Co-convened with Centre for Political Studies (CPS-JNU)
New Delhi, 16th – 17th March 2026

DAY 1: MARCH 16, 2026 (MONDAY)

Welcome and Introduction

Sudhir Kumar Suthar, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies (CPS-JNU)

Chairperson’s Address

Himanshu Prasad Roy, Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies

Keynote Address

Christopher Garroway de Coninck, UN Country Economist for India

PLENARY SESSION: DIGNITY AND STATE: THEORIES AND EMPERICS

Chair: Gurpreet Mahajan, Former Professor, CPS, JNU

• Surinder Jodhka, Former Professor, Centre for Studies of Social Systems, JNU
• Himanshu, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP), JNU

TECHNICAL SESSION 1: NEW WELFARE REGIME AND STATE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

Chair: Anupama Roy, Professor, CPS, JNU

Ram Kumar Thakur, Assistant Professor, Hindu College, University of Delhi
Localising Democracy: Jan Sunwai and the Question Democratic Decentralisation

Jigyasa Sogarwal, Assistant Professor, GITAM, Hyderabad
Sense (s) of Dignity: Farmers and the Naked Protest

Parth Prakash, Research Scholar, University of Delhi
High Modernist Statecraft in India’s New Welfare Regime: Centralization, Techno-Centrism, and the Erosion of Local Agency

Ms. Magadhi D.M., Research Scholar, Savitri Bai Phule University, Pune
Welfare at the Margins: An Ethnographic Study of Domestic Workers and CITU in Maharashtra

TECHNICAL SESSION 2: RURAL POLITICAL MOBILIZATION AND DIGNITY QUESTION

Chair: Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, Professor, CPS, JNU

Supriy Ranjan, Assistant Professor, GITAM Hyderabad,
Agrarian Transformation, Rural Youth and the Reworking of Communal Politics in Contemporary Bihar

Rambarki Raviteja, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad
New civics of communalism: Everyday embodiments of Hindutva and the reframing of social control in Rural Andhra Pradesh

DAY 2: MARCH 17, 2026 (TUESDAY)

TECHNICAL SESSION 3: STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION IN RURAL INDIA

Chair: Avanindra Thakur, Associate Professor, Jindal Global University

Gurpreet Singh, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat,
From Public Investment to Welfare Support? Rethinking the Political Economy of Agricultural Spending in India

Prachi Bansal, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat
Low Labour Absorption and the Gendered Reorganisation of Work in Rural Haryana

Manish Kumar, Assistant Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
Questioning the Productivity Paradigm: Agrarian Distress and Surplus Appropriation in Bihar

Brijesh Kumar Yadav, Research Scholar, IGIDR, Mumbai
Comprehending Financial Inclusion in the Rural Areas of India

TECHNICAL SESSION 4: POLITICS, POLICY AND WELFARE STATE

Chair: Alok Sinha, Former MD, FCI, GOI

Sanchita Das, Assistant Professor, Jadavpur University, Kolkata,
Drought Governance and the Welfare State: A Social Interface Analysis

Nayan Kumar Saini, Research Scholar, CPS, JNU,
Social Capital and Rural Transformation in Bihar: A Study of JEEViKA-associated Self Help Groups (SHGs)

Asifa Zunaidha F, Assistant Professor, GITAM, Vishakhapatnam,
Caste, Ecology, and the Shifting Grammar of Welfare in Drought-Prone Tamil Nadu

Rajesh Kumar Kundu, Assistant Professor, MD University, Rohtak,
Rural Agrarian Development and the Welfare State in Haryana: Policy Gaps, Institutional Challenges, and Emerging Pathways

TECHNICAL SESSION 5: RURAL POLITICAL MOBILIZATION, IDENTITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Chair: Asha Sarangi, Professor, CPS, JNU

Pankaj Kumar, Assistant Professor, GITAM University, Bengaluru
Caste, Communalism, and Rural Political Mobilisation: A Comparative Study of Western and Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Akshay Sawant, Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, IIT Bombay
Everyday Hindutva: Power and Practice in rural Maharashtra

TECHNICAL SESSION 6: TECHNOLOGY, WELFARISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Chair: V Bijukumar, Professor, CPS, JNU

Gaurika Chugh, Associate Fellow, TERI, New Delhi
Technology, Decentralization and Rural Land Governance: A study of SVAMITVA in Uttar Pradesh

Tinku Jangral, Research Scholar, CPS, JNU
Have Indian villages became poverty-free: A case study of Jammu and Kashmir

Concluding Remarks and Vote of Thanks

Sudhir Kumar Suthar, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies (CPS-JNU)

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