‘SUBSISTENCE OF THE OTHERS’

A Webinar, organized by the Department of Geography and IQAC, The Bhawanipur Education Society College

Platform: Google Meet
Date: 23.9.2020

Total Number of participants	Total Number of Students	Total Number of Teachers	External Expert
141	28	2	2

The Department of Geography of the Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata, organised a Special Lecture on 23rd September, 2020, at room no. 532 on Google Meet platform. The resource persons for the webinar were Dr. Jenia Mukherjee and Prof. Malay Mukhopadhyay. Dr. Jenia Mukherjee is the Assistant Professor of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur. Dr. Mukherjee has worked extensively on Environmental history, Political Ecology, Development Studies and Urban Studies both nationally and internationally. Dr. Malay Mukhopadhyay is the Professor and Former Head, Department of Geography, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Dr. Mukhopadhyay has passionately worked on rivers for past several years and spent days with tribal communities namely, Onge, Kani, Santal and Apatani. Apart from delivering lectures both nationally and internationally, he also has taken out time to write some books on subject-oriented topics, short stories, poems and novels.

The lectures delved into the livelihood generation facets of the marginalized and tribal commons within the sphere of globalization and environmental degradation in India. Through the lecture series, an appraisal was be made on the wellbeing and subsistence-related endeavours of the traditional communities within the neo-liberal processes. Geographically speaking, globalization has led to the melting of global boundaries. The homogeneity created has caused an existential crisis for these marginalised groups. They not only face economic challenges but have been facing a loss of intangible cultural heritage. Environmental changes, loss of habitat has also lead to a loss of economic survival for several indigenous communities.

Dr. Jenia Mukherjee spoke on the topic “From nature, to nature: ecosystem services and community well being in rural West Bengal ” speaking extensively about a number of case studies from peri-urban and rural West Bengal on how marginalised

communities have been coping up with the changes in time especially with globalization and degradation of the environment.

Dr. Malay Mukhopadhyay spoke on the topic the topic “Development Strategies vis-a- vis Human Rights: Response of a tiny tribal community of Andaman Islands, India” where he spoke of his extensive field experience with the Onge tribal community and how external influence is changing them. He left us pondering as to the future of this tribal community.

The lecture was attended by persons and was moderated by Ms. Raktima Ghosh and Dr. Debika Banerji from the Geography Department, The Bhawanipur Education Society College. The welcome address was given by the IQAC co-ordinator, Mr Tathagata Sen. The seminar ended with a very fruitful question and answer session with a number of questions being raised and discussed by the resource persons.