Mangaluru: The School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya hosted a two-day international symposium “Spandana” on October 6 and 7, 2022. Dr P P. Devan, a renowned doctor of A J Medical College Mangalore, was the Chief Guest and keynote speaker for the symposium. While delivering his address, he stressed the sustainability of physical health.
He began his speech with the reality that Mangalore has seven medical colleges with 700 beds each full of sick people. All these people are suffering from various minor and major sicknesses. Why is this happening? It’s all because of the things that we consume which hinder the growth of the immune system and this results in a deficiency of vitamins, iron, zinc and calcium. He invited his listeners to think over this situation and prevent it.
As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure”, he further spoke on the things that help in the sustainability of health. He stressed that we should avoid consuming things that lead to sickness. For example, avoid consuming tea for it reduces the iron in the body. Iron is the backbone of the immune system. We can check haemoglobin count once every year. One can easily avoid any kind of sickness if he/ she knows what to eat and what to avoid. He stressed on the consumption of foods that contain rich iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins.
Emphasising on the role of social workers in sustainabile health, he said that social workers need to have the basic knowledge of the food habit that enhances better lifestyle for the people of the society. Nature and history are the best teachers for us. We can learn from the lifestyle of our ancestors to live a healthy life. Nature provides all the things that our human body needs. He spoke all these basic things to the people to know how to live a normal and healthy life.
Dr Juliet C J, in her presidential address, started with a quoting Gandhiji, “A smart village provides its inhabitant with all the basic facilities in an efficient manner. In a smart village, the community, individually and collectively, will be empowered to take smart decisions using smart technologies and with the support of smart manpower and managing to be self-sufficient.” She cited the example of one of the villages in Andhra Pradesh that turned itself into a smart village after facing problems. The problem faced by this village was the less demand for millet production due to the easy availability of rice in the ration shop. However, they started to work hard and smart by focusing on the problem. They came up with a plan to make millet once again the regular consuming product by the people. They did research on various types of millet productions which can be easily available to people. They prepared various types of packages of millet and started selling to the people which eventually turned into a sustainable market. Therefore, smart decisions by smart manpower can bring sustainable smart villages.
Vice Principal of the college Dr Jenis P Mary, HOD of MSW Prof. Eveleen Bennis, Organising Secretary Dr Meena Juliet Monteiro, Student Welfare Officer Jinsa Joseph, Student Convenor Devika, Secretary Sandra Prince, and Gina – student representative of Volda University College, Norway were present during the occasion
