A group of college girls, who barely have the confidence to step out and interact with officials in public offices or avail of their entitlements and government schemes on their own, attended a workshop to get training in how to go about it.
The students from Deeniyat Muallima College attended a session at the Domjur block development officer’s office on Friday.
Bangla Sahayata Kendra (BSK), a state government initiative, organised the visit of the students to its centre in association with the college.
They learnt about the importance of documents like ration card, voter identity cards and how to overcome difficulties in accessing birth certificates, ration cards and land-related documents.
They talked about the need to rectify spelling errors in official documents.
The state government has set up Bangla Sahayata Kendras across the state to provide government services free of cost at the grassroots level and to strengthen the existing system of information dissemination about various social and development schemes.
“Our girls lack the confidence to go out and talk to officials in various government offices. This is an icebreaker for them and they would understand that they can go out and speak for themselves rather than depend on middlemen or male members of their family,” said Siddika Tabassum, director, Deeniyat Muallima College.
In most homes, the women would depend on the men to do the work for them and it will lie unattended till the men find the time for it.
Afrin Nasrin, 19, said she had a tough time two years ago when she wanted to claim a scholarship that she got after her higher secondary.
“I was entitled to the scholarship but I had to show the income certificate of my father which we did not have. It was only after a cousin guided us that I was able to do it.,” she said.
The college set up in 2016 is a community-based college that aims to empower Muslim women in Bengal to control the dropout rate and to encourage workforce participation.
“The college was established to ensure the transition of Muslim girls from higher secondary to higher education, and equip them with a set of skills to get decent jobs,” said a college official.
It teaches them subjects like computers, management, nutrition and health and child psychology along with Islamic studies.
