Visakhapatnam
Finally a University has taken the much needed step forward in ensuring the safety of its female students.
The Durgabai Deshmukh Centre for Women's Studies of the Andhra University is in the process of coming out with a course on women's security and self defence techniques. Scheduled to commence from March 2015, the course would be practical in nature.
This three months long certificate course has been duly sponsored by the University Grants Commission and comes under the purview of the Saksham programme.
Notably, the International Women's Week programmes would also be conducted next month.
This CWS course is planned to go on throughout the year and would include training on a number of varied martial arts' forms including judo, kung fu, karate and kickboxing.
Talking about the programme, Durgabai Deshmukh Centre for Women's Studies director, Prof B Ratna Kumari noted that "Given the rising crime against women, we intend to give girls and women practical exposure to self-defence, fitness and self-sustainability through martial arts and yoga. Not only women students of AU, but students of other affiliated colleges, women from NGOs and self-help groups can also enroll at a nominal fee. At the end of the course, a 100-marks exam will also be conducted. Besides yoga and martial arts, students will also be taught on gender stereotyping and violence, gender equality, security aspects, legal awareness and protection, gender laws and so on."
As per the director, the institute has roped in master trainer Ch Devadanam to train martial arts, while the yoga classes for women would be taken by the teachers belonging to the AU yoga department.
Starting from the 5th of March, classes would take place four days a week.
The institution has also planned a number of other activities for celebrating International Women's Day which falls on 8th of March. 3rd March 2015 would witness essay writing and elocution competition from 10am to 3pm. The topic for the essay writing competition, as decided by the institute, is 'Successful woman role model from various walks of life according to you'.
For those who are interested in taking part in the elocution competition, the topic for elocution is 'Alternative strategies and remedies for protection and education of girl children'. All the Post Graduate and Under Graduate students affiliated to the Andhra University are eligible to participate in these competitions.