IGNOU announces 2 new courses in gender, women's studies

Celebrating the centenary of the International Women's Day, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has announced new programmes in gender and women's studies.

The university had organized a day-long function at the IGNOU campus on March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day.

The new programmes include development of a project to be converted into Certificate/Diploma in Gender and Nutritional Security, Certificate/Diploma in Gender & Labor and Certificate/Diploma in Gender in Cinema.

Other new programmes in design and development stage include Certificate/Diploma programmes in Gender & Law, Gender & Science and GenderAgriculture & Sustainable Development.

"When we look at the relation between education and women empowerment, we find that several kinds of social evils, like female feticide, dowry, etc., are still prevalent in the society. There is an urgent need to critically look at the sort of education provided to women today," said Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, while inaugurating the celebrations at the Convention Centre.

The occasion was hosted by the School of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS), in association with the IGNOU Committee Against Sexual Harassment (ICASH), School of Humanities (SOH), School of Translation Studies and Training (SOTST) and School of Performing and Visual Arts (SOPVA).

The celebrations included a painting exhibition, a musical prelude, a street play (by the students of SOPVA) and a seminar on 'Feminist Writings In Indian Literature' eulogizing the importance of women in the society.

"Marking a date in the calendar as International Women's Day started in the year 1911. Today, the entire IGNOU community celebrates 100 years of great aspirations, which have remained undiminished," said SOGDS Director Prof Savita Singh.

While delivering a lecture on 'Women's Writing in Kannada', Prof U.R. Ananthamurthy, Chair Professor, Tagore Chair for Indian Literature, IGNOU, distinctly differentiated between the way women are treated in classical and folk literature.

"You have to see how certain things are preserved. Many other Indian languages were influenced by Sanskrit when it was in decline. Later writers used to develop only 'alankars', which were meaningless most of the times. What was decadent in Sanskrit became alive in Indian languages," he said.

SOTST Director Prof K. Satchidanandan elucidated his thoughts on 'Women's Writing in Malayalam' by remembering renowned English author Virginia Woolf's famous work 'A Room of One's Own'.

Quoting the author, Prof Satchidanandan said, "Had Shakespeare been a woman, he wouldn't have become Shakespeare. It is because he wouldn't have traveled London, as traveling was very difficult for women during those times; he wouldn't have got acquainted with people and thus would have never acted."

Prof Satchidanandan drew attention to four major movements in women's fiction in Kerala by four women authors namely K. Saraswati Amma, Lalithambika Antherjanam, Kamala Das and Sarah Joseph.

"There is a vibrant women's literature in Kerala, which talks about everything significant to the lives of women today," he added.

SOH Director Prof Rita Rani Paliwal highlighted feminism in Hindi literature by remembering Mirabai as the first woman litterateur of India.

Further, there were similar discussions by Prof Satyakam and Dr Malti Mathur from SOH, which were followed by paper presentations by the Research and Training Assistants (RTAs) of the University.

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Delhi/IGNOU_announces_2_new_courses_in_gender,_women's_studies_13667/

International Women’s Day: Invest in education of girls!

There is no tool more effective for development and poverty reduction than the education of girls. Today, on International Women’s Day, EI demands greater investment in and political commitment to achieving this goal.

In many countries around the world, basic education is not accessible to millions of people. Of the 796 million illiterate people, women make up two thirds. Girls and women face particular obstacles that keep them out of education: Violence on the way to school, in and around schools; early pregnancy and early marriage; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic, as well as discrimination based on gender stereotypes in the wider community and at schools; school fees, which may mean that parents send their boys and not their girls to school; and lack of gender sensitive quality education especially in rural areas.

EI Deputy General Secretary Jan Eastman said: “This early discrimination contributes fundamentally to the disadvantages that women are faced with in so many areas of life. Conversely, investing in girls’ education not only gives women and girls the tools to stand up against discrimination and violence, it is also a precondition for democracy and development. It raises economic productivity, lowers infant and maternal mortality, and leads to considerable improvements in families’ health and nutrition.”

A report released last week by the Education For All Fast Track Initiative shows the progress that girls have made not only in enrolling in school but also in completing their education. It highlights the most effective tools to achieve this progress: The mobilisation of communities to send girls to school, targeted financial support for girls to cover for school fees and textbook costs, and the creation of school health and feeding programs. “Education to at least secondary level is crucial for the empowerment of girls,” said Eastman.

Using the slogan “It is a right! Make it right!”, women’s and girls’ right to education is the theme of this year’s Global Action Week from 2 to 8 May 2011. Under the heading “The Big Story” millions of people around the world will share stories on women’s and girls’ education. The main aim of the Global Action Week will be to urge leaders to make specific policy pledges which must be followed through and implemented. EI advocates for greater investment in the education of girls, today and every other day of the year.

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1549&theme=gender&country=global

Exhibition titled 'Transformation' to be held at JMI

New Delhi: An exhibition titled "Transformation", organized by four students of the Jamia Millia Islamia(JMI), will be held at the university campus from February 21 to 26.

The students that are organizing the exhibition are from the Department of Art History and Art Appreciation at the varsity. They will be donning the roles of curators for the exhibition that is a part of the paper "History of Curational Practices", which is included in their syllabus.

Other institutions that will be participating in the exhibition include Delhi College of Art, GovernmentCollege of Art in Chandigarh, Tecnia Institute of Art and Design and Banaras Hindu University.

According to one of the student curators for the exhibition Pradeep K. Arya, as curators, their job will be to view various works, select those that will be displayed at the exhibition and provide their perspective on the exhibits by way of captions.

The students whose works have been chosen to be displayed at the exhibition were selected by the four student curators who had viewed all the entries and then chosen the ones that would be displayed.

The theme of the exhibition is "Transformation", which is a "metaphoric process which gets defined through various aspects of human life from birth to death".

The process of transformation while taking into account the social-political issues ofgender, class and caste will be explored by the show.

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Delhi/Exhibition_titled_'Transformation'_to_be_held_at_JMI_13556/