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| Students at the Chhoti Si Asha campaign for girl child education held at Unit-I Girls’ High School in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati |
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 3: Budding managers of a management institute here launched an awareness campaign on girl child education and making primary learning accessible.
Titled Chhoti Si Asha, the programme primarily aims at reaching out to government schools in the city to promote broader access to education for girls.
“Although the state has seen a dramatic rise in the number of schools, daunting challenges remain as the gender gap, especially in secondary education is still very large,” said Pallav Mukherjee, a student of the Institute of Management and Information Science (IMIS).
“Despite efforts by the government and organisations to ensure the protection of children and to provide for their special needs, more help is needed to uplift the situation of children because of social inequality. Several studies have shown that girls from poor families are disadvantaged and fall prey to child labour, exploitation and lack of access to basic services primarily because of their status in life,” said R.V. Saikumar, another management student.
Besides sensitising the students about the opportunities in higher education, the students also screened a movie made by them.
Titled Udaan, the film showcased the strength and the power of education to change the world.
Besides, the film screening, the students also organised a painting competition for the students and later distributed the prizes.
Earlier this week, the first-year students had organised a street play on the similar topic at Unit-I market.
“Apart from working for the cause, as students of management, it also gave us an opportunity to develop our organising skills, networking and negotiating skills there by putting our classroom lessons into practical use,” said Pooja, a student.
The plan is to contact as many government schools as possible and organise events in order to raise awareness on this noble advocacy for women and girls, and reach out to more people, students said.