Annai Vailankanni Arts and Science College, Thanjavur.


Gender Champion Club

Objectives

The broad mandate of a Gender Champion Club is to provide an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to understand the social and cultural constructions of gender that shape the experiences of women and men in society. The aim is to make the young boys and girls gender sensitive and create positive social norms that value the girls and their rights.

Activity reports
Vision

Gender Champions are envisaged as responsible leaders who will facilitate an enabling Environment within their schools/colleges/academic institution where girls are treated with dignity and respect. They will strengthen the potential of young girls and boys to advocate for gender equality and monitor progress towards gender justice.

The responsibilities of the Gender Champion Club will include the following:
  • Providing overall guidance to the peer group in integrating /mainstreaming gender in all activities of the Institution in the form of focused group discussions, debates, poster Competitions etc.
  • Engaging a variety of stakeholders from the school, college, civil society organizations, Women’s groups and media in gender mainstreaming activities.
  • Identifying gaps in school/college's activities vis-a-vis gender, and make recommendations on how to address these gaps, e.g., observe classrooms to detect bias in interactions.
  • Promoting Gender Champion Club in their educational institutions and undertaking innovative activities, like creating a website or blog on gender equity and regularly writing an equity column on issues on, e.g. untold stories of extra-ordinary men and women who changed lives of women and girls, about enabling legislations, government schemes or about finding a new Gender Champion in his/her educational institution, or competitions to analyze greeting cards from gender perspective organize film fest on gender equity etc.
  • Organizing awareness programmes on various gender issues including legislations to influence behavioral change. This could be facilitated through workshops' theme based plays, films, painting competition, etc.
  • Organizing the school annual function or the college fest on theme of gender equality and women's empowerment and encourage students to sign up and express their support for gender justice and equality in attractively designed Gender Champion booths.
  • Organizing exposure visits to various public service institutions at the village, block, district and city level (public health centres, hospitals, post offices, banks, police stations, block office, SDM/DM office to facilitate knowledge about gender issues as they affect diverse populations.
  • Popularizing phone numbers of such services as police helpline, women helpline, hospitals among students.
  • Arranging for providing necessary Life skill education and information/guidance about existing public services to their fellow students.
  • Demonstrating knowledge of important Government schemes, events, legislation, and court rulings which has a major impact on the treatment and experiences of diverse groups.
  • Documenting best practices to measure the extent of behaviour change and display the same through exhibitions, fests, annual magazines etc.
Contact

Dr. C. Kanaga Dhurga
Gender Champion Club Coordinator,
Assistant Professor of Mathematics,
Mail ID : gcc@avasctnj.edu.in
AVASC, Thanjavur