Legal Lessons for Young Women
It is well documented, that in India, violence against women in various forms is prevalent amongst the weaker sections of society. Women are intimidated by their vulnerable position in a patriarchal society, as well as ignorance of laws in their favour.
In order to address the need for awareness in this direction, SI Calcutta started legal awareness programmes for teenaged girls from 2015 with collaboration with Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata, and facilitated by the faculty/students of the College as well as a panel of local advocates. We are proud to note here that the project received the SIGBI Programme Award 2016 for Violence and Conflict Resolution.
At the workshop, initially, the participants are introduced to recourses available to them when faced with issues such as ragging, sexual harassment, molestation, cyber crimes, acid attacks, rape, domestic violence and divorce, etc. They also learnt how to file a complaint at a police station regarding any criminal offence. Most people, particularly students, are generally apprehensive about approaching the police for any help.
The participants generally take interest in the information provided to them, and have several queries regarding their individual problems. Awareness is thus created amongst the students regarding the need to take action to resolve the gender related issues which they face in their everyday lives. They also learn about the legal process available for conflict resolution, & gain knowledge about the institutions from where they may seek free help, if required.
Details of past workshops are given below
- October 2015: Senior students and parents of Sujata Devi Vidyamandir, Kolkata 700026
- April 2017: Senior students of Lake Girls School, Kolkata 700029
- October 2017: Undergraduate students of Heramba Chandra College, and Shivnath Shastry College ,Kolkata 700029
- February 2019 : Senior students of Kalidhan Institution, Kolkata 700026
- March 2019: Senior students, parents and teachers of Sujata Devi Vidyamandir, Kolkata 700026
We are grateful to the Principal , Faculty and students of JCC College for their collaboration in the project
In view of the success of the programme, a second programme was held in April 2017 for the senior students of Lake School for Girls. A third Legal Awareness Programme was held on 26th August 2017 for the undergraduate students of Heramba Chandra College, Kolkata 700029 in collaboration once again with the faculty and students of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata. At the workshop, initially, the participants were introduced to recourses available to them when faced with issues such as ragging, sexual harassment, molestation, cyber crimes, acid attacks, rape, domestic violence and divorce, etc. They also learnt how to file a complaint at a police station regarding any criminal offence. Most people, particularly students, are generally apprehensive about approaching the police for any help.
The participants took a keen interest in the information provided to them, and had several queries regarding their individual problems. Awareness was thus created amongst the students regarding the need to take action to resolve the gender related issues which they face in their everyday lives. They also learnt about the legal process available for conflict resolution, & gained knowledge about the institutions from where they may seek free help if required.