The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sixth workshop on Indo-Pak “co-existence and trust building”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 21, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sixth workshop on Indo-Pak “co-existence and trust building”

Staff Reporter

Organised by Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace
Focus on co-existence despite different cultures

NEW DELHI: Addressing the trust deficit in the Indo-Pak peace process and focusing on co-existence despite different cultures was the sixth annual “Conflict Transformation Workshop” on the Indo-Pak peace process that ended here on Thursday.

The workshop titled “Co-existence and Trust-Building: Transforming Relationships” was organised by Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace and aimed at empowering the youth leaders from India and Pakistan with the motivation, expertise and skills to engage in peace-building between the two countries.

WISCOM Senior Programme Officer Manjari Sewak said: “Since we started organising this workshop in 2000, our goal has been prejudice reduction by people on both sides. We want to ensure that youngsters change the way they perceive people from the other side so that the baggage of stereotypes is not passed onto the next generation.”

“We also focused on providing training to youngsters in this workshop so that they can contribute in their own way in the field of peace building,” she added.

The week-long workshop engaging young Indians and Pakistanis in face-to-face dialogue deliberated upon diverse topics such as “Education for a Culture of Peace”, “Stereotypes and Co-existence in Multicultural Societies”, “Role of the Media in Conflict Generation and Conflict Transformation”, “Peace-building initiatives in Kashmir”, “Military Confidence Building Measures and Inter-Action on UN Peacekeeping Missions between India and Pakistan.”

“The workshop, which combined training, academic engagement and reflexive dialogue, could be termed as a sustained programme to focus on youth leadership as a catalyst for peace between Pakistan and India,” said WISCOMP founder and honorary director Meenakshi Gopinath.

According to WISCOMP, the absence of a sustained face-to-face interaction between young people from the two countries along with widespread negative stereotyping about people from “the other” country have led to processes that demonise people from “the other side”. However, through this workshop, WISCOMP aims to engage them in a positive dialogue to build a future based on trust, mutual respect and co-existence. The workshop also tried to weave “education for a culture of peace” into school and college curricula through capacity-building modules for educators.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi