Mitul Baruah, with the Foundation for Ecological Security in India, will discuss his work on sustainability in rural communities at the GEM Critical Issues International Seminar on Tuesday, April 3, at 7 p.m. at the Country Springs Hotel, 1501 North Point Drive, Stevens Point.

The GEM Critical Issues series is free and open to the public. It is hosted by the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM) with funding through grants from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The 2006-2007 series theme is "Sustainable Communities."

Born in 1979 on the world�s largest inhabited river island, Majuli, North-East India, Mitul Baruah graduated from Delhi University in History (Honours). After graduation, Baruah went to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, for a Masters in Social Work (MSW) and specialized in Urban and Rural Community Development. During student life, Baruah was actively involved with the University Student Politics with a Left-leaning ideology. During his days at TISS, Mumbai, he also worked with a Trade Union (KVSS) for one year as a part of his field work, which used to work on issues of the unorganized garbage pickers in the Mumbai city.

Baruah has worked with the Foundation for Ecological Security since 2002. He is based at Udaipur, Rajasthan, where the foundation�s work is primarily with the tribal population. At Udaipur, FES works on participatory forest management, sustainable livelihoods, and development of a strong local self-governance of the natural resources. Currently, Baruah�s designation is Team Leader. He heads a team that works in more than 150 communities.

"Community mobilization has been one of the core areas of my interests," Baruah says. "However, I believe that community mobilization has to be supported by �political education� which will add to the �consciousness� of the people. Only with such political consciousness the community can stand against the Neo-colonial forces of our era, and this is an essential element for building sustainable communities."