Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, organized two days ICSSR Sponsored National Workshop Geographer’s Youth Conclave on “Sustainable and Innovative Environmental Practices” on 30 and 31st January 2020 in the college campus. This is the second Youth Conclave organized by the Department of Geography. The aim of the Youth Conclave was to give an opportunity to the young undergraduates who are pursuing Geography from various institutions to come under one platform, to present their work output and deliberate on their research findings based on their original work and innovative approach. The idea behind this Conclave is to provide a platform for all the Geography students to come together and ignite their own creative minds and put forth their nascent step towards research. The concept is to understand one’s own experiences and visualize or conceptualize or theorize any one or multiple aspects of the theme with an innovative and original approach and write a paper on the same. For this conclave, 31 teams were selected.
The research work for this conclave started in September 2019 and all the participating teams attended the two review meetings held to share the progress of their research. At the Conclave held on 3rd and 4th September they presented their final outputs of a research conducted by them from September 2019 to January 2020.
Inaugural Session
The Inaugural Session of the Conclave began on 30 January 2020 at 10 a.m with a brief introduction about the conclave and welcome note by the convener Dr. Poonam Sharma. The key delegates of the session were Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker Prof. P. K. Joshi, Professor at School of Environmental Science and Chairperson, Special Centre for Disaster Research at JNU, New Delhi, Guest of Honor Prof. S. C. Rai, Professor at Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Guest of Honor Ms. Gayatri Raghava, UN Environment Education Consultant, Dr. Anil Sardana, Patron, and Principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi.
Patron Dr. Anil Sardana in his inaugural address welcomed all the participants and mentioned how the environment affects all. Political, social and technological efforts have to be put together to protect the environment. He also emphasized that “sustainable development is key to success”. Prof S. C. Rai gave various examples of sustainable practices in the Sikkim Himalaya and emphasized that the sustainability of an ecosystem can be achieved by the blending of indigenous and modern technologies. In her address, Ms. Gayatri stated the significance of behavioral practices and a systematic approach to achieving the goal of the long term sustainability. She also emphasized that sustainability is a continuous process and its parameters change with time and space. Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker Prof. P. K. Joshi in his address said that mankind is living on time borrowed from the future generations. Therefore, youth is the key stakeholder for deciding the future of the planet earth. The session ended with the Vote of Thanks delivered by Dr. V. A. V. Raman, the co-convener of this national workshop.
Technical Sessions
There were 31 research papers presented in a total of 5 technical sessions. These sessions provided a wonderful platform for young research scholars and their mentors to present their research work. The seminar brought together participants from various colleges of the University of Delhi and two teams also represented Isabella Thoburn College, University of Lucknow. All the sessions were judged by three esteem guest jury members Prof. Sanjeev Sharma, faculty from Centre for the Studies in Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Prof. Rupani, Associate Professor from School of Inter-Disciplinary and Trans-Disciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and Dr. Shabana Khan from Indian Research Academy, New Delhi.The First Technical Session on day one was “Sustainability in Practice”. A total of five papers were presented on Green Marketing, Sustainable Industries, Sustainable Industry like KhadiChiken and Muga Silk and interlinkages between Sustainability and Fashion. After a tea break, the second technical session of day one started. It was focused on “Sustainable Urban Environment”. session threeASFOUR and “- etc“” eight on for the won by team mentored by Dr. Amrita Bajaj. They worked on “Sustainability of Indigenous Muga Silk: A Case Study of Sualkuchi, Assam”. The second prize went to the team mentored by Dr. Shweta Rani and third prize went to the team mentored by Ms. Anupama Rebecca Anthony. The consolation prize was won by two teams of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (M) mentored by Dr. Swati Rajput and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College Evening team mentored by Dr. V.S. Negi.
