The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Festival to celebrate spirit of womanhood

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Monday, Nov 02, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Festival to celebrate spirit of womanhood

Staff Reporter

An event that encourages creativity in kids

— Photo: K.Pichumani

Chief Secretary K.S.Sripathi with Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Satish Kumar (left), and former Chief Secretary T.V.Venkataraman (second from left) at the inauguration of ‘Art, Arattai, Aarpattam – Children’s Festival 2009’ in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: For the next 23 days, a large number of girls and boys from dozens of schools will put their minds and hands together to have a new experience of the arts.

‘Art, Arattai, Aarpattam — Children’s Festival 2009’ will be an event to showcase and encourage the creative streak in kids.

Themed ‘Girls are superstars,’ the event celebrates the spirit of womanhood through art, music, drama, dance and films. NalandaWay is organising the festival in partnership with UNICEF.

At the inauguration of the festival on Sunday, Chief Secretary K.S.Sripathi said access to education was still a distant dream for many children.

Narrating his experience when visiting tsunami-affected places, he said rehabilitating children was the prime challenge for the officials, and mainstreaming them in schools was difficult as they suffered from severe trauma after the calamity.

Adolescence is a crucial time when the right kind of education can go a long way in shaping them as successful citizens.

Several options

Discouraging children and parents to follow herd mentality while choosing their specialisation in higher education, Mr. Sripathi said it was important to know that there were a wide range of avenues open for the students to choose from.

Speaking on the need to focus on education for girls, Satish Kumar, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, said that despite the steps taken by government to empower rural women, gender disparity had a strong presence in many States.

School dropouts

Quoting the census, he said female infanticide remained unchecked in many parts, if the sex ratio is any indication. Over 50 per cent of adolescent girls are anaemic and a major chunk of school dropouts are girls, he said.

T.V. Venkataraman, the former Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, and Tata Teleservices Chief Executive Officer Ramprasad spoke. A musical performance — ‘Kannamma’ — followed the inauguration. Pianist Anil Srinivasan gave a mellifluous rendition of Bharathiyar compositions along with singers Sikkil Gurucharan and Rakesh Raghunathan.

The festival will be conducted in 32 districts in the State.

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