GUWAHATI, Aug 11 - A three-day workshop on �Social and behaviour change communication for North Eastern Region� was held at the Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) here earlier this week.
The workshop was organised by ADBU in partnership with the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Tezpur University, and the UNICEF.
Attending the inaugural programme, Vice Chairman of State Innovation and Transformation Aayog (SITA) Dipok Kumar Barthakur said that change is not brought about in isolation, but only with concerted efforts and involvement.
He said that over the years the development discourse has been revisited many times and what emerged was that development could no longer be confined only to global development organisations but that it had to be brought down to the national, regional and local levels.
More importantly, it had to be brought down to the level of the people and had to be made people-centric, Barthakur added.
He said that attaining desired health, education, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, gender equality and protection are vital indicators of development and thus �it is crucial that we create an environment where communication insists on behaviour change programmes that aims at increasing knowledge, stimulating dialogue, promoting attitude change, reducing stigma and improving skills.�
Prof David Mould from the School of Media Arts & Studies, Ohio University, Siddhartha Shrestha, Chief of Communication for Development, UNICEF, and Dr Tushar Rane, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Assam, also addressed the inaugural session.
Fr (Dr) Stephen Mavely, Vice Chancellor of ADBU, delivered the welcome address at the beginning of the session and the vote of thanks was extended by Registrar Biju Michael.
The inaugural programme was followed by the technical sessions.
