Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak said subaltern people in South Asia are not able to demand their rights from the organs of state.
 Gayatri, a teacher at Columbia University, best known for her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ and considered a founding text of post colonialism, made her comments at a discussion at the Senate Bhaban at Dhaka University
Policy and action research organisation UBINIG and Naya Krishi Andolan (New Agricultural Movement) jointly organised the discussion programme, titled ‘Affirming life and biodiversity: Exploring new horizons of living’. 
Professor Benjamin Conisbee Baer from Princeton University, professors
Kofi Anyidoho and
Kwodwo Ofori from
Ghana University and Sunil Lohar, Paschim Bangla Banga Dekharo
Samaj Kalyan Samity
leader also spoke at the event.
Kwodwo Ofori said the concerns of sustainable environment should be taken seriously.