Responding to the call of the Governor of Nagaland, PB Acharya, Indian National Fellowship Centre (INFC) has taken up the task of arranging Cultural Exchange Programs between students of the North Eastern states and other parts of India.
A press release said that a Cultural Exchange Program was recently organised in Mokokchung from April 30 to May 7 where a team of students and research scholars from Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai visited and stayed in Chungtia village for 7 days. They also participated in the Moatsu festival in Chungtia on May 3. The entire village lead by the Village Council and the Chungtia Students’ Union (CSU) hosted the visitors and engaged them in various activities such as visiting neighbouring villages, exchanging knowledge and ideas about history and politics, understanding Ao culture and lifestyle and also interacting with school children. The visiting team stayed in local homes with families and experienced different food eating habits
The visitors also took part in the traditional practice of community fishing.
The parting informal interactive session between students from Mumbai and the members of Chungtia Students’ Union was an emotional one with many sharing their experiences of the seven days.
A reciprocal exchange program will be facilitated by INFC in which a team identified by CSU will be travelling to Mumbai and will be hosted by Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai. The visiting team along with INFC also pledged to upgrade the CSU library by adding books of economics, finance, international relations and an entire children’s section.
According to the press release, the primary aim of these programmes was to create avenues for students to collaborate in various fields.
INFC is a trust registered in Mumbai and founded in 1979. It has been working in the NE region for many years and carried out various outreach and integration programmes.