Hearing ‘My Own Voices’: Accepting, Respecting & Embracing the Vibrant Spectrum of Diversity for a Sustainable World

Saikat Kumar Basu 

 Living a quality life and enjoying a fulfilled human existence is the right of every individual irrespective of any discrimination be it caste, creed, gender, culture, or country.  However, we all are not born having the same attributes and hence we differ in terms of our inner traits and also due to our social context. Differences and diversities are a natural phenomenon of human existence and need to be accepted and their inherent potentialities need to be facilitated in a positive, conducive environment for a sustainable society. 

Such an inclusive platform was facilitated by the International Conference on ‘Sustainability, Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture’ held on 18th and 19th Jan 2024 at the heart of the city in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The Conference created the platform for First-person accounts or hearing their ‘Own Voices’ through a series of special talks by some of the notable achievers in society who not only have made a difference in their own lives through their determination and hard work but are also continuing to extend further to society through their sustainable ways of living to make the society a better place to live for all. Each of these speakers shared with the conference participants their real-life stories of struggle, their strengths, and challenges midst all odds to bridge the interlude in society. 

Tusi Anit Sah, a celebrated mountaineer, who summited not only Everest but Mt Kanchenjunga, Mt Thalay Sagar, and many more as a resource person at the conference, shared her success story that came with years of struggle. Tusi lost her father at age 10, leaving the responsibility of the entire household to her mother, who earned a living by working in a cloth mill. From a very tender age, she had to balance studies, and sold eggs in a shop for nineteen long years but her passion for achieving something significant constantly drove her to take all the plunge and hard work needed to be a hardcore mountaineer. Lack of funds made her Everest expedition a dream initially but her determination and her strong will transform it into reality. With her strong determination, hard work, and zeal she overcame and fought all; fund issues, lack of oxygen in the heights, weather extremities, frostbite, and fear of serious health issues with life risks. After scaling Everest her next project is to conquer all seven major global peaks alongside taking part in several adventure sports. 

Besides being a mountaineer, she shared that she is a believer in environmental sustainability, as she was surprised by the waste left by the climbers even on the top of the world over the mountains polluting the beautiful mother nature so she aims to clean up mountain sites. She sensitized the participants of the international conference around 300 (approx.) from over 40 Institutes/ Universities of India and 10 Universities from other countries towards the love of nature and environmental protection.

The second talk was about a topic perhaps much ignored in the urban localities; the struggle of the tiger widows TWs (widows who have lost their husbands due to tiger attacks in Sundarbans) an important aspect of Human-wildlife conflict (HWC); a global concern. This topic was presented by Dr. Arupa Mandal, an independent researcher and resident of Sundarbans whose passion is to do something for these women. She shared how one incident changes the entire life of a woman socio-culturally and socio-economically as they are commonly assigned the status of ‘Husband eaters’ and regarded as a misfortune by society. However, her presentation also reflects the strengths of these TWs which are less highlighted, and the call for strategic actions for their upliftment towards this section of society.

Another such woman Seno Tsuhah of Nagaland, a teacher and a passionate farmer who strongly believes in sustainable living narrated the simplicity of village life and how a strong community and peer bonding can uplift a society. She recalled how her mother grew her crops and she now follows the same path even after attaining modern education. She oriented the Conference participants with her way of advocating environmental sustainability and how indigenous knowledge of medicine, cropping, and community building make a regenerative ecosystem.

Kovas Lili an autistic Student studying Bachelor at Eotovs Lorand University, Hungary, shared her experiences of growing up as an autistic individual, masking her feelings, questioning herself about why she is different from others, and being diagnosed. Through the lens of an autistic girl, the conference participants get to see how everyday masking stresses individuals with autism, and how unmasking is relaxing for them. She shared some of her unique strengths; her creation with digital art which despite imperfections is characterized by extreme attention to detail. Lili is fond of making cute humanoids, her cute pink wide-eyed queasy is something to adore and the animal humanoids are equally creative. Her child-like innocence, curiosity about life, and happy face would light up any conversation, Lili has been able to conquer her challenges and is now a high-functioning happy member of society.  

Finally, there was another voice by Dr. Michelle Harrison, an over 80-year-old Doctor (from USA) whose life struggle was not for her own but for abandoned girls with disabilities in Kolkata, India. Dr. Harrison shared her life who came to India initially to adopt her second daughter is a real example of a woman who, in this world where most people are running to get their needs fulfilled, is selfless and devoted to protecting orphan girls, girls with disabilities, and tortured girls in her NGO, Kolkata. It is a pleasure to hear about her mesmerizing journey, a gynecologist cum psychiatrist left her settled life in a developed country, USA, and came to India being emotionally driven, empty-handed but with a passion to be a change. Since then, incessantly she has been working towards her goal, now crossing eight decades of her life she is still equally charismatic, energetic, and motivating. Her organization Childlife Preserve Shishur Sevay became a best practices model of an inclusive, non-institutional home for lost and abandoned girls, some with disabilities, all having been rejected for adoption. Currently, she is also running a free inclusive playschool for the poor. 

Prof. Santoshi Halder, curator, coordinator, and organizer of the conference, Department of Education, University of Calcutta conveyed, “We live in a heterogenous world with each individual having a set of different abilities and as well as strengths. The idea of a truly inclusive society is to find creative ways to facilitate the potentialities of every individual matched to their inherent patterns or styles. The task begins with accepting and believing at the outset that everyone has potential irrespective of their inner or contextual diversities and that needs to be recognized, embraced, respected, and facilitated through necessary strategic and proactive actions. Our abilities lie in finding creative ways to navigate the best pathways personalized to match their inherent traits keeping in mind the contextual differences to facilitate full and effective participation of all people with diversities for an inclusive sustainable society”. 

Being able to provide the scope, platform, and honor to such individuals with enormous energy, passion, and zeal to not only change their own lives but also to give back and do something significant for society and people is a moment of pride for the conference as expressed by Prof. Santoshi Halder, Department of Education, University of Calcutta. The funding and or in-kind support for the conference was provided by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), the National Library of India, the Ministry of Culture (GOI), the State Bank of India (SBI), the University of Calcutta, and the India Autism Center (IAC).

Photo credit: Saikat Kumar Basu