The St. Joseph’s College has plans to start certificate / diploma courses in Human Rights with assistance from University Grants Commission.
At the end of its ‘Human Rights Sensitisation Programme for College Students and Community Leaders, recently, the College also resolved to start a Human Rights Club and to start Human Rights Associations in the villagers covered by the SHEPHERD (Science and Humanities for People’s Development) programme, an extension activity.
The over 500 participants of the programme learnt about the various dimensions and issues associated with human rights and their duties. They included a large number of police personnel from Tiruchi and surrounding districts. They came for the programme on instructions from the National Human Rights Commission.
Their learning was facilitated by the drawings and paintings on select human rights themes created by students under the aegis of a competition. The College had also organised poetry competition for the students on the theme.
According to the Principal Rev. Fr. R. Rajarathinam, topics on Human Rights sensitisation must be integrated into the higher education curriculum. Inaugurating the programme, the Rector Rev. Fr. P. Susai observed that human rights sensitivity was part of ones human formation.
During the interactive sessions that followed, Rev. Fr. Cyril, Human Rights Educator provided a perspective for discussions on the topic through his presentation on the topic ‘Human Rights – An Overview’. S. Martin, Advocate and Human Rights Activist enlightened the audience on Right to Information Act and its implications with interesting success stories. S. Suba of the Centre for Women’s Studies, Bharathidasan University, espoused the need to promote gender sensitivity and gender justice. The panel of resource persons later engaged the audience in group discussions.
The College Secretary Rev. Fr. S. John Britto presided over the valediction and distributed prizes and participation certificates.
