End gender divide, strengthen democracy: UP minister
Minister of state, social welfare, Asim Arun was speaking at the India’s Daughters Campaign (IDC) award ceremony organised by Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) on Tuesday
Minister of state, social welfare, Asim Arun on Tuesday said equality was an important aspect of democracy and being democratic means that everyone was treated equally. He said that boys should be taught that girls were equal to them and they have to work together to strengthen democracy.
The minster was speaking at the India’s Daughters Campaign (IDC) award ceremony organised by Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) on Tuesday. He said that SHEF was working towards educating everyone for equality and social justice.
As a part of the campaign, discussions on patriarchy were organized in 1700 schools and 2 lakh children from all districts of Uttar Pradesh participated in the campaign. Drama competition, film making, poster making, essay and poem writing competitions were conducted and an amount of ₹1.54 lakh was distributed among the winners as scholarship.
PK Tripathi, joint director of social welfare was also present. Members from organisations like - UNICEF, Room to Read, AIDWA, AALI, Jijiwisha Society, Robin Hood Army, DIET and Manavsrijan were also present.
Urvashi Sahni, founder and CEO of SHEF congratulated the winners and said, “Our campaign urges men and boys to change. When we talk about equality, it is imperative to include boys and men in the conversation. They must learn that patriarchy is cruel, unfair, unjust to women and girls and nothing can change if we don’t teach our boys and men to annihilate patriarchal structures and establish an egalitarian one instead.”
The theme of this year’s campaign was - It’s time for men and boys to change, which focused on educating boys and men to fight patriarchy and become advocates and champions of gender justice.
In the last 12 years, SHEF through IDC has successfully mobilized over 11 lakh community members and raised awareness regarding girl’s rights and gender-based violence.