Students of Patna Women’s College display their posters at the World Population Day event at their institution. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey Students of St Xavier’s College of education attend the seminar on microteaching. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Society must appreciate the sentiments of children and be more sensitive to their needs, said experts at a workshop on child labour on July 14.

Organised by the political science department of Magadh Mahila College, the seminar was attended by a number of legal experts.

Patna civil court additional district judge Vijay Kumar Trivedi was one of the experts who attended the seminar. He said: “Children engaged in child labour are deprived of their childhood, potential and dignity. This is harmful for their physical and mental development.”

The judge said it was essential to enact strong laws to fight child labour. “Law enforcing agencies should do their job honestly. We should try to root out child labour.”

Magadh Mahila College principal Dolly Sinha was also a speaker at the seminar. She said adults responsible for bringing up children often take the decision to force them into employment.

The speakers also asked the students to inform police or the authorities concerned if they come across any instance of child labour so that the culprits could be punished.

“We have to take steps to root out child labour. School and college students should raise their voice against child labour. Children are the future of the nation,” said Raviranjan, first class judicial magistrate, Patna civil court.

Population focus

Students of Patna Women’s College put their creativity on display in a poster and slogan writing competitions on July 11.

Organised to mark World Population Day, the competitions attracted 30 and odd participants from various departments of the college.

In both the competitions, the participants tried to explore different issues like how increasing population can stall development and problems of teenage pregnancy.

Students tried to raise awareness about how teenage pregnancy can be fatal for both the foetus and the mother.

Some of the catchy slogans against teenage pregnancy were: “Ek chand ki masti, zindagi bhar ki saza (Fun for a few seconds, punishment for the whole life)”, Baccho ko bacche paida nahi karne chahiye (Children should not give birth to children)” and “Kishoravastha mein garbhdharan nahi karna chahiye (A teenager should not conceive)”.

Symposium

AKN Sinha Institute of Medical Sciences organised a symposium on July 11 on the occasion of World Population Day. The theme of the symposium was population explosion.

AIIMS-Patna director G.K. Singh inaugurated the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Singh said: “The main reasons of increasing population are illiteracy in women, the wish of having a boy child and unawareness about family planning measures among the masses.”

He said strong measures should be taken to spread awareness and prevent population explosion.

Teaching seminar

St Xavier’s College of Education organised a three-day seminar on microteaching for its BEd students.

Starting on July 11, the seminar introduced trainee teachers to different techniques of imparting education.

Madhu Singh, a teacher at the college, said: “Microteaching methods introduce teachers to skills of time management. A teacher should know how much time he or she should invest in every topic.”

Father Victor Osta, another faculty member, said a teacher should plan each and every class. “In a 35-40 minute period, the teacher should know how much he or she wants to cover.”

He added that a teacher should do his or her homework before going to class.

Personality boost

Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, started personality development classes for final-year students from July 14.

Motivational speaker from New Delhi, Sunil Keshwani, gave tips to students on how to appear for an interview, the correct body language of a job seeker, the clothes they should wear and how to improve their communication skills.