The Hindu : New Delhi News : Students join hands with workers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Students join hands with workers

IT IS an attempt to put the college lessons to practice. And if what the University Community for Workers' Right has managed to achieve in the last couple of weeks is anything to go by, then the students and teachers of Delhi University are clearly not doing too bad a job.

Fighting for the rights of the workers who are helping restore some of the important buildings on the campus, the Community is now waging a battle to ensure that the labourers at work in Gwyer Hall get the legal minimum wage.

Wednesday saw the members of the community take out a rally in support of the issue and stage a protest outside the office of the University's Joint Proctor, Gurmeet Singh. According to the Community, the Proctor has assured them that all the outstanding dues would be cleared by Thursday evening. Although the response has been positive, the Community has now decided to take out a rally on Thursday to mark the unity between students and workers.

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THE FIRST meeting of the newly constituted Governing Body of Delhi University's Maharaja Agrasen College in Mayur Vihar on Wednesday saw Sidharth Mishra being elected Chairman for the second consecutive term and Uma Sharma the new treasurer.

On his part, the newly elected Chairman appointed a three-member sub-committee of the Governing Body to discuss the issue of construction of the college building on a priority basis. While the former MCD Commissioner will be the new convenor of the committee, College Principal Ashok Pathak and Sandip Narula will be its members.

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IT HAPPENS to be a celebration of the competitive spirit. Started in the early 1970s as an attempt towards ensuring a lasting relationship between the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, and Xavier's Labour Research Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur, the annual sports meet between the two B-schools seems to be gaining in popularity with every passing year.

Aimed at facilitating exchange of ideas and thoughts between the two sides, the annual rendezvous has acted as a platform where students could participate in academic seminars, presentations and some sports over the week-end in winter.

Over the years, however, sports managed to take centre-stage with the academic participation shifting towards another arena. Now, every year in September or October, the students of the two Institutes meet at either of the campuses in what they like to call "the mother of all sports meets", with the venue alternating between Jamshedpur and Kolkata.

This year, XLRI beat IIM Calcutta in the 33rd annual XLRI-IIM Calcutta Trophy competition by a 13-8 margin, with the deciding factor being the girls' events.

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IT MAY be new but Jamia Millia Islamia's recently launched Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution is clearly on the right track. This past week witnessed a two national conference being organised by the Centre on "Social Conflicts, Civil Society and Peacekeeping".

Focusing on issues such as "Accountability of the Media, Civil Society and the State", the two-day conference was inaugurated by the executive director of the United States Educational Foundation in India, Jane Schukoske. Expressing satisfaction at the progress made by the Centre, Jamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan remarked that the discourse on peacekeeping and conflict resolution should include the voices of the oppressed and marginalized sections of society.

Eminent social scientist Rajni Kothari delivered the keynote address and emphasised that peace without social justice was not possible. The conference saw over 100 participants divided into eight working sessions. The sub-themes of the conference included "Changing Nature of Conflicts", "Multiculturalism and Plurality", "Role of Media in Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution", "Peacemaking and Peacekeeping During Conflict" and "Hate Speech, Freedom of Expression and Censorship".

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

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