Webinar on sustainability: everyone’s responsibility

Chandigarh: Panjab University Alumni Association(PUAA), University Institute of Fashion Technology & Vocational Development, (UIFT & VD) and Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, Chandigarh organized today a webinar on Sustainability: Everyone’s Responsibility.
 
Prof. Sangeeta Saini, Prof. of Textile and Clothing and Head of the Home Science Department at Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra, in her address urged all to be responsible towards the environment as every individual can contribute in sustaining the environment- whether a homemaker, a NGO, an educationist or a policy maker or an entrepreneur. We should try and practice recycling and reusing our resources. She stressed on practicing recycling and reusing the available resources. In order to lower the carbon footprint, organic and biodegradable goods should be preferred. She added that it is important to educate the youth about responsible consumer behaviour and resource use, whether in food, fashion, or any other sector.
 
Earlier, Prof. Anupama Sharma, Dean Alumni Relations, while introducing the speaker, stated that every topic may be seen from several viewpoints, such as sustainability, which is an area investigated by all disciplines, including chemical engineering, fashion, textiles, human rights, sciences, management and humanities etc. As a result, it is important to collaborate across disciplines in order to gain a deeper understanding of any issue of concern or inquiry.
 
Dr Anu H. Gupta, Chairperson UIFT & VD emphasized on the important sustainable goals of this project. She discussed about -training of women to develop products out of used clothing donated by students of PU. The women were trained on various sewing, ornamentation and product development skills and they have created marketable products which will be showcased in the form of an exhibition cum sale in coming days. The complete brochure of products wasdisplayed. These products were appreciated for the design, quality and overall appearance.
 
Dr Namita Gupta, Chairperson, Centre for Human Rights & Duties highlighted the interdisciplinarity and objectives of this project. She elaborated that initially there was a survey conducted to see how concerned our university's students are about their environmental responsibilities, how much they know about sustainable fashion, and what sort of fashion habits they follow in terms of consumption and disposal which was followed by collection of old  clothing and textiles and training of women.
 
The women who were trained also attended this webinar and spoke about their training experiences. One trainee stated that "we were unaware of what all may be produced out of discarded fabrics," while another stated that she has learned to sew and can now "create." Our items are distinctive and marketable, and they appear like what you would get in a store; we learned quality criteria while developing textile based products, and we thoroughly liked and enjoyed the training program.
 
More than 70 participants attended the webinar which included faculty members from University and various colleges, research scholars, students and Alumni of Panjab University which was followed by question-and-answer session.