The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in association with Early Childhood Association, organized a seminar on “Child First, Safety First” on Thursday, 30th November 2017 at Williamson Magor Hall, Chamber premises.

This forum focused on the value based excellence in education and knowledge in providing safe and stable, environment for children. Safety requires changing attitudes, behaviours, norms, and policies. Birth to five years of age is the best window to begin with building calm neural pathways. The early years are where the connectors are built, making brain maps or cognitive maps. Safeguarding children around the world is a responsibility every one of us share.

Mrs. Suman Sood, Territorial Head, Early Childhood Association and Ms Sukanya Bose, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber formally welcomed the dignitaries, Chief Guest, Guests of Honour and all the panelists. Shri Dushyant Nariala, IAS, Secretary, School Education, Government of West Bengal was the Chief Guest of the Seminar. The seminar was also graced by Shri Rajeev Kumar, IPS, Police Commissioner, Kolkata; Smt Swati Poppat Vats, Founder and President of Early Childhood Association and Shri R S Bandyopadhyay, Former Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, during the Inaugural Session. They focused on the issue of Safety All around, creating awareness amongst young minds and also spoke on gender equality.

The Inaugural session was followed by two panel discussions. The first Panel Discussion focused on,Ensuring Children a Safe Environment and the panelists were Smt. Aprajita Rai, IPS, Kolkata Police; Ms. Satabdi Bhattacharya, Principal, The New Town School; Pediatrician, Dr. Soumitra Dutta and Celebrity Grandmother and Social Activist, Alokananda Roy.

The second panel discussion focused on,“Safe and happy children---Can we do better?” and the panelists were Principal, La Martiniere for Girls, Ms. Rupkatha Sarkar; Psychologist, Dr. Smaranika Tripathy; Early Childhood Educator, Ms. Paramita Biswas and Educator, Montessorian and Teacher Trainer- Shubra Chatterjee.

The programme was well attended by 170 delegates representing various schools of Kolkata.