B Patra of Kaziranga .On the second day of 28th August (Technical Session E Rights/Identity/Affirmative Action) was chaired by Prof. Braja S. Mishra, Dean School of Social Sciences, The Assam Kaziranga University, and the session moderated by Assistant Professor Dr. Tshering Lepcha.

Technical Session – F, dated (28/8/2020 The Technical Session-F held on Day 2 with the theme Education and Aspirations was chaired by Dr. Golak B Patra, Assistant Professor and Associate Dean, School of Social Science, Kaziranga University and moderated by Rituparna Choudhury