|
REPORT
ON THE
5-DAY YOUTH CAMP
ON
AWARENESS CREATION AND
SENSITIZATION
FOR PEACE AND CONFLICT
RESOLUTION
The CSSS organised a 5-day workshop on
‘Peace and Conflict’ resolution for youth from 15
November to 19 November 2011 at the
Bio-Medical Ethic Centre, St. Pius
College, Goregaon (E), Mumbai, for Awareness Creation
and Sensitisation of Youth on Peace and Conflict
Resolution.
40 students from Kamala Mehta College,
Bal Bharati College, DAV College of
 Mumbai
and MSS Institute of Social Work, Nagpur. participated
in the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to
sensitise the youth on various social issues like
Communalism, Ethnic violence, Gender-based violence,
civil society movement etc. The participants selected
were either from the National Service Scheme or students
of Social Work, with basic interest to learn about
social issues and work in the society. Resource persons
were academicians and social activists from Mumbai and
Bangalore.
The
workshop was inaugurated by Dr..Asghar Ali Engineer, who
delivered two lectures on ‘Rise of Communalism in India’
and ‘Youth and Communal Harmony.’ He traced the
development of communal forces in India starting from
medieval history to freedom movement, discussing the
reasons behind Partition of India. The misconceptions of
a number of participants were cleared during the
discussions that followed the lectures. After making the
participants understand the real motives behind communal
politics and communal riots, Dr. Engineer elaborated on
what the youth could do to sustain communal harmony.
There were a number of suggestions from the participants
as well. The resource person and some of the
participants shared their experiences on how they
interfered in some conflict situations. The session
concluded with a lengthy question and answer session.
 Dr.
Engineer’s presentations were followed by a Group
Activity session by Ms. Minal Mhatre on ‘Gender
Discrimination.’ She divided the participants into three
groups and gave one topic each for discussion. The
topics were ‘Discrimination of Women in job sector’,
‘Discrimination of Women in Public Participation’ and
‘Discrimination of Muslim women in family’. Following
discussions among themselves, the groups presented their
views on a chart. The points evolved out of the
discussions reflected the understanding of the topics by
the participants. Ms. Minal Mhatre concluded the session
summarizing the findings of the groups.
A
documentary on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar directed by Jabbar
Patel was screened in the evening. The film portrayed
his perspectives of an Independent India with social
justice and the ill-treatment meted out to the Dalits in
India in all spheres of life. The screening was followed
by an active discussion by the participants.
On the
second day of the workshop Adv. Nausheen Yousuf involved
the participants in a discussion on the topic ‘Muslim
Women and Domestic Violence Act’. She made three groups
out of the participants and each group was given a
different topic for discussion. The topics were,
‘Problems faced by married Muslim women’, ‘Problems
faced by divorced Muslim women’ and ‘Problems faced by
other women’. The groups came up with their responses
on the topic assigned to theme. The resource person
initiated a lively discussion with the participants, who
could now understand the problems faced by Muslim women,
the ways and means of tackling the issues legally and
also in understanding the problems faced by Muslim
women.
Later,
Adv. Irfan Engineer spoke to the participants on
‘Constitution and Secularism’ during
 which,
he explained the origin and context of the term
‘secularism’ and its usage in various countries, the
need for secularism to ensure justice and equality to
all the citizens etc. The discussions that ensued
covered the constitutional provisions to safeguard
secularism in India. Various articles of the
constitution in this regards were discussed in detail.
Dr.Bharathi Unni made a presentation on the ‘Role of
Youth in Civil Society’. She shared her experiences with
the youth in ‘National Service Scheme’ and made the
participants aware of how youth’s involvement is
important for the betterment of the society. She
discussed the various problems faced by adolescents and
stressed on the need to develop certain values for the
success of one’s own life and for the wellbeing of the
society.
These
sessions were followed by some ice-breaking games to
create a learning atmosphere and to increase the level
of interaction between the participants. Thereafter the
participants were divided in to four groups for
discharging various duties throughout the camp.
On the
third day of the workshop, Mr. Chand Peer from ISI
Bangalore talked to the participants on ‘Cultural
Diversity and Peace Building.’ With the help of teaching
aids like white board, chart paper, power-point, video,
music etc., the entire day was live. Participants were
learning through discussion and activities, the diverse
nature of Indian society with a number of religions,
castes, languages, ethnicity etc. Mr. Chand Peer
expounded that peaceful coexistence called for
respecting and understanding the diversity in a
pluralist society. The participants shared their own
experiences on what they felt once when they were
exposed to some different culture other than their own
and how they accept this new culture as it is. The
detailed sessions did a journey across the states in
India to see the rich diversity exist in our nation.
.jpg) The
fourth day of the workshop started with a session on
‘Civil Society Movements: The recent trends’ by Prof.
Aruna Pendse, at which she explained the terms civil
society and the role of civil society in a democratic
system. The discussion moved on to the recent happenings
in the Indian society, especially the anti-corruption
movement. She critically analysed the whole movement,
whether it would strengthen the parliamentary democracy
system or not. The session gave a new outlook for the
participants about the whole movement. The participants
were engaged in a lively question-answer session at the
end of the talk.
Following Dr. Pendse’s presentation, Dr.Vasundhara Mohan
apprised the participants on ‘Ethnic Violence in Sri
Lanka’ explaining the historic context of the origins of
clashes between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. By
providing the socio-economic, demographic and geographic
data the resource person could provide a clear picture
of what actually happened in Sri Lanka. The session
helped the participants to develop a perspective on how
conflict should be examined objectively.
In the
post-lunch session, the participants were involved in a
group activity on ‘Social Analysis’ by Mr. Riyas V M.
The objective was to make the participants aware of the
need for expert and objective analysis of social issues
rather than approaching them with prejudice and
 ias.
The participants were encouraged and educated to
critically think about some popular notions of
development, peace etc. through the group activity and
discussion.
In a
cultural programme towards the end of the day, the
participants exhibited their talents on music and dance.
Each group also presented a skit based on one or the
other social issues.
On the
last day of the workshop, Dr. Vasundhara Mohan made a
presentation on ‘Bias and Violence against Women’. With
statistics and examples the resource person made the
participants aware about how alarming the situation is,
as far as gender based violence is concerned. The
historic social and cultural elements responsible for
gender violence were discussed in detail. At the
question-answer session, more focus was on how to
minimize the violence and what youth can do in this
regard.
In the
valedictory session on the last day, the participants
shared their feedback as well as experience in the five
day workshop. Written feedback and daily reports were
also collected from the participants. Dr.Vasundhara
Mohan and Prof Utham distributed certificates to the
participants.
__________
| 
