Girls attend a self-defence class at Kalinga Stadium on Monday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 15: Get more confident and build your strength to take on assailants with a solid kick and a punch.

That’s the message for girl students as they get trained in self-defence techniques. The training programme under the Odisha State Youth Policy began today at Kalinga Stadium where 50 students took part in the first phase of training.

All 619 government and government-aided colleges in the state are taking part in the self-defence programme.

Organised by the department of sports and youth affairs, the department of higher education and the department of home, the training aims to imbibe self-confidence and strength in girl students of the state.

The state government aims to train three lakh girls in self-defence in a year. In the first phase, 550 student trainers selected from various colleges of the state will be trained. These student trainers will then go back to their respective colleges and train their own girl students and those in nearby colleges. The training is being provided by the Utkal Karate School, Bhubaneswar.

There will be 11 batches in which 50 girls will be trained every week. There will be 14 classes with 49 hours of training. “We will turn them into grade I trainers, the lowest grade in self-defence. Our aim is not to make them champions but to face real-life situations,” said coach Hariprasad Patnaik.

The training will be on scientific combat techniques, which will provide the students with tips and tricks on how to remain alert and defend themselves in case of need.

“We will teach girls what to do when faced with assault, whether inside a bus, on the street or at camps. The tips are especially suited to women. They can dramatically increase chances of coming out of a sticky situation unscathed,” said Patnaik.

Besides physical training, the students will be schooled on identifying crime, types of crime, how to strengthen their minds and build self-confidence if they face any untoward incident. At the end of the training, the students will be given a book on self-defence called React.

To enable more students to take interest in self-defence training, the state government has decided to give each girl taking part in the programme Rs 10 a day for tiffin and other expenses. At the colleges, student trainers will take on batches of 30 girls each who will be trained for one hour over 50 days.

“Self-defence is extremely important for girl students. Girls of all ages are prone to physical abuse. A girl who knows self-defence techniques can defend herself as well as other students in an unwanted situation,” said women’s rights activist Tapasi Praharaj.

Students seemed enthused about the training. “The training started today and there are girls from various parts of the state. I was a bit scared when I came to know that some of the girls here already know self-defence techniques but once they started the training, I felt all right. Its not as difficult as it seems,” said Soumyashree, a student from an Angul college.

“I am excited to go back to my college and teach what I learn here to the other students. A number of girls are already interested in the training and I don’t think there will be any shortage of girls who will be interested. This is something every girl wants to learn and we are really happy that the state government has given us this opportunity,” said Rachna, a student from Jajpur.

“We have interacted among ourselves and found that every girl student faces uncomfortable situations sometime or the other. Some cases are serious. The training being provided will help us deal with such incidents with confidence,” said Ananya from Bhubaneswar.