Shillong July 13: Martin Luther Christian University in collaboration with the North East Network(NEN), Meghalaya organised a four day workshop on Gender Training, for the teaching faculty of MLCU at the University’s premises from July 10-13, 2017. The resource persons for the workshop were representatives of the “Kriti team” New, a development support and capacity building organisation based in New Delhi that has been working with a gender and intersectional ties on social, environment and human rights issues since 1999.
The Kriti team’s founder Aanchal Kapur has been associated with NEN for over two decades. The workshop has been organised with the objective to create awareness about gender sensitisation and also for the faculty of the University to realise their role as educationists in bringing in gender parity not just in the University but also in the society.
The workshop was divided into two groups, with each group participating for two days. The resource persons included Smti. Veenu Kakkar, Senior Programme Lead with the Kriti team and works in the area of gender and women’s rights training and communication programming; and Smti. Anju Khemani, Senior Communications Associate with the Kriti team and works in the area of disability, gender and social movements.
The workshop was designed to include discussions and activities to bring about the various issues concerning gender biasness in our society. The topics included were Demystifying Gender (from Self to Society); Power and relations; Gender division of Labour and Social Worth; Unpacking Masculinity; Gender based Discrimination and Violence; and Engendering Education-Mapping the University.
The workshop was inaugurated on July 10, by the Chancellor of the University Dr. Glenn C Kharkongor and while giving the keynote address, Dr. Kharkongor spoke at length at the various issues concerning gender and gender disparity. He also added that women are still discriminated even in a society like ours which boast of treating its women equally, and that much is needed to be done to bring about a change. He added that these workshops will help in bringing about the much needed changes.
