LEC: Inauguration of Monsoon 2012 Program, Release of LEC Brochure 2012

The Linguistic Empowerment cell organized an event for the Inauguration of its Monsoon 2012 programs for students and staff on the 18 September, 2012 at 3 30 PM in the university convention centre. The highlight of the event was the release of the Brochure LEC-2012 by Prof. S. K. Sopory, Vice Chancellor, JNU. The event was attended by close to 350 people including both the convenors of LEC, Prof. Vaishna Narang and Prof. GJV Prasad, all the faculty members (Guest Faculty) of the cell, and a large number of students. Prof. Sudha Pai, Rector, JNU, presided over the event.

The welcome address was given by Prof. GJV Prasad, who stated that the linguistic empowerment cell had been a dream program for the convenors for quite some time, which finally came true last year after the Vice Chancellor accepted their proposal. The idea behind this program was to enrich the students, to make them linguistically equipped to achieve anything they want- by acquiring a firm grip on language, communication, and ways to express themselves. The program had a modest beginning, but went on to have two successful semesters. He expressed his hopes that the students who attended the program last year and found themselves benefited by it will go ahead the spread the word about it, and more students will join the program. He said that since these courses are not compulsory, and are non-credit courses, they should be seen as opportunities, ways to do better elsewhere. He also addressed the basic question of 'Why do we need English?' and stated that one needs English because it is everywhere, and one needs it everywhere. He specified that the LEC offered courses that seek to address this need, and its sole motto is to deliver what the students want, to everyone, with no one left out. He also mentioned that based on the requirements of the students, the LEC will expand and take up new modes of instructions like workshops and research writing programs to make the students linguistically empowered. Lastly, he expressed his gratitude to the Vice Chancellor and the Rector for their willingness to give LEC good resources and facilities, and hoped for their further support.

Prof. Vaishna Narang, Chief-Coordinator of the program, addressed the house next, with her annual report of the success of the program, and an outline of the possible future projects that the LEC seeks to take up in the forthcoming semesters. She stated that the LEC has achieved an unprecedented response in the university, and in the monsoon and winter semesters, 2011-12, a total of 116 students enrolled themselves with the cell to complete the offered courses and that 266 students registered for the Monsoon 2012 program already. Apart from the regular courses, there was also a wide demand by the students for intensive summer/ winter courses, which were also offered by the cell. She observed that whereas the largest number of enrollments came from the three science schools of the university, SBT, SC&SS and SLS, the largest school of the university, SSS was relatively under-represented in the program, with only about 5% students from SSS contributing to the overall strength.

Prof. Narang stated that being linguistically empowered is of prime importance today, and in a university like JNU, it becomes even more important to provide a platform like LEC because of the fact that JNU promotes its policies of social justice and affirmative action through its admission policy which helps students from remote backward areas, rural and urban, from underprivileged and marginalized sections of the society. Once they are admitted JNU takes full responsibility to bring them at par with the others linguistically, so that they can receive what JNU has to offer. She also observed that most institutions of higher education in the country do give reservation which is mandatory but fail to take up the responsibility afterwards, and fail to address this most practical aspect of their learning, their inability to express themselves in a language that is the only language which can help them connect with fellow scientists and researchers from the other parts of the world. In schools and colleges of today the students learn to handle science and technology, life sciences and mathematical and computer sciences, IT and other sciences through processes which may be termed Information processing rather than acquisition of knowledge. It is mostly acquisition of information but not knowledge. In order to move from information to knowledge, from empirical facts to rational interpretation of facts you need language. In fact linguistic processing and cognitive processing are always together, and run parallel with each other, enhancing each other, contributing to the growth and development of each other.

In the last 3 to 4 decades if not more, the compromise in language education in schools and also in UG colleges has led people to believe that bullet points, half sentences/ semi sentences, short cuts, formulaic language together constitute what we may call the language of Science and Technology, as opposed to long discourses and essays written in social sciences and humanities courses. This is not true. Incomplete sentences/ texts only indicate inadequate learning of facts, incomplete interpretation of empirical facts, incomplete representation of facts. If learning continues with this kind of compromise on language education, the end result will be nothing but stunted growth of language skills and stunted growth of cognitive skills.

It is with these ideas in our minds that the Linguistic Empowerment Cell of JNU was envisaged. The aim and purpose of this Cell, now located in the Old Language Lab Complex, is linguistic empowerment, which she said world not only enhance the communication abilities of the students, but also help in honing their cognitive processing and learning skills as a whole. Linguistic empowerment is cognitive empowerment, and cognitive capacity building, so that eventually; the students learn to realize the creative potential of the language, learn to express some of the most complex and abstract ideas in simple language, and also realize how learning a language becomes cognitive empowerment.

She expressed hope that with the kind of beginning that this program has had, and the overwhelming response of the students and the staff alike, the LEC will come up to the expectations of everyone. She ended her address with words of gratitude, and hopes of continuing co-operation from the Vice Chancellor and the Rector. After Professor Narang's address, the students of the Summer Program organized by the LEC were felicitated by the Vice Chancellor, and 29 students, including some staff members were awarded certificates of proficiency and books.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. S.K. Sopory was requested to release the first brochure of the LEC. Releasing the brochure Prof Sopory began his address by thanking the students and the members of staff present for attending the event, and expressed his hope that the kind show of support and encouragement from their teachers, Chairpersons and Deans will motivate the students to participate even more in the program. He stated that the concept of LEC had been there for quite some time, but it germinated only last year. He went on to congratulate Professor Narang and Professor Prasad for their initiative, and gave due credit to their vision and hard work for the success of the program. He gave a few examples, citing the immense need of a linguistic empowerment program in JNU, and reiterated the importance of this program as an enriching, empowering initiative. He stated that language helps in expressing critical thinking; to put learning into writing is not an easy task. Many a times, even talented students who send their papers for publication elsewhere are asked to improve the language of their work, because it fails to express the depth of their knowledge. This is where this program comes in. It seeks to empower the students in every way- to enable them to read, comprehend, write and speak in a way they have always wanted to. He concluded his address by announcing a new Mathematical and computational cell, in collaboration with SC&SS, to empower those students who face the same kind of marginalization in these areas. Finally, he offered his best wishes and support to the program.

The Chairperson for the event, Rector, Prof. Sudha Pai, stated that the Linguistic Empowerment Cell is an example of what is possible in JNU. She expressed her hopes to now continually seek to expand the LEC, and give it new forms in order to maximize its impact. In line with Prof. Prasad and Prof. Narang's hopes, Prof. Pai also specified that separate courses for research writing will also be encouraged. She observed that to translate Research methodology into a thesis, language skills are required. Hence it is as important to develop writing skills as it is to garner critical thinking. Since this program aims to give its students all it can in terms of linguistic empowerment, she expressed her belief it will take great strides. She assured that the administration is trying it's best to give all kinds of support for this program, and bigger classrooms would be given to the program for future use. She concluded her address by thanking the students, for their interest in the courses, the Chairpersons of various centres, who co-operated with the LEC giving them classrooms for teaching, initially, and also the young teachers who have taught these courses with dedication and have become popular with the students. She noted that it is because of all the hard work put in by the faculty, the students and the coordinators that this program has come so far, and wished the program all the success in future.

Vaishna Narang
Professor, Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS

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dk;ZØe ds eq[; oDrk vkSj jktuhfrfoKkuh Áks- lqcks/kukjk;.k ekykdkj us dgk fd lkezkTokn dks ,sfrgkfld ifjÁs{; esa le>k tkuk csgr t#jh gS D;ksafd vkt tc gekjh ftanxh fo'o cSad vkSj vkbZ-,e-,Q- ds vFkZ'kkL= ls fufeZr vkSj fu;af=r gksus yxh gS rks gesa ;g ugha Hkwyuk pkfg, HkweaMyhdj.k lkezkT;okn dk gh u;k :Ik gSA igys fo'o ;q)ksa dh fofHkf'kdk esa vkSj ckn esa lksfo;r la?k ds fo?kVu ds ckn ¼tc nqfu;k ,d /kzqoh; gks xbZ rks½ lkezkToknh 'kfä;k¡ HkweaMyhdj.k ds jkLrs ¼igys mifuos'k½ rhljh nqfu;k ds ns'kksa esa Áfo'V gqbZ rks gj ckj iw¡thoknh ladVksa ds pyrs nqfu;k dks vkfFkZd eanh ds nkSj ls xqtjuk iM+kA igys mifuos'koknh nkSj esa vkSj ckn esa vkfFkZd mnkjhdj.k ds nkSj esa oSf'od Lrj ij ,d ,sls u;s vkSj vkRedsafnzr oxZ dk mn; gqvk ftlds fy, oLrq gh egÙoiw.kZ Fkh] fopkj ughaA jktuhfr esa Hkh dk¡xzsl ds :Ik esa iw¡thoknh 'kfä;k¡ rks chtsih ds :Ik esa iw¡thoknh vkSj laçnk;oknh 'kfä;k¡ dsanz esa vkbZ vkSj nksuksa vkfFkZd lokyksa ls yxkrkj drjkrh jgh gSA ;gh gky {ks=h; ikfVZ;ksa dk gS] ftudk vk/kkj tkfr vkSj /keZ ij fVdk gSA blhfy, reke varjfojks/kksa vkSj vkilh erHksnksa ds ckotwn lkjs okeny Hkwfe] Hkq[kejh] xjhch] egaxkbZ ds eqíksa ij ,d gS D;ksafd ;g eqís lh/ks lkezkT;okn fojks/k ls tqM+rs gS vkSj budk fojks/k lkezkT;okn dk fojks/k gSA

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'kks/kFkhZ] Hkkjrh; Hkk"kk dsUnz] ts,u;w

India's 2011 Census: Interpretations and Implications of the results

The Indian census provides an enormous amount of information on India's population, its size, structure, and various socioeconomic characteristics and has been a major source of data for researchers, planners, and policy makers. The 2011 census is the fifteenth census of India in the continuous series that began in the nineteenth century and has continued un-interrupted. The preliminary findings of the 2011 census have already been published. The provisional population totals with adequate disaggregation allows analysis of population growth, density, sex composition, literacy, urbanization, as well as indirect estimation of fertility and migration. The data released so far allow an assessment of key aspects of the present demographic and socio-economic situation and of the changes that have been taking place in Indian society and economy. Given the rapid economic growth observed at the macro-level during the past few years, an early analysis of the available results would add to our understanding of recent changes in the population. It is in this context that the Centre for study of Regional Development (CSRD) organized a two day national seminar on "India's 2011 Census: Interpretations and Implications of the Results" on 6-7 September, 2012 at Convention Centre. This was the first conference on the results of the Census 2011. The seminar was supported by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) programme of CSRD.

The seminar attracted some of the best minds working in the area of geography, demography, economics and other social sciences. Altogether 30 papers were presented. In particular, the seminar had very good participation from young researchers who participated as well as presented papers. The seminar was also attended by senior officials of the Office of Registrar General of India. Papers were received on Census data released so far i.e. population characteristics namely sex ratio and rural-urban distribution, household amenities and assets. A panel discussion was also held on National Population Register (NPR) and Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC).

The inaugural address was given by Prof. M.K. Premi, former faculty member of CSRD, whose lecture was on overall census data use and the changes in the Census data collection over time. In particular, he highlighted the issue of quality of data, utilization by various social sciences and for policy opurpose. Some of the other issues discussed in the seminar were literacy, sex ratio, assets, housing conditions, urbanization and migration.

The concluding session was chaired by Anders Thomsen of UNFPA who highlighted the need to integrate the findings from Census with Policy initiatives.

P.M. Kulkarni, Chairperson,
Centre for the Study of Regional Development, SSS

Remembering Tapas Majumdar: A Colloquium on Discourses across Boundaries

To pay homage to its founder, Professor Tapas Majumdar, the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies organized a one-day colloquium on his second death anniversary, the 15 October 2012, on 'Discourses across Boundaries' - a theme Professor Majumdar had cherished throughout his long academic career. The colloquium was attended by scholars from various institutions, including some of his former students and colleagues from the Presidency College, Calcutta (now Presidency University, Kolkata).

In the inaugural plenary session, Professor Mridula Mukherjee, Dean, School of Social Sciences, extended a note of welcome to the guests and participants. Professor Binod Khadria, Chairperson, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies and the Colloquium Convener, introduced the theme of the colloquium. Professor C.P. Bhambri, a former colleague of Professor Majumdar at JNU, released and presented the Tapas Majumdar Memorabilia and the India Migration Report 2010-2011 (dedicated to Professor Majumdar) to the Guest of Honour Smt. Gauri Majumdar. While paying tributes to Professor Majumdar, Professor Bhambri observed that he was a visionary academic, a concerned human being who pursued excellence and high ideals throughout his life. A message from Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen, a former student of Professor Majumdar was read also out.

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Sabyasachi Bhattarcharya, formerly Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research and a Vice-Chancellor of Vishwa Bharati University, and who was a former student of Professor Tapas Majumdar in the Presidency College and later his colleague in JNU. Prof. Bhattacharya mentioned that taking inspiration from the 'red-brick' model of Sussex University and the national representative character of the Australian National University, JNU was established to grow as a model, a platonic platitude, amidst the 'narrow son of the soil bias' of the state universities in the country. The university has always provided space for promoting continuity of dialogue between teachers and students in a collective and anti-hierarchical atmosphere, he emphasized. While making his comments, the chair, Professor S. K. Sopory, Vice–Chancellor of JNU, observed that inter-disciplinarity has been a unique feature of the university and JNU is striving to take it to further distinction by establishing a number of trans-disciplinary research clusters in the twelfth five year plan which will bring together students and researchers from different faculties to address major multi-disciplinary issues. He also mentioned about the mutual learning forum, initiated by the university, where students from all schools and disciplines can come and participate in the discussion. Prof. Binod Khadria, the colloquium convener, proposed the vote of thanks.

The second plenary session began with Prof. Khadria reading out a message from Prof. Anjan Mukherji, who could not come due to some emergency. Sharing his long association with Prof. Tapas Majumdar as a junior colleague in JNU, Prof. Mukherji recalled an interaction in the 1970s that highlighted Prof. Majumdar's clarity of vision regarding the application of interdisciplinary approach in social sciences, especially the application of psychology and law to understand the problems of economics. Prof. Shanta Sinha, Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, spoke on the issue of child labour and implementation of the Right to Education (RTE). She mentioned that RTE is a guarantee for any child to go to school anywhere in the country throughout the year. She pointed out that the access to school is still skewed in the country. She expressed her anguish that despite the implementation of RTE, many children are still out of school and the drop-out rates are very high. Prof. Sinha pointed towards the negative consequences of the "culture of packing" for the children of poor parents who do not know how to prepare their children every day for going to school. She also cautioned against the de-legitimization of government schools and reiterated the need for commitment to make school an attractive place for all children.

Prof. R.P. Singh mentioned that what is important is the quality of life, which can be improved by minimizing injustices rather than following an absolutist approach. Tapas Majumdar thought of the marginalized sections and favoured the multi-disciplinary perspectives that could provide them better quality of life. Prof. Singh explained four perspectives of looking at the social realities: from one to many; from many to many; from many to one; and from nothing to many. He concluded that reality follows diverse models and cannot be properly understood from the narrow boundaries of unitary perspectives. Prof. Pulin Nayak stated that Tapas Majumdar got admiration at the very beginning of his career from great economists including Prof. Lionel Robbins. Prof. Nayak observed that economics has benefitted hugely from other disciplines in the course of its development. Many economists like David Ricardo and John Maynard Keynes started their career in other disciplines but turned out to be excellent economists. Citing the Yashpal Committee Report, Prof. Nayak advocated that impetus should be given to promote inter-disciplinarity in the academic institutions.

While paying his tributes, Prof. Ashok Guha observed that Tapas Majumdar was a polymath and belonged to an 'endangered species of economists' who practised inter-dsciplinarity throughout their academic endeavours. Prof. Guha stated that economics has gained a lot from explorations in other areas such as psychology, history, literature, culture and philosophy. He observed that the origin of new knowledge is inter-disciplinary and creativity has a major inter-disciplinary component. However, it is difficult to institutionalize inter-disciplinarity. The Chair of the session, Prof. Mridula Mukherjee, remarked that practising inter-disciplinarity is much more difficult for it requires specific kind of frameworks as well as people. She posed whether we need specialists with firm background in a particular discipline or generalists, 'the jacks of all trades and masters of none', to foster discourses across boundaries.

In the third plenary session, Prof. Ajit Kumar Mohanty observed that orientation towards good human values requires crossing of boundaries. Tapas Majumdar crossed disciplinary boundaries in his academic pursuit very successfully because of his conviction in strong human values. He mentioned that human mind is not limited to disciplinary boundaries and has the inherent capacity to transcend them. He gave several examples especially from education, such as the problem of wastage or stagnation, which cannot be solved by a unitary approach and requires knowledge of many disciplines such as psychology, education, language policy, and socio-linguistics. Prof. Sanjoy Hazarika narrated the experience of taking healthcare to the people by boat. He raised the point that nobody has the right to take anybody's life, even if that person was crossing the border illegally. Referring to the recent 'mobile syndrome', which jeopardized the security of the people of north-east India in Bangalore, he emphasized that these kinds of issues cannot be resolved by a unidimensional approach and requires multidisciplinary perspectives - proper understanding of the history, culture, society and economic conditions of the people.

Prof. Deepak Kumar observed that disciplinary boundaries are constructions of the 19th and 20th centuries. There have been people as well as institutions in all societies who have transcended disciplinary boundaries. He referred to the book Nature, Man and the Indian Economy, edited by Tapas Majumdar, as an excellent piece of inter-disciplinary discourse. He also referred to the motto of the Asiatic Society, "anything that occurs in nature and performed by man comes under the purview of Asiatic Society", transcends all disciplinary boundaries. The Chair of the session, Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, observed that inter-disciplinarity can be seen as a transformative experience leading to action. Public health is one such area where the knowledge of conventionally defined disciplines is not sufficient and requires a proper understanding of factors such as family, community, distributional issues of equity, pathways of collective action, patents rights as well as the knowledge of biology, computational chemistry, health economics, demography, and ethics. He expressed concern that inter-disciplinary research receives very small grants and multi-authored papers are not well recognized in India. Dr. Reddy urged that the Planning Commission should earmark some grant for promoting inter-disciplinary research, especially, at the post-graduate and PhD level.

In the fourth plenary session, Prof. B.S. Chimni pointed towards incongruence in the discourses in the field of international studies where, amidst growing significance of internationalization and globalization, the issues of methodological nationalism and nation-states still remain at the centre stage. Irrespective of the change in government at the centre, economic policy of the country would remain the same because the trajectory of economic policy is being decided by external forces such as the IMF, the WTO, and the World Bank. Lauding the contribution of Tapas Majumdar in promoting inter-disciplinarity, Prof. Aditya Mukherjee observed that it has been practised by lawyers, especially during the freedom struggle, who looked beyond their disciplinary boundaries to understand the social, economic and political issues. He, however, expressed concern that there have been attempts to look at important issues by limiting the analysis to narrow walls of the disciplinary boundaries by giving five examples from the contemporary history of India: initial planning, land reforms, democracy, economic reforms, and India's growth story vis-à-vis globalization.

The Chair of the session, Prof. Sudha Pai observed that the contribution of Tapas Majumdar, especially accessible through his books, was a testimony of his inter-disciplinary acumen. Also, the Zakir Husain Centre, founded by Prof. Majumdar, was a unique Centre in the country for pursuing an interdisciplinary approach. Prof. Pai felt that interaction among different schools of JNU, such as the School of International Studies and School of Social Sciences, which could have many things to share especially in the context of political theory and its importance to India's problems, should be encouraged. Further, JNU should encourage interaction with multi-disciplinary centres like the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies and others, especially among students across disciplines.

In the closing plenary, dedicated to tributes and reflections, some participants, including a few members of the Presidency College Aumni Association in Delhi, shared their experiences, interactions, and observations as students, colleagues and friends of Prof. Majumdar. Tapas Majumdar was remembered as a teacher having 'innate capacity to clarify concepts', an easily accessible mentor, a man of convictions with extraordinary insight to take up the challenges, a reticent, and above all a good human being.

Binod Khadria, Chairperson
Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies

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After Employment, What?

A two day workshop titled, After Employment, What?: A Workshop on Challenges faced, Negotiations made and Policies required for Differently Abled Teachers in Institutions of Higher Learning" supported by the Equal Opportunity Office, JNU was organized on 9 and 10 November, 2012. The aim of the workshop, as shared by the Convenor of the workshop, Dr. Navneet Sethi, Associate Professor, Centre for English Studies, JNU was to ask two crucial questions, "what are the factors that make academic life for a differently abled faculty member different from his/her colleague. To what end is the academic journey of a differently abled faculty member directing itself to?"

Inaugrated by Prof. Kiran Walia, Hon'ble Minister for Social Welfare, Women & Child Development, Government of NCT of Delhi, who lauded the effort "as first of its kind and relevant due to the growing orientation towards affirmative policies and implementation", the workshop's forums of reference were, according to Dr. Someshwar Sati, Associate Professor at Kirori Mal College, Delhi University and Co-Convenor, "identification of challenges faced by differently abled faculty, in and around Delhi and the region of NCR with the goal to develop a consensus on what needs to be done to ensure a level playing field for the differently abled faculty in institutions of higher learning."

Prof. S.K. Sopory, the VC of JNU, in his opening remarks welcoming the chief guest shared information on initiatives taken and changes created on issues and challenges related to the differently abled members of JNU students, staff and faculty community. Earlier, welcoming the chief guest, Prof. Sonajharia Minz, Chief Advisor, Equal Opportunity Office, JNU gave a brief overview of the activities of EOO JNU, in its consistent emphasis on events, policies, infrastructural reforms geared to making JNU an enabling campus.

In the session, The Social Environment: Challenges and Negotiations, Dr. C. Nisha Singh, formerly OSD, Equal Opportunity Cell, DU in her paper, "Alienation and Withdrawal: Impediments in Inclusion (some in built challenges in negotiations)", suggested, "Inclusion is a matter of attitude, policy, rights and strategies. The policy is in place at only some levels of higher education. The policy lacks conviction and hence the caliber of a PH candidate is judged with a different yard stick. Alienation is a two way process; everyone is partly responsible for it as is revealed in a few actual case studies.

Dr. Renu Adlakha, (Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi), in her presentation, "Inclusion in the Academy: Workplace Accommodation and the interpersonal environment", stressed that "the issue of alienation and inclusion is marked by the subtle nature of oppression. At the workplace, the equation between disability and unproductivity work both ways, either putting pressure on the disabled employee having to prove oneself or the employers' unstated belief that the disabled employee will be the last one to leave the job. Individual entrepreneurship confronts the challenges created by an abysmal lack of infrastructural support and therefore resources were required to commute to work, materials for research and teaching. The need is for "a formal network", a creation of a group consistent in its aim to work as a resource centre for its members".

The session, Advancing Careers, Retaining Biases: Paradoxes at Workplace featured an interactive, participatory, audience centered talk by Dr. Satendra Singh, Coordinator, Enabling Unit & Assistant Professor of Physiology at UCMS, New Delhi on "Disability and Discrimination at Work". Adding to the analytical content of Dr. Singh's presentation were the "Stories and Struggles" of Dr. Reeta Namdev (Bhagini Nivedita College); Dr. Shiv Kumar Mishra(Nehru Homeopathic Medical College); Dr.Deepak Sharma(School of Life Sciences, JNU); Dr. Satish Kumar (St. Stephens College); Dr. S. Maitra (Centre for Biotechnology, JNU) shared by the participants themselves bringing to the fore the lived in reality of differently abled teachers.

In the session, Rights and Research : A Cross Cultural Reference, Dr. Jagdish Chander (Hindu College) presented a talk, "A comparative perspective on disability rights movement in India and U.S: Experiences of a disabled scholar at the University of Delhi and Syracuse" comparing the policies of inclusion in the two democracies while Dr. Hemchandran Khera (CSDS,New Delhi) presented his thoughts on, "Challenges in doing research in the humanities for the visually impaired: a cross cultural perspective".

Day 2 of the Workshop began with insightful presentations' in the session, "Is there a 'different' Teacher in the Classroom?" Dr. Preeti Prakash Prajapati (LSR College) discussed multiple dimensions of pedagogy in her presentation, "On being a visually impaired teacher: negotiating and overcoming the challenges of classroom management" while Ms. Abha Khetarpal (Crossing the Hurdles, an NGO) in her talk ''Employing teachers with disability; a positive step towards Universal Design in Instruction and Learning'' listed the many technological options available to a differently abled teacher as part of the goal towards inclusive teaching tools.

Mr. Prasannalal Pincha, Chief Commissioner of Persons With Disabilities chaired the session, "Enabling State, Disabling Exclusion: Rethinking 'Stated?' Policies" and also gave a riveting talk on definitions, policies, laws, orientations, implementations, case histories on all aspects of disability. This session also included an informative presentation given by Mr. Mohit Jolly, a practicing lawyer on, "Law of Disability – Reservation, Sensitization & Penalization".

To be able to facilitate discussion on initiatives and results of Equal Opportunity units in the session, "Programme Delivery : The Logistics of Enablement", Dr. Komal Kamra (Khalsa College) as a founder member of Equal Opportunity Cell at DU presented her experiences and insights in "Inclusion in Work Place: Institutional and Individual Models". Prof. Sonajharia Minz, Chief Advisor, EOO, JNU discussed in detail the work done to further the 'enabling' vision for the university campus.

The two day workshop culminated with a summing up of the discussions and future plans by Dr. Sati and Dr. Sethi. Chairing all working sessions, the differently abled Ph.D students from JNU and DU reinforced the 'different' ideology of the workshop with immense enthusiasm and dignity.

The workshop concluded with the following directives:
To study and set up an information resource group in the metropolis centres that would collect, tabulate and catalog information on service providers for the travelling needs of disabled teachers; like ticketing, medical assistance, transport, bed &breakfast facilities, compendium of volunteers identified and listed with the Assistance centers; To create a national web directory of differently abled teachers in colleges and universities; To set up a Differently Abled Teachers' Collective for teachers with disabilities to be based in JNU; To document issues discussed in the workshop and create a Plan Blueprint paper for the governmental agencies involved in policy formation and its implementation; and, To publish a collection of narratives and autobiographical accounts of teachers with disabilities highlighting the multiple strains of struggle and suppression.

Navneet Sethi
Associate Professor
Centre for English Studies, SLL&CS