It was also acknowledged that collaboration with Finland is proving significant as more Finnish students are getting interested in joining the course. While CRG hosted one of the outstation participants for a fortnight, two of the Indian participants have been selected for making a trip to Finland. They will focus on issues of their choice relating to the status of guest workers in Finland. A delegation of CRG senior-level fellows is expected to visit the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere to attend seminars organized in collaboration with some Finnish institutions of advanced learning. Also CRG conducted some research projects on the theme of forced migration. A publication under CRG series on Policies and Practices containing the papers of Eeva Puumala, Shiv Dhungana, Priyanca Mathur Velath & Nand Kishor – all participants of the last year’s course came out and was used as reading material for this year’s course. A special issue of Refugee Watch (No. 29) – CRG’s flagship journal - was also brought out and became part of the reading material supplied to the participants. In this year, CRG has commissioned two research works on the refugees and IDPs of Nepal from amongst the participants. Three workshops on internal displacement were organized by CRG in Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata (all in India) in 2007 in collaboration with respective state human rights commissions in India and collaborating institutions. 

CRG’s winter course is a product of some of the most effective collaborations with a number of both national and international institutions. The one-and-half-day media workshop was possible with the support from Panos South Asia while two public lectures were hosted by the School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Jadavpur University (Kolkata) and Department of Political Science,

Rabindra Bharati University (Kolkata). CRG has been successful in establishing enduring collaborations with both these universities. The field trip to Malda was organized with the help of Ganga Bhangon Pratirodh Action Nagarik Committee (Citizens’ Committee for resisting erosion of the Ganges) – an action group working with the victims of riverbank erosion in the region. Besides, the National Human Rights Commission (New Delhi) nominated one of their officers to represent them as a participant in the course.

Four areas of experiment were identified including structuring of module, distance education, participants’ profile and participants’ assignments. Suggestions were made for a short-term course with Asmita in Hyderabad and if possible, others, with university departments and research institutions. Discussions are now being conducted for finalizing such short-duration courses in other parts of the country. Also, the distance education segment can be reduced so that the time for direct orientation workshop in Kolkata can be increased. In the assignment component CRG can also think of a collaborative research of participants of two or three countries together. 

Support for the winter course has also been expressed at individual level. Several faculty members came without full or any travel support and offered to contribute their knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the course. Many institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission have supported the course by sending participants. Finally, the cooperation from various quarters in circulating the announcement on the course was tremendous. In all these, the cooperation of the participants and the ex-participants was the most valuable asset. CRG remains indebted to all for making the course a success.