Celebrating International Women’s Day in the slums of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a world renowned event which celebrates respect towards women, promotes women’s right, shows appreciation for their economic, political, and social achievements and importantly to accelerate gender parity.

To mark this day, PSD held a workshop at two of its community schools, Binapani Shishu Mandir (BPSM) and Bhaktakabi Madhusudan School (BMS) in the slums of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. The workshop consisted of a classroom session to make the children aware about IWD and why it is celebrated. It also involved conducting practical sessions which included games designed to highlight the role and the potential of girls through the medium of sport.

Classroom session involved a presentation on the origin of International Women’s Day focusing on inspirational Indian sport women who have represented India in the Olympics, Asians Games, Commonwealth games and their journeys as they climbed the ladder of women sport in India. A special section of the presentation also focused on the hardship faced by these inspirational women and how they overcame these challenges in order to move ahead and be successful competitors.

Along with this, emphasis was also laid on skills of leadership, self-esteem, teamwork and communication, which play an important role in empowering women by helping them became confident individuals and overcome social challenges. At the end of the presentation, girls were asked to speak about their role models, how they have played a part in their lives and their hopes and dreams for the future.

PSD community trainers also held sport session which focused on games encouraging girls to be leaders and gave them equal opportunity to execute the games increasing their self-confidence. These activities were conducted after the theory session so that the girls would implement what they had learnt from the presentation. Games were introduced by the coaches but were led by girls. This was done to bring to view the potential of girls, give them a voice and also highlight the role they can play in a male dominated society.

The workshop promoted skills like gender equality leadership, self- esteem and communication through sports for women empowerment. Moreover, the focus of the workshop was to bring out the best in girls, motivate and encourage them to follow their dreams without being discouraged by social challenges.

[This article has been edited by the Operating Team]