Bhubaneswar: Conforming with the current year’s theme for International Women’s Day campaign – “An equal world is an enabled world”, Utkal University celebrated the day with a novel initiative to enable a gender equal campus. The School of Women’s Studies organised this year’s celebration which was presided by the honourable Vice Chancellor, Soumendra Mohan Pattnaik.
Celebrating women’s achievement is a key to uplift them and enable equality in this world. With this goal the University recognised all the women employees starting from Class IV employees to Professors as achievers. All the women staff were felicitated and applauded for their achievements. With this the University has started a mission to make the campus inclusive for women to thrive.
Dr. Navaneeta Rath, Director, Women’s Studies gave the welcome address, introduce all the guests and gave a brief report of the activities of the school. Talking about women empowerment, Chief Guest of the occasion Prof Deepak Kumar Behera, Vice-Chancellor, Sambalpur University said, “Vanity should begin from home. Our men should be sensitised first to appreciate women and respect them.” Guest of honour, Dr. Sanghamitra Pati, Director, Public Health, Regional Medical Research Centre; addressed the present members and said, “We must respect each other’s humanity and focus on equity rather than equality. Equity identifies who are at advantage and needs empowerment the most.”
Chief Speaker of the ceremony Prof. Nilika Mehrotra, Professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University in her address spoke on the importance of technology and the social media space. She said, “Women are pushed to the corner in a very structured manner. Women are trying twice as hard to prove themselves. Social media can be a democratic space and a space for solidarity.” Chief Guest, Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice Chancellor & Chairperson, KIIT in her address touched upon the need to establish a society which will have equal opportunity.
Lastly the honourable Vice-Chancellor, Soumendra Mohan Pattnaik expressed his heartfelt thanks and respect to all the women present and said, “Women’s day should be celebrated throughout the year and not just one day.” He spoke passionately on the patriarchal system of our society and said, “The process of exclusion is too deep in our societies and we shouldn’t fall in the trap of ghettoisation.”
Winners of the University debate competition spoke on women empowerment and were felicitated along with the winners of various competitions organised on the eve of International Women’s Day. Ms. Nirlipta Jagadev Mohapatra expressed heartfelt thanks to all the esteemed guests and participants during Vote of Thanks and wrapped the event.
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