Webinar on Hunger as a social problem in India organised by the School of Social Sciences
The School of Social Science,The Assam Kaziranga University organized a webinar on "Hunger as a social problem in India" on 14th June 2021. The key speaker of the webinar was Prof (Dr) Madhurjya Prasad Bezbaruah, who is currently a professor in the Department of Economics, Gauhati University and was formerly the HOD of Economics, Gauhati University for three terms. A renowned economist of the state and a senior academician, Prof. Bezbaruah has also served as the Director of Gauhati University Institute of Northeast India Studies; former member of ICSR, New Delhi; Director in the board of Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd; Dean, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Fine Arts, Gauhati University to name a few.
The webinar started at 10:30 AM where Prof. Bezbaruah delivered a very detailed presentation on hunger, covering several aspects related to this social issue and drawing input from various disciplines like Economics, History, Cultural Studies, and other Social Sciences. His presentation included the following key aspects related to the aforesaid topic – the notion of hunger, various causes of hunger, various type of hunger like chronic, seasonal hunger; hunger from a historical perspective, the green revolution and its impact on the issue of hunger, policy interventions, and their impact; shift of focus from plain hunger to malnutrition, appraisal by international agencies, India's performance by international standards, global hunger, trends in undernourishment under-five mortality, the pandemic, and hunger, etc.
The objective of this webinar was to familiarize the students with this significant social problem and its various aspects so that they understand the severity of this problem and come up with effective intervention plans to minimize the same.
The webinar was quite informative for the students and the faculty members. The participants raised quite relevant questions like how gender discrimination is associated with hunger and how Biofortification can help battle hidden hunger etc. A total of 90 plus students including faculties participated in the webinar and made it a successful one. The field workgroup (the students of MSW II & BSW II semesters) who were actively involved in hosting this webinar expressed their interest in attending such thought-provoking webinars in the near future.