School students get lessons in self defence
Girls in Delhi are all set to pack a punch largely due to the efforts of Delhi government's education department which has started arranging self defence training in all government schools. Neelam Pandey reports.
Girls in Delhi are all set to pack a punch largely due to the efforts of Delhi government's education department which has started arranging self defence training in all government schools.
The training, which was launched a week ago, is being imparted in 60 government girls' schools with the sports branch of the education department having roped in experts to train the girls in six martial arts - including judo, taekwondo, karate and wushu.
"We recognise the need to empower girl students with these skills so that they can use them to defend themselves. We decided to take the help of the state sports association to provide coaching and training to students of government schools," said a senior Delhi government official. The education department has tied up with five sports association in Delhi, who will provide coaches to train the girls.
"From April 15, we have been training the girl students. To begin with, we have started with 60 schools. Depending on the success of these modules, we will introduce it in rest of the schools soon," added the official.
The one-hour training classes are provided within school timings. For instance, some students are trained between 7.30 am and 8.30 am while others are allotted a separate slot. The Delhi police also provides similar training by organising camps in residential areas.