Though every day is Women’s day at Sevalaya, the International Women’s Day on March 8th 2019 was celebrated with much enthusiasm.Prominent women achievers in the local communities were the Chief Guests in the respective centres. Competitions were conducted for the staff and students. Prizes were distributed to the winners on the occasion.
Girl child education and women empowerment are among the focus areas of Sevalaya’s activities. 30 years ago, when Sevalaya started functioning, child labour was rampant. It needed a lot of canvassing and counselling to the daily wage labourers to send their children to school, instead of making them work for wages. The resistance to send girl children to school was higher and Sevalaya had successfully addressed the concerns of the parents, especially safety issues for girl children. Now 50% of the total strength of the school at Kasuva centre are girls. Girls top the Board examinations year after year. The community colleges of Sevalaya offer free courses in tailoring, beautician, basic computer applications, nursing and lab technician assistant for the poor women, with a view to imparting them some skill and help them get an employment.
400 students and parents participated in the celebrations at Kasuva centre. Sameena Mahmood, Associate Vice President, Mani Moorthy Operations Accounts Manager and Lakshmipathy Ramaiyan, Operations Accounts Manager from R R Donnelley were the Chief Guests. A separate toilet compex for women sponsored by Amrutanjan Ltd was inaugurated on the occasion. Raja Sridhar, MD, Technocrat Ltd distributed 100 T shirts to students.
As a prelude to Women’s Day a 2 hour yoga session for 300 women including lady staff, female students of community college and girls of Std IX was conducted on 7th March 2019 at Kasuva Centre. V S Prakash of Atma Niranjan Yoga Vidyalaya led the session. He spoke about the importance practicing Yoga to develop physical and mental strength.
The Chief Guest at Utharamerur Centre, Dr.Uma Devi MBBS, DNB, OG, Block Medical Officer from Manampathy spoke to the audience about health and hygiene of women and how the health of a woman impacts the family. 30 students and women from the neighbourhood participated in games like throwball, passing the ball and musical chair.
Dr Uma Devi
At the Ambattur community college, the Chief Guest Dr T V S Padmaja, Principal, Valliammal College for Women, shared her views on the importance of women in various roles in the family as well as in the society. 50 students and staff participated in the celebrations.
Padmaja
At Ravanasamudram, Tirunelveli R Prema, Retired Tamil Professor from Rani Anna College of Arts and Science was the Chief Guest for the Women’s Day celebrations in which 35 women participated.
F Esther Vincy, Asst.Professor and H.O.D Social work department from SDNB Vaishnava College for Women, was the Chief Guest at Sunguvarchatram centre. Esther Vincy spoke about goal setting and achieving targets.
Mohan HR and Leo Christopher, Plant Manager, PPG Revocoat were the Chief Guests at the Women’s day celebrations held at Thirubuvanai center. The Chief Guest spoke on the role of women in the society, their responsibilities and how to be daring in tackling the activities against women. Students, staff and women about 35 in number took part in the function.
