Speakers at a seminar have called for involving anthropologists in framing social policies in the country in an attempt to avoid negative impacts in the society across Pakistan and stressed the need for empowering local communities so that they may solve their problems themselves.
They said that an awareness regarding the importance of anthropology among the students, development workers, masses and media was a need of the hour to be created at both governmental & non-governmental level so that the social evils from the society could be diminished.
The speakers said this on Monday while addressing a seminar under the title "The Role of Anthropology: Its importance and implications for policy and practice" organised by Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro in collaboration with UK based Anthropology in Action Journal & two Sindh based civil society organisations AMRDO and DevCon. The objective of the event was to create awareness among the students regarding the scope of Anthropology and that how anthropologists can help design social policies along with the government that can cause restriction to negative consequences in the society. Anthropologist Suneel Kumar presented a brief history of the idea of Action Anthropology and how it has now turned into a valuable scientific enterprise in empowering communities to solve their problems.
Research Consultant and Practicing Anthropologist M. Sajjad Abro presented his views on Child Marriages and Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2013. Another development professional and practicing anthropologist Ikramullah Maznani shared his findings about disaster response after 2010 super floods that affected 20 million people in Pakistan. Practicing anthropologist Lutaf Ali Mangrio talked about "Sukh Initiative: A community based intervention on family planning," this is actually an initiative taken by his organisation Aman Foundation.