The Karnataka Government will organise International Conference from 21 to 23 July to commemorate 126th birth anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru. The conference titled “Reclaiming Social Justice, Revisiting Ambedkar” aims at chalking out strategies to empower marginalised sections, especially Dalits and tribal groups, of the society.
The three-day Dalit outreach programme will be inaugurated by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. The conference will also see the presence of American lawyer and human rights activist Martin Luthar King III as one of the chief guests.
“The conference will host 83 international, 149 national and 80 state-level speakers, including many academics, activists and policy makers. As many as 2000 people are expected to participate in the event,” said H.C. Mahadevappa, Karnataka Minister for Public Works, while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.
Mahadevappa further noted that the conference will broadly focus issues related to social, political and economical equity along with the plight of the Dalits and other marginalised communities. He also talked about a website related to the event and hoped that the conference would help derive policies to uplift the plight of the downtrodden.
During the press conference, Former Additional Secretary, National Advisory Council and close aide of Rahul Gandhi said that the conference would not only be a discussion forum but would also unveil the ‘Bengaluru Declaration’, which will outline the policy responses to the concerns of social justice, human rights, freedom and democracy.
The official logo for the scheduled international conference was also launched during the press conference today.