A group of students from MSW 2^nd Semester along with one faculty member Miss. Adipriya Boruah from School of Social Sciences (SSS), The Assam Kaziranga University organized an observation visit on 16^th March,2023 to State Institute of Panchayat and Rural Development(SIPRD) training centre which is located at Lichubari, Jorhat. The session was first started by the Principal Sir Mr.Bijoy Baruah along with one faculty member Mr. Chandan Sarmah. The purpose of the visit was to observe and learn how the SIPRD works for the development of rural areas.

The observation visit was primarily conducted to know about the functions and objectives of the SIPRD in rural areas. The functions and objectives of SIPRD includes to organize training centres on various operational details, implementation procedures, appropriate technologies, cost effective techniques, convergence of services, habitation development, etc., for officials and non officials involved in implementation of rural development programmes, elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations and Community based organizations, capacity building through skill oriented training programs on Management development and technology support, skill up gradation, etc for self employment in rural areas by taking up economically viable activities, to organize awareness campaigns at field level about socio-economic status and welfare programs launched by the government for development of the rural areas, to implement pilot projects for development of Micro enterprises and to create avenues for income generation. The second important topic was discussed by Dr. Bipul Das Sir, the Ex Principal Sir of SIPRD on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,2005 (MGNREGA). MGNREGA gives legal guarantee of wage employment to the adult members of rural households who are willing to do unskilled manual labour subject to a maximum of 100 days per household, it is applicable for all the villages in the districts.

The students were also actively engaged in an activity where they also conducted an interactive session with the resource persons. After interacting with the resource persons they shared their experiences  acquired from the whole observation visit of SIPRD and ended the session with positive feedback and words of appreciation from the speaker, the representative faculty member and the students. The total strength of 60 students along with one faculty member attended the workshop on the role and functions of SIPRD where they gained knowledge on new topics. Indeed the observation visit was successful learning.