International Working Women’s Day will be celebrated in the State by State agencies as well as women’s groups and other organisations on Friday.
The main State-level function will be held at 3 p.m. at Bodgeshwar Hall, Mapusa, in north Goa by the Directorate of Women and Child Development and the Goa State Commission for Women, where Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will present the Yashodamini Puraskar for 2012 and 2013 to eminent women who have excelled in various fields.
Award winners
The recipients of the puraskar for 2012 are Shubhalaxmi R. Mandrekar and Malini Chari (art and culture), Deeplaxmi Kumar Avati (sports), Sumedha A. Kamat Dessai and Meghana Kurundwadkar (literature), Vijaya N. Sheldekar (social work) and Suhashini Prabhugaonkar (journalism).
Ana Pinto (social work), Mangala More (art and culture) and Shilpa J. Bonsle (education) have been nominated for 2013.
Poetry and theatre
A multilingual poetry reading session, ‘Kavita Stri-Janivanchi’ (poetry reflecting feminine identity) will be coordinated by Neeta Torne at International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula, near here, between 3 and 5 p.m.
Earlier, in the morning, at ICG, the reading of a Konkani two-act-play, ‘Katha Asturi’ (woman’s story), and a dialogue by writer Jyoti Kunkolikar and activist Prashanti Talpankar will be held at 10 a.m.
The National Federation of Indian Women (All India Trade Union Congress) will hold a function to celebrate International Women’s Day at Institute Piedade Hall in the city at 3 p.m.
‘Change mindset’
On Thursday, the Konkani Bhasha Mandal held a symposium on ‘Sexual crimes against women and a need to change social mindset’, in which participants called for men and women to work from within homes and also in society at large to change the dominant patriarchal mindset so that the much-needed process of bringing in a congenial atmosphere of gender equality and sensitivity, leading to reduction of violence and crime against woman would be hastened.
Rupesh Patkar, Ratnmala Divkar, Kajal Kerkar and Sawani Shetye spoke on different facets of the problem at the symposium coordinated by senior journalist Sandesh Prabhudesai
