8 Feb 2013

Ladakh 2013 - Economy, Society, Governance & Politics- New Issues, Young Voices

Ladakh 2013 -  Economy, Society, Governance & Politics- New Issues, Young Voices

http://www.risingkashmir.in/news/jora-inaugurates-ipcs-iic-conference-in-new-delhi-41020.aspx

‘Ladakh’s transformation is changing lives of Ladakhis’
New Delhi, Feb01: The Institute of  Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), one of the prominent think tanks in South Asia in collaboration with India International Center (IIC), New Delhi organized a one day conference on “Ladakh 2013 -  Economy, Society, Governance & Politics- New Issues, Young Voices” at the IIC Conference Hall here Friday.
The Jammu and Kashmir Minister of Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies Nawang Rigzin Jora who hails from Ladakh inaugurated the conference this morning.
Dr. Sudhir Singh Bloeria, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Jammu, Ghulam Hassan Khan, Member Parliament from Ladakh, Professor Siddiq Wahid, Director UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir and former vice chancellor, Awantipora University,  Kavita Suri, Associate Professor, University of Jammu and Tashi Morup, well known journalist from Ladakh who is also Project Director, Ladakh Art and Media Organisation, were the resource persons for the workshop. Saleem Beg, Convenor, INTACH J&K and former DG Tourism J&K and well known theatrist M K Raina, Dr Suba Chandra, Director IPCS, Professor P R Chari and Major General Dipankar Banerjee from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) were also present during the conference.
 The one- day- workshop witnessed the congregation of over 100 young Ladakhi scholars and researchers studying in JNU take part and provide innovative and alternative ideas to address the contemporary challenges and a collective future.

 Inaugurating the conference, Rigzin Jora congratulated the organizers for this workshop and said that holding this workshop in Delhi will also provide the rest of India to listen to the young voices from Ladakh, share their concerns and more importantly develop a national discourse.

He said Ladakh’s insularity, geographic location and other things has made this region unique which has many peculiar problems also.

Since past few decades, the entire Ladakh region is witnessing lot of transformation in terms of development, tourism etc and which is bringing about lot of change in the lives of Ladakhi people, he said.
 “Ladakh is witnessing lot of changes, developments and challenges at the social, economic and political levels. There are multiple new issues having serious implications for the future of Ladakh,” said the minister adding that it was indeed a pleasure to see that the young voices from Ladakh were provided with an exclusive forum to speak and see how they perceive the contemporary trends.

 Earlier while introducing the conference theme, Dr Suba Chandran, Director, IPCS said that while the rest of India has so much to learn from the region, Ladakh also has to ensure the negative effects of globalization process does not harm the internal social, ethnic and economic fibre of its people.
“Since the future belong to them and they are likely shape its multiple contours, it is essential the region and the rest of India listen to their inputs,” said Dr. Chandran adding one of the primary objective of this initiative was to provide a platform to the young voices from Ladakh to discuss various contemporary issues.

 The young scholars from Ladakh region studying in Jawaharlal Nehru (JNU) University presented their research papers under four themes.  

The first session on theme, ‘Politics & Governance” was chaired by Dr SS Bloeria. Tsewang Rigzin, former Executive Councillor, LAHDC and presently councilor in the Hill Council from Nobra spoke on “LAHDC: An account of experience with LAHDC Leh, while Fayaz Ahmed, an M.Phil Scholar from Kargil presented his paper on “Re-inforcement of Traditional Authority through Legal Rational Authority: Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Kargil. A paper on “Military in Ladakh: Everyday Engagements with the Society” was presented by Muzaffar Hussain while Zainab Akhter, Research Officer IPCS spoke on “Connecting Ladakh: Exploring the Possibilities”.

 In the second session chaired by Prof.Siddiq Wahid on the theme “Society and Culture”, three research papers were presented by Chimat Ladaol on “Understanding Patriarchy in Ladakh,” “Identifying with the other: Transformative Interaction Patterns and Relations amongst the Buddhists and Muslims of Ladakh” by Sumera Shafi and “Communalism in Ladakh: Kargil Perspective” by Fayaz Hussain.
 The thematic session on “Education & Environment” was chaired by Tashi Morup in which Samina Rehman presented a paper on “Education in Ladakh: A case study of Leh District”, Sonam Wangmo spoke on “Impact of Climate Change and ground water depletion in Ladakh” while Thupstan Angchuk presented his views on “Climate change and Glacier retreat: double threat to the people of Ladakh”
Kavita Suri chaired a session on the theme “Media, Tourism & Economy” in which Rigzin Chodon presented a paper on “Role of Media in Ladakh” and Gulzar Hussain presented a paper on “Social Networking Sites: Medium of Change in Kargil”. Konchok Paldan who is doing his PhD in JNU spoke on “Border, Economy and Partition: A study of Turtuk Village in Ladakh and Tashi Lundup spoke on “Tourism and culture: religious sites as tourism attraction in Ladakh”.

2 comments:

Dr. Kavita Suri said...

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/IPCS_IIC-conference-on-_Ladakh-2013_New-Issues_-Young-Voices_.html

Dr. Kavita Suri said...

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=442015%3Aunder-one-roof&catid=89%3Acampus&from_page=search