Gender equality and world peace formed the themes of a motivational programme organised by the youth welfare group Yugaa in the city on Monday.
As part of the ‘Amaithi Pookal’ (Flowers of Peace) initiative, around 1,300 students of Classes 6 to 11 of the C.S.I. Methodist Girls Higher Secondary School in Woraiyur stood in formation as a dove, the universal symbol of peace, and undertook a pledge to prevent attacks on women and national sovereignty.
They also participated in competitions based on the topic ‘gender equality today, sustainable tomorrow’.
“Violence against women and girls is as serious as the war that has broken out between Russia and Ukraine and in other conflict zones. We should stop this, and we thought that we would observe the International Women’s Day (March 8), with this message of hope and peace, instead of the usual cultural events,” Allirani Balaji, president of Yugaa told the Hindu.
The day’s schedule included prize distribution for the competition winners, and a sapling plantation drive in the school campus. The pogramme concluded with the releasing of caged pigeons. “Women too, can learn to fly with the freedom of birds,” said Ms. Balaji.
