BHUBANESWAR: After imparting lessons to female students of higher education institutions in self-defence techniques, the state government has decided to open self-defence clubs for them in all degree colleges.
In the first phase, such clubs will be established in 200 colleges. In subsequent phases, more colleges will be covered. Officials in the Department of Higher Education said the clubs will be introduced to replace previously-run self-defence training programme for girls. A sum of `50,000 will be released in favour of each of the selected 200 colleges which include 43 government institutions.
On Tuesday, the department asked principals of all degree colleges to appoint a faculty member as coordinator of the self-defence clubs. The clubs will promote the safety of female students and also impart training in techniques like karate, martial arts, judo, taekwondo, etc.
Officials added the initiative aims to equip young girls with self-defence skills, enabling them to recognise potential dangers including physical assault, molestation and harassment and protect themselves besides building confidence in their abilities.
The training will be imparted by the already trained girls of the institutions and qualified self-defence trainers on campuses. This year, 1.09 lakh girl students are enrolled in close to 1,000 degree colleges. Back in 2013, the state government had decided to impart self-defence training to 2.5 lakh college girls, both in undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and provided `10,000 each to 10,288 youth clubs on higher education campuses as part of its commitment in the State Youth Policy, 2013.