HYDERABAD: Speakers at a seminar held here on Monday called for involving anthropologists in framing social policies in an attempt to rightly identify and root out social ills and empower people to solve their problems themselves.

They called for creating and spreading awareness about the importance of anthropology among students, development workers, masses and journalists at both the governmental and non-governmental level so that society could be purged of all social evils.

They were speaking at a seminar on “The role of anthropology: its importance and implications for policy and practice” organised by the department of anthropology and archaeology in collaboration with the UK-based Anthropology in Action Journal and two Sindh-based civil society organisations, AMRDO and DevCon, at the Arts Faculty in the Sindh University.

Suneel Kumar of Anthropology in Action said that anthropologists were always busy conducting research and using anthropological knowledge to solve human problems.

He shed light on the history of the idea of action anthropology and how it had now turned into a valuable scientific enterprise in empowering communities to solve their problems.

Another practising anthropologist of the Anthropology in Action, M. Sajjad Abro, spoke about child marriages and the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013 which had been passed by the Sindh Assembly.

He praised the law as a whole but also pointed out some loopholes and said the law ignored causes and context of child marriages and how the enforcement of the law could bring unintentional negative consequences for the poor families and young girls in the country.

He said that all social institutions were interconnected with one another. Therefore, everyone must see the practice of child marriage in a larger perspective to better understand it and make apt strategies to address the issue, he added.

Ikramullah Maznani, development professional and practising anthropologist, shared his findings about the response to disaster after the 2010 super floods that affected 20 million people in the country and disclosed how the response by national and international humanitarian organisations badly damaged indigenous social fabric, family relationships and cultural values.

Anthropologist Lutuf Ali Mangrio said that ‘Sukh initiative: a community based intervention on family planning’ which was a project launched by his organisation, Aman Foundation, was the first intervention in the country that engaged communities in family planning and introduced use of contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Mukhtar Qazi, chairman of the department of anthropology and archaeology of the University of Sindh, highlighted the need to explore critical use of knowledge by anthropologists in the identification and analysis of emerging challenges in society.

He criticised the development paradigm currently used by NGOs and laid emphasis on using a holistic approach in solving social issues. Myopic approach would not help them design social interventions, he said.

Razaq Umrani, district manager of the Health and Nutrition Society, praised the work of anthropologists and acknowledged the importance of the anthropology. He advised fellow development professionals to use anthropological approach to better address and resolve problems of local communities.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2014