r.i.c.e.

If you would like to attend the conference, you must register by here by 25th Sept.

Last year, the Government of India launched the Swachch Bharat Mission, aimed at eliminating open defecation by 2019. How can the widespread adoption of latrine use be accomplished?

To this end, the Indian Institute for Dalit Studies and the research institute for compassionate economics are organizing a half-day Conference on Purity, Untouchability, and Open Defecation: Starting a Conversation for a Swachch Bharat, hosted at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The goal of the conference is to explore the connections between these issues and deepen a dialogue between organizations working in these fields.

The conference will have the following presentations of original research:

• Dirty, disastrous and desolate: engaging with conservancy workers to understand caste and work inter-sectionalities, Dr. Sanghmitra Acharya, Director of IIDS and Professor at JNU;
• The continuing practice of untouchability in India: patterns and mitigating influences and implications for open defecation, Dr. Amit Thorat, Associate Fellow at NCAER;
• Purity, pollution, and open defecation: evidence from new qualitative and quantitative data, Ms. Sangita Vyas, Managing Director for Sanitation at r.i.c.e.

A policy panel will conclude the conference, on which Dr. SK Thorat (Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science), Mr. Bezwada Wilson (founder of the Safai Karamchari Andolan), Mr. Sujoy Mojumdar (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Specialist at UNICEF), and Mr. Avinash Kumar (Director Policy and Program at Wateraid), among others, will be participating.

We look forward to your participation in this event. Others from your organization are also welcome to attend. All participants must register here by 25th Sept.

Date: 29th Sept, 2015 Time: 9:00 am to 2:00pm Place: Convention Centre, JNU