Round Table Discussion by NSS
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, NSS LSR hosted a RoundTable Discussion on Saturday, March 5. The event took place online on Google meet. The prime idea behind the discussion was the celebration of a woman, the celebration of her social, economic, cultural and political achievements, and discussing how they are a necessity in today’s world. The students discussed how we must endeavour to acknowledge a woman’s struggles and obstacles on their way to a better life.
In the discussions, volunteers from each NSS project were allotted a country to represent and all teams were given the floor to share their views on the topic. The speakers were given a duration of 1 minute to talk about the status of women in the country that they represented. The students analysed the country allotted to them and specifically how it is to be a woman in that country. The discussion threw light on opportunities available, struggles faced, security of women and so on. The discussion ended on a positive note, with students recognising privileges and hoping towards elevating women around the world
#BreakTheBias: WDC-LSR
The Women’s Development Cell of LSR, celebrated “#BreakTheBias: A Panel Discussion and Exhibition” on the 8 and 9th of March on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Prior to the event, the Editorial Team of WDC invited creative submissions from the student body. The theme was #breakthebias and WDC received many insightful, engaging and powerful art pieces, photographs, articles and other written and visual media which were then displayed in the exhibition hall. The well composed and engaging pieces ranged from student’s experiences of living in a patriarchal society to confronting the biases that women face in their everyday lives.
The WDC team set up three softboards- the first questioned the students on which biases, stereotypes and prejudices they would like to see abolished in our patriarchal society and received an overwhelming response, the other two featured prominent women authors, intellectuals and leading public figures who have continued to inspire generations with their trailblazing presence in their chosen fields.
On 8th March, an invigorating panel discussion was constituted by Dr Megha Dhillon from the Psychology Department, who spoke on gender disparities in the health sector with focus on both physical and mental health; Ms Maitreyee Mandal from the English Department, who spoke about the issues that affect the LGBTQ community in India and Queer rights. Also on the panel was Dr Nancy Pathak from the Political Science Department, she talked about how it is important to focus on the rights of all genders, and not just women’s rights alone, to see a real change in society. Ms Suman Bhanoo from the Environmental Science Department led the discussion forward and spoke about the relationship between women and nature and how a lot of our conservation policies are not gender sensitive so while the policies do protect nature, they end up hampering the interests of women who are constantly in interaction with that nature.
The speakers brought in different perspectives on breaking biases in our daily lives discussing everything from the issues in the healthcare sector to the discrimination against queer individuals and understanding the nuances of eco feminism. Our esteemed principal, Dr Suman Sharma was in attendance and gave an empowering speech prior to the panel to start off the event.
The two day event was enjoyed dearly by the student body and they participated enthusiastically to celebrate and reaffirm their standpoint as the visionary feminists of tomorrow.