ASU students issue clarion call to nurture gender sensitivity through awareness

To promote awareness about women empowerment, students of Apeejay Stya University (ASU) visited Hazipur’s Government Senior Secondary School to inspire young girls. The visit was planned as part of a ‘Gender Sensitisation Programme’ organised by National Service Scheme (NSS) in collaboration with ASU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) and School of Legal Studies (SoLS).

Hazipur is ASU’s adopted village. At the event, about 15 students from ASU performed a skit based on the theme of discrimination against the girl child. “It was about a five-seven minute skit which ended with the message, ‘humari chhoriya chhoro se kam hai ke (our girls are no less capable than boys)’,” said Dhairya Kapur, a second-year student of SJMC.

Later, they also interacted with the students, asked girls about their aspirations and brainstormed on future collaborative activities like counselling, skit programmes.

The event was organised on March 9, following International Women’s Day, which is held every year on March 8. It is observed to celebrate the cultural, political and socio-economic achievements of women and raise awareness about their rights. This year, the theme for International Women’s Day was ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.’

Based on this theme, ASU’s Centre for Liberal Arts and National Service Scheme (NSS) also organised a virtual panel discussion on ‘Working Women: Work Life Balance.’ The panellists for the session included Dr Meera Shanker, Director, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, Prof Suhas Shetgovekar, Department of Psychology, IGNOU, Ms Anjana Nath, CPO, Apeejay Education Society, Dr Anupama Diwan, Dean, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ASU and Dr S K Roy, Dean, School of Management Sciences, ASU.