Tamil Nadu - Dindigul   

Women must equip themselves: VC

— Photo: G. Karthikeyan.

INSPIRING: Aruna Sivakami Ananthakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Mother Teresa Women’s University, addressing the inaugural function of Centre for Women’s Studies at Gandhigram Rural University on Friday.

DINDIGUL: Women should be equipped to perform on a par with men, advised Aruna Sivakami Ananthakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Mother Teresa University.

She was inaugurating the Centre for Women’s Studies at Gandhigram here on Friday.

“Unlike yesteryears, women now have got opportunities to work and perform. Then, they should demand pay and perks.”

Women should register their marriages as registration alone will ensure legal protection to their life. Even as the Domestic Violence Act protected women rights, women, in some cases, were violent against men, she added.

Social empowerment rather than political empowerment was need of the hour, Ms. Aruna said.

Recalling the feat of women in the freedom struggle, GRU Vice-Chancellor S.M. Ramasamy said the university would set up more centres shortly.

In her special address, former Vice-Chancellor of GRU G. Pankajam said both men and women should have an eclectic approach in identifying women issues and finding solutions.

“Feedback is essential for all your research activities to know the real effects of the research. Documentation plays a crucial role in research.” Centre Director K. Velumani said the centre would ensure education, research and extension, endorse gender equity and focus on working with female students, youth, teachers, community leaders and civil society organisations.

Its main objective was to sensitive society to the role of women in establishing secular society, to raise gender consciousness and sensitivity and to analyse location specific needs of rural women and to promote research and documentation on women studies, she added.

Designing and implementing participatory development programmes, networking with grass women movements to empower distressed women through capacity building measures, entrepreneurial training, upgrading skills and enhancing communication and leadership skills were the Centre’s main missions, she added.

“The centre will introduce long term courses like M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Women Studies and short-term courses like certificate, diploma and PG diploma courses on life skills and training, micro enterprise development, participatory learning methods, gender and development and life skills and counselling.

The centre will also offer courses on e-learning and prepare materials and contents including website for e-learning.

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Women must equip themselves: VC

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