The Kerala Women’s Commission has conceived a special awareness programme for schoolchildren to coincide with school reopening.
The programme will focus on creating awareness against substance abuse and revenge for refusing romantic overtures, and promote gender equality.
Organised as part of ‘Kaumaram Karuthaku’ that was rolled out by the commission in November last, it aims at sensitising students in schools to ills in society that can affect them unknowingly so that they remain alert to such influences and grow up to be socially responsible citizens with humane values.
One school in every district will be the focus of the programme initially. One of its thrust areas is the tendency among students to seek revenge if overtures to the opposite sex, particularly girls, are refused.
The commission wants to get the message across to adolescents that women are not commodities. Just like a person has the right to love, they also have the right not to love and to say no. Any refusal should not be taken personally or as an affront that has to be avenged.
The commission will also underline the consequences of such actions since they can result in one’s life going off the rails from which a comeback can be extremely hard.
Another issue that the commission is trying to highlight is substance abuse. This comes in the wake of reports of increase in substance abuse among students, and their use as carriers for drug trafficking.
The importance of gender equality, especially as the State makes strides towards being a progressive society, will also be underlined. Since they are young, the commission wants to reach out to them before patriarchal notions become firmly entrenched.
Kerala Women’s Commission chairperson P. Satheedevi will inaugurate the programme in the district at Government Higher Secondary School, Kamaleswaram, at 2 p.m. on Thursday. The awareness class will be led by Anson P.D. Alexander of Kanal, an organisation that works among school and college students.
