Event Name: World Social Work Day
Event Date: 16^th  March 2022
Event Location: Kaziranga University
Organized By: School of Social Sciences

World Social Work Day is celebrated every year on the third Tuesday in the month of March. It is celebrated around the globe to highlight the role of social workers in recognition of their invaluable contribution to the society. This year's theme is 'Co-building a New Eco-Social World: Leaving no one behind.' It presents a vision and action plan to create new global values, policies and practices that develops trust, security and confidence for all the people and the sustainability of the planet.

As the whole world celebrates this auspicious day, the School of Social Sciences, Assam Kaziranga University joined the celebration by organizing an event where Fr. Jerry Thomas, Director of BOSCO Institute, Jorhat graced the event as the Chief Guest.

The program started with invoking God's blessing through lighting up the lamp by all the Dignitaries i.e., the Honorable Chief Guest, Registrar and the Deans of the School of Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Computing Sciences. It was followed by a Welcome address which was delivered by the Dean of the School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. C K Gogoi who warmly welcomed and acknowledged the presence of the Chief Guests, the faculties and the students as well. Inaugural address was delivered by the Registrar Dr. A. Srihari Khrishna where he talked about how it is important to include the Ecological approach to Social Work in order to create a sustainable environment for all the species to co-exist with one another. He further urged that being a Professional Social Worker one must look beyond the existence of human beings and concern oneself with the importance of the relationship between human and the nature. Dr. Khrishna beautifully ended the speech with an example of how he sold his car as a sign of his commitment to the Nature and as a justification of his love for Social Work.

The next agenda was the felicitation of the Chief Guest which was done by the Dean of the School of Social Sciences. The Honorable Chief Guest then spoke on the occasion and started his speech with a beautiful example of a butterfly and a caterpillar and how people admire the butterfly but gets disgusted or scared by the sight of a caterpillar. With this he put forward a question "Who are we to decide which one is beautiful and which one is not?" "Who are we to decide who gets to live and who gets to die?" which left the spectators in deep thought. He further stated that we cannot expect to admire one and get rid of the other as we human beings cannot survive alone in this world. We have to co-exist with other living species in this world if we want sustainability. He also narrated a beautiful story written in a book called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. And relating to that story, Fr. Jerry spoke about the cultural biases that drive civilization and also talks about how the concept of Human Supremacy has brought miserable consequences on humans, animals and the nature. He prompted the spectators to re-define the word Civilization as humans are still far from being civilized. He further talks about the "Leavers" those who sustained themselves and the natural world by taking only what they need and the "Takers" who were the dominant culture that took more than what they needed and exploited the mother nature. He encouraged us to be the "Leavers" so that other living species and humans can co-exist and sustain the environment. Lastly, he stated that Social Work is beyond carrying files and taking salaries and if we understand and realize that very concept then a good change is inevitable.

There was also a cultural program where the students of the School of Social Sciences performed Khasi traditional Dance, Bihu dance and poem recitation. After this, the Chief Guests and the faculties planted trees (Mango tree, Neem tree, Gooseberry tree and Tamarind tree) in the university campus to celebrate the occasion. Later, there was face painting where Imtisenla Imchen from the School of Social Sciences won the 1^st place and Manisha Hazarika from the School of Basic Science won the 2^nd place. For Poster making competition the 1^st place was bagged by Priyadarshini Gogoi from the School of Social Sciences and the 2^nd place was bagged by Bidyarani Torem from the School of Business. The program ended with a vote of thanks by Piyali Manata student from the School of Social Sciences.