Workshop on Social Reforms

Workshop on Social Reforms

September 14, 2005, Sanbaad Pratideen

Our Correspondent, Burdwan: Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) has taken up the initiative to evaluate globalisation and World Trade Organisation (WTO) from a social perspective in eight states of India. For the first time, at the district level, CUTS has organised a workshop on this issue involving 51 reputed grassroot-level non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from West Bengal. The workshop was inaugurated by Uday Sarkar, Sabhadhipati Zilla Parisad, Burdwan. On behalf of CUTS, Mita Dutta informed that this Project will be implemented at the national level with the financial support from Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) & Novib (Oxfam, Netherlands). The objective of the Project is to collect perception of the common masses regarding globalisation and the WTO. The reactions at the grassroots on change in agricultural & textile policy will be also documented. The report would be shared at the forthcoming WTO Ministerial Conference at Hong Kong, in December 2005. Tathagata Lahiri from CUTS Calcutta Resource Centre (CUTS-CRC) requested the grassroot-level NGOs to put forward their concerns at the national and subsequently at the international level, while Bipul Chatterjee of CUTS discussed the impact of WTO on the state economy.