Nearly 1,000 National Service Scheme volunteers from various engineering colleges in the city took out a march from the LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Poojappura, to Manaveeyam Veedhi on the eve of International Women’s Day, which is observed on Tuesday.
Cyclists from Indus Cycling Embassy, volunteers of CO2, and activists of Manaveeyam Theruvora Koottayma also joined the programme. The march, Equality Walk, was flagged off by Patric, a German Cyclist who cycled his way from Germany to Thiruvananthapuram, at 11 p.m. and culminated with cultural festival and pledge taking ceremony on Manaveeyum Veedhi at midnight.
Abdul Rahiman, Pro Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University; Sandhya Rajan, transgender activist; and Neethu Sona, civil servant; led the pledge-taking ceremony. Male and female volunteers marched together to declare that they had to move together hand-in-hand towards gender equity among male, female and transgenders.
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The programme was the grand finale of a three-month long project on gender sensitisation through NSS intervention (GENSIS), organised by the National Service Scheme under Technical Cell, in association with Department of Social Justice.
The sensitisation drive included State-level, district-level and unit-level camps where the volunteers worked on street plays, short films, magazines, posters and theme songs based on gender equity themes.
Competitions were held at various levels and the final was held in the State-level camp at the LBS Institute of Technology for Women from March 7 morning to March 8 morning. The award-winning streetplay was staged.
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