Chennai: For the past few weeks, the news that has grabbed the headlines is #MeToo. Famous personalities have been accused of sexually assaulting many women. When parents read such news, they naturally start worrying about the safety of their children.
Having such thoughts in mind, President of Inner wheel club of Madras North, Fathima Nasira, recently organised a defence training workshop at the Children Garden School in Mylapore in the city. About 450 girl students of grade nine and eleven participated. Rotarian and Karate expert, Sensei P Vasu gave the training.
Speaking to News Today, Nasira says, “In light of the increased violence and crimes against women I felt self defence training workshops are the need of the hour.” She adds, “Educating women, making them self-sufficient, imparting self defence training to girls and reverting them to eco-friendly lifestyle are areas I decided to work upon extensively to empower and help them evolve into better humans.”
She then explains how her desire to organise this workshop saw the light of the day. “It is sheer providence that made everything fall neatly into place. During Navarathri the girls are free most mornings so the school readily agreed to give us a slot,” says Nasira. “I was fortunate to join hands with Vasu who was on the same mission. I felt the girls should benefit from this workshop.”
The workshop was organised during the birthday anniversary of former late President Abdul Kalam. Nasira explains that self defence starts from self awareness and being cautious about ones surroundings. “This was what I wanted to impress upon the girls in addition to equipping them with physical self defence skills,” she adds.
She speaks about how the workshop was conducted. “We had an interactive talk on how to stay alert in public places and what situations to avoid to minimise attacks. The risk factors for girls like their preoccupation with phones in public places were highlighted,” says Nasira.
“Then Vasu and another Rotarian and karate expert, Sunder demonstrated to the girls how to defend, attack and escape from attackers of different kinds.”
Nasira adds that the girls were super charged and were practising among themselves later. “We also ran a speech on menstrual hygiene and eco-friendly sustainable menstrual alternatives,” she says.
“A workshop on waste segregation and composting was also organised to sensitise the girls to the issues facing our planet and how to combat them.”
She adds that she intends to follow this up by providing institutes with bins to segregate the waste to reuse, recycle and reduce so that there is zero waste generation. “I aspire to conduct comprehensive workshops like this in as many schools and colleges as possible,” signs off Nasira. Reach her at 9841235139.