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Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Primary Education in India: From Compulsion to Fundamental Rights

on August 20, 2024, from 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm At Seminar Halls 1, 2, and 3, Kamala Devi Complex, India International Centre, New Delhi

Agriculture through the Lens of Small and Marginal farmers: Challenges and Pathways

CSD India is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Please find link for the online participation:

Day-1: Agriculture through the Lens of Small and Marginal farmers: Challenges and Pathways
Time: Jul 15, 2024 09:30 AM India

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 893 0781 4185
Passcode: 508188

Day-2: Agriculture through the Lens of Small and Marginal farmers: Challenges and Pathways
Time: Jul 16, 2024 09:30 AM India

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 890 4843 0275
Passcode: 893133

Kindly fill out the form and register for the conference here

Fore More Details

Bandung Day Symposium 2024

Bandung Day Symposium 2024: Rekindling the Bandung Spirit for Palestine

In a bid to rekindle the spirit of the historic Bandung Conference of 1955 and address the pressing issues facing Palestine, the Council for Social Development (CSD) in collaboration with the India International Centre (IIC), and Bandung Network India, hosted the Bandung Day Symposium 2024 in New Delhi.

The Symposium, held in anticipation of the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference in 2025, focused on the theme ‘Building the World Anew’, with a special discussion on ‘The Future of Palestine’. Distinguished speakers, including Achin Vanaik (Former Professor, University of Delhi), and Anuradha Chenoy (Former Dean, School of International Studies, JNU), addressed the audience. The session was chaired by Manoranjan Mohanty (Former Professor, University of Delhi).

The event commenced with a welcome address by Nitya Nanda (Director, CSD) and introductory remarks by Rityusha Mani Tiwary (Convener, Bandung Network, India). The opening theme song was performed by Pratidhwani, led by Professor Subhendu Ghosh.

The Symposium aimed to engage in meaningful dialogue regarding the future of Palestine, reflecting on the Bandung Spirit and its relevance in contemporary global affairs. Going back in history, the Asian-African Conference in Bandung in April 1955, marked a pivotal moment. Leaders from newly independent Asian and African countries convened, proposing alternatives to superpower hegemony and birthing the Bandung Spirit Movement. The latter embodies a call for peaceful coexistence between nations, advocates for the liberation of the world from the dominance of superpowers, colonialism, imperialism, and opposes any form of one country’s domination over another. Additionally, it promotes racial and national equality, solidarity with the poor, weak, and marginalized communities, and their development.

The Bandung Day Symposium 2024 comes at a critical time as the world witnesses the ongoing crisis in Palestine. Prof. Mohanty noted, “The future of Palestine determines the future of the world, as issues of sovereignty, peace and equality, and ubuntu [mutual co-existence] would be tested”, irrespective of what the outcome is. As the violence and suffering inflicted upon the Palestinian people demand immediate international action, the Symposium aligns with the Bandung Spirit Network to urge nations to recommit to the Bandung principles. 

Notably, during the Bandung Summit of 2015 too, participating nations reaffirmed their support for the Palestinian cause, condemning human rights violations and violence against Palestinians. The summit emphasized the need for a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the relevant United Nations resolutions. The Symposium saw it as imperative that the international community works together to ensure the rights, dignity, and safety of all people, regardless of race or nationality.

In honoring the legacy of Bandung, the Symposium sought to reaffirm the commitment to a world built on peace, justice, and equality. It concluded by urging nations to rekindle the goals of the 1955 Bandung Conference, emphasizing the need for peace, equality, and solidarity with the marginalized.

National Summit on the RTE Act

National Summit on the RTE Act

15 Years of the Implementation of the Right to Education Act
– Where Do We Stand?
The RTE Cell at CSD Organizes National Summit to Review

Fourteen years have passed since the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, marking a significant juncture in India’s pursuit of educational equity and inclusivity. The 2024 National Summit on the Right to Education (RTE) Act, held on April 1, brought together stakeholders from across sectors to critically evaluate the progress and challenges associated with the RTE Act.

Introduced by the government of India in 2009, the RTE Act became effective on April 1, 2010. This legislation enshrined the fundamental right to education for every child aged 6 to 14 years, and aimed to foster equality, social justice, and democracy. The larger goal was to provide inclusive elementary education to all, regardless of government affiliation. Despite noble intentions, the effective implementation of the RTE Act has been marred by challenges such as varying progress across states, financial constraints, and implementation hurdles, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the nation marked 15 years of the Act’s implementation on April 1, 2024, the National Summit, organized by the RTE Cell at the Council for Social Development (CSD), New Delhi, in collaboration with the RTE Forum, served as a platform for dialogue, collaboration, and reflection.

Key speakers at the Summit, including Muchkund Dubey, President of CSD, highlighted persisting challenges. Children outside schools, who were meant to be included within three years of implementation of RTE, still remain excluded. Critiquing the mass closure of schools and the privatization of school education – a recurrent theme – Prof. Dubey emphasized that the dream of a viksit Bharat cannot be realized without a shiksit Bharat. Reflecting on the status of implementation of the RTE act in the past 14 years, the National Co-ordinator of the RTE Cell at CSD, VP Niranjanaradhya, called the mass closure of government schools a mockery of the RTE Act. While Prof. R. Govinda saw the state’s role towards implementation of the RTE Act, as ‘a reluctant embrace’. The decision to adopt a hierarchical system of schooling, Prof. Govinda highlighted, was against the rights framework, and restructuring the entire school system offered the way out, in order to create a more equitable one.

Amidst challenges, stories of success and inspiration were shared at the Summit. Noor Mohammad, State Convener, RTE Forum, Rajasthan, for instance, recounted his work in that region, empowering first-generation female students to pursue higher education and career aspirations, challenging societal norms surrounding gender and education.

However, discussions also addressed systemic issues such as neoliberal policies impacting education, the growing marketization of schooling, and the shifting responsibility of education from the state to parents. Venkatanarayanan S, Associate Professor at a university in Bangalore, underscored the detrimental effects of decreased funding on public education and the perpetuation of a narrative that devalues public schooling.

The Summit concluded with a call for renewed commitment to strengthening the implementation of the RTE Act, ensuring the fundamental right to education for every child in India. By fostering dialogue, sharing experiences, and identifying actionable strategies, the Summit aimed to strengthen the process of implementation of the RTE Act, thereby upholding the fundamental right to education for every child in the country.

About the Summit:

The Summit is a day-long deliberation by renowned scholars, policy makers, practitioners, teachers, academia, civil society organizations and others, on diverse issues of education that has its implication on the right of children to equitable and quality education. The day-long discussion will serve as a forum to share the state experiences, to know the perspectives of key experts and educationist on the implementation of the RTE Act and to reflect on the way forward in giving effect to the RTE Act.

 

Two Weeks Training Workshop on Research Methodology in Social Science

Programme Duration: 28th February – 9th March 2024

Concept Note

The council for Social Development (CSD) came into being in 1962 under the leadership of Durgabai Deshmukh as an informal group of scholars with the objective of conducting seminal research in the area of social development. It was formally registered in 1970. Over the last five decades, the research undertaken by the scholars in the Council has not only expanded the contours of research in the domain of social development but has also helped policy makers and development practitioners in formulating people-centric policies.

The CSD has been hosting training workshops on research methods in social sciences for the last over 40 years. Over these years, more than a thousand research scholars and development practitioners have immensely benefitted from this training workshop.

This year, the CSD with the funding support from Indian Council for Social Science Research New Delhi is conducting this workshop for research scholars from 28th February – 9th March 2024. The content of the workshop is designed in a way that it equips scholars of different social science disciplines with critical understanding of theoretical and philosophical foundations of social science research as well as empirical tools and techniques required for conducting research in social sciences. While the focus of the workshop is tilted towards the quantitative methods, the participants of the workshop will also be introduced to qualitative and mixed method approach. The curriculum of the workshop is designed in congruence with the guidelines provided by the ICSSR.

The following themes will be covered in the training workshop over a period of 10 days:

  • Meaning and aspects of research
  • Research Design
  • Field Research
  • Observation and Case Study
  • Interview
  • Survey Method and Sampling, Basic Quantitative Analysis
  • Qualitative and Quantitative Research
  • Ethics in Social Science Research
  • Elementary probability theory and probability distributions and their usage, Large and small sample Tests based on Normal, Students’ t and Snedar’s F distributions
  • Training in STATA
  • Academic Writing
  • Ethics in Academic Writing
  • Structure of Paper, Report and Book
  • Elements of writing
  • Research Proposal
  • Publication Process

Pedagogy of the Workshop

Different topics of research methodology shall be taught through different pedagogical tools like lectures, hand-on training on computer software, assignments to write research proposal, designing instrument for data collection and field work for data collection. The participants will be required to present presentations and submit a report at the end of the workshop.

Thirty participants for the training workshop will be shortlisted by the CSD.

Application Procedure

Interested candidates will be required to apply to Course Director along with the duly filled registration form and a write-up on their research area in 300 words on or before 6th February 2024. Registration form (enclosed with this concept note) is available on the institute’s website www.csdindia.org. The candidates will be required to send the registration form to Course Director either in hard or soft copy duly forwarded by their Ph.D. supervisor and Head of the Department with following enclosures:

  • Duly filled in prescribed Registration Form
  • A write-up on your research area in 300 words

Registration Fee, TA and Accommodation There will be no registration fee for the Course. Boarding and lodging to outstation participants will be provided by the Council. Important Dates

Contact Addresses:
Ms Jaya Nair,
Sr. Research Associate
Council for Social Development, New Delhi 110003
Contact Nos. 011/24615383, 9868612087
Email: csd_rmc@csdindia.org