RONO HILLS, 18 Aug: A two-day national e-Conference on ‘Adaptability in crisis: psychology, education and society’, organized by the Psychology department of the Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), concluded on Tuesday.
Addressing the conference, RGU’s Faculty of Social Science Dean Prof Tana Showren said, “Humans should be able to learn to give new responses to new situations with a great degree of flexibility and high proficiency of adaptability as a guide to the crisis situation.”
He highlighted the drawbacks of digital divide between rural and urban areas and talked about the psychological effects of the new normal “which is not limited to the fear of contracting the virus but fear of the future that students face because of the suspended classes or online classes.”
RGU Pro-VC Prof Amitava Mitra spoke on how Covid-19 has significant effect on not just physical health but also on the country’s economy, health, educational system, and psychological and social effects on the population.
He encouraged social scientists, experts and decision makers to come up with innovative measures or solutions on adapting to the crisis.
RGU VC Prof Saket Kushwaha, through a message, said that “although there is panic, fear and uncertainty, one should have a proactive and positive attitude to face adversity.”
He said that the Covid crisis has also taught lessons to humans, which would have otherwise never been possible prior to Covid-19, and that one should be open to change as it will affect one’s adaptive ability.
Professor and Founder Director of the Centre for Health Psychology, University of Hyderabad, Prof Meena Hariharan, discussed on the topic ‘Coping with Covid-19: The resilience of Bharat.’ She highlighted the ripples created by the crisis and the coping of it on an individual level.
There were four plenary sessions of the conference.
A total of 85 delegates presented their papers in the nine technical sessions on the second day of the conference.
