A community-university interaction was organized to facilitate the interaction of community members with the staff and faculty of Sushant University. The debriefing session at Sushant university targeted community - academia interaction to facilitate understanding of how climate change is affecting communities in the short and long run. The staff and students had earlier spent a day with the community to understand the issues of water. Post the visit, they came up with spatial analysis maps to historically understand the dual impacts of urbanization and climate change on the low-income urban communities.
The session began with a brief introduction to water issues from both communities. The university students led the session of presenting as well as explaining maps. The discussion was conducted with residents of both Ghata and Gautampuri. The experts from the university explained in everyday language to the community members about ‘green’ and ‘blue’ in the context of the environment. Post the analysis of maps, a collective discussion was held for the university staff and faculty to discuss issues; a cross-settlement dialogue was initiated for the members of both communities to identify dominant issues surrounding water in the area and to clear their doubts.
The interaction between the community and the university students triggered important discussions around key issues of community engagement. It was a co-creating and co-learning process where university and academic institutions would be facilitated to acknowledge and value community knowledge. Such exercise is useful in understanding how the academia/experts view the problem of importance for the communities from a macro perspective and how it can be integrated into the community’s view from a micro perspective.
Such sessions also put to test how academic experts demystify the macro picture and science behind climate change so that the community can understand the broader picture and act on it. Similarly, it is also an important exercise to integrate the lived realities of the community into an expert viewpoint. Finally, it also discusses what lessons for climate resilience urban planning can be drawn based on the community’s experience.