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SMT. SHANTI GUPTA CENTRE FOR WOMEN STUDIES |
The Centre for Women's Studies at the MIER College of Education represents a manifestation of the institute's long standing commitment to women issues and working towards their amelioration. This can be gauged by the vision of the founders of MIER, who, in 1936, started the first co-educational school in the State, placing girl students at par with their male counterparts. This guiding principle has been upheld through the years by the institute by offering various women-oriented programmes, whether it was the start of the Nursery and Elementary Teacher Training (ETT) programmes or the capacity building and training programme for Aanganwari workers. The institute holds the distinction of having trained close to 10,000 women key change agents who are now serving the society in various capacities. Moreover, the institute is an equal-opportunity employer with women comprising 60% of its workforce and has adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy towards harassment of women at the workplace. Therefore, the establishment of the CWS at MIER with the financial assistance of the University Grants Commission (UGC) provides a formal platform for the institute to study, understand and develop strategies to resolve the pandemic issues concerning women in our society. The institute envisions the establishment of a full-fledged School of Women Studies offering formal and non-formal programmes. |
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Objectives |
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To establish a “School for Women Studies” and to offer academic and training programmes for women leading to their multi dimensional capacity building, empowerment and development; |
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To undertake research studies on women related issues and to disseminate the findings; |
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To organize workshops, orientation programmes, counselling sessions, campus/field visits, and capsule courses etc. to promote women development; |
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To undertake programmes related to awareness generation, advocacy, extension and sensitization for women through lectures, debates, competitions, camps, exhibitions, performing arts, film shows and multimedia presentations etc; |
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To provide a platform for voicing concern about human rights violations, violence, insecurity, exploitation, marginalization, inequality, harassment and degradation of women in general; |
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To establish linkages between individuals and agencies at local, national and international levels for networking, resource sharing, collaboration, welfare, capacity building, empowerment and development of women; |
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To act as a resource centre for collecting and disseminating information on women related issues and to bring out newsletters, pamphlets, course material and other documents to serve as resources for women studies and development; |
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To recognise women in different spheres of activity and to highlight their achievements in different fields; |
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To provide consultancy and other support services to women and organisations. |
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Achievements / Activities of the Centre |
The SSGCWS has been able to organise a number of activities, which have won appreciation at different levels. Some of the noteworthy achievements of the centre are as follows: |
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Publication of a book entitled “Women Achievers of J&K” containing profiles of 15 women; |
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Publication of the newsletter “Nurture” covering the achievements of the centre; |
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Research study on “Aspirations, Opportunities and Barriers of Young Women” involving 1000 young women; |
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Organisation of Gender Sensitization Programmes for youth; |
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Organisation of Capacity Building programme for women managers; |
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Counselling sessions for adolescents and young women; |
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Holding of workshops, seminars, advocacy and extension programmes for women; |
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Voicing concern about women and their rights viz-a-viz violence, exploitation, harassment and degradation through wall magazines, poetic meets, performing arts and multi-media presentations. |
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