E-Paper
Thousands of schoolgirls undergo self development training in Sangli
At least 5,000 high school female students (Class 8-12) gathered in Sangli district of Maharashtra to conclude a four-day training programme on self development on Wednesday.
The programme, Smart Girl, aims at helping girls start a conversation about issues faced by them like household abuse, eve teasing, awareness about good touch and bad touch, among others.
“I hope these lessons are taught to the boys as effectively as they were taught to us,” said a 15-year-old Class 10 student who was a part of the programme.
The training programme was conducted by 80 trainers for girls from several Sangli schools. The trainers belong to the Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana, a registered non-governmental organisation run by a Jain community leader Shantilal Muttha.
“The trainers informed me that the girls participated in the programme and one girl even came up with a question pertaining to a family problem,” said SP Khade, head mistress of Rajmati Patil Girls High School and Junior College.
“During a training session about good touch and bad touch, a girl came up and said that she had experienced bad touch from a family member, but was afraid of telling her mother fearing that she may not believe her. We encouraged her to stand her ground and tell her mother,” said Savita Sutar, a trainer and researcher.
“During the session on social awareness, my mind instinctively remembered an incident I had witnessed. While I was walking home, I had come across a man trying to strangle a woman to death. I froze and did not know what to do. Now, I know that my instinct should be to save the girl,” said a 15-year-old student of Class 9.
“The initiative will be recorded in the India Book of Records as the largest self development training session for adolescent girls,” said Rajendra Lunkad, national president of BJS.
The India Book of Records appointed Kushal Sachan as an adjudicator of the attempted record. The one-day training was held in conclusion of a 16-hour course taught over a span of four days, according to BJS officials.
“The ‘Smart Girl’ tracking initiative is held by trainers. We made WhatsApp groups of the trainers who sent pictures of the training sessions and the location of the training. That is how we verified the training sessions,” said Sachan.
The criteria for registration of the record included provision of raw video and photographs, two witness statements, and an affidavit from the claimant.