WOMEN STUDIES CELL

Set up in 2001, the Women’s Studies Cell has become an integral part of the college over the years. The President and mentor at that time was Dr. Indira Bardoloi. Since its inception till the present day, the cell has been a vibrant one with many feathers in its cap.

Besides arranging numerous talks, organizing competitions, visits, as well as undertaking studies, the most prominent step taken by the WSC has been to start the Women’s Studies Certificate Course in 2008 for the degree students. Since then, batches of students have passed out of the hallowed portals of Handique Girls’ College after being enriched and energized by the very nature of the course.

This course was started with the objective to empower the students with the knowledge and confidence to face the world as women, to fight for their rights, to know their responsibilities. It encompasses a gamut of topics which cover the basics of patriarchy, discrimination and harassment.

Gender violence, legal protection in place for women, self defence, building leadership and confidence are all included in the course. In some years, movie screening and visits were included. The syllabus is dynamic and with time new topics have been added like LGBTQ, transgender etc.

The WSC has also taken up extension activities, brought out a book on Assamese women, undertaken information dissemination initiatives on relevant topics among others.

Some of these activities are highlighted in the flow chart given below.

 

A prominent contribution by the Cell towards studies on women has been publication of the book ASSAMESE WOMEN THE PATHBREAKERS in 2011. In this book, the Assamese women who have made a name for themselves in different fields have been shown and their life journeys. This book was widely received by the general public as well as those researchers doing work on Assamese women. It may be mentioned that this book has been included by the Gauhati University as a reference book for the paper Multi-Disciplinary Studies under NEP.

Industry Visits as a part of the Women’s Studies Course have included industrial centres, industrial estates and Assam Startup- The Nest. The motive behind this is to create or ignite the spark in the students for setting up their own businesses and enterprises.

A look at some of our recent activities

A day-long Extension activity was organized by the Women’s Studies Cell under the aegis of IQAC to Amodpur, Rajapukhuri in 2023. This is the village which has been adopted by the college for its welfare activities.

A talk on “Menstrual Hygiene” was delivered on the occasion by Dr. Jitumoni Neog, Asst. Professor from the Home Science Department. She gave an idea about the common issues associated with menstruation, which was followed by a lively question and answer session.

The objective of the exercise was to make the women and teenaged girls aware of the importance of hygiene and the use of sanitary items. A number of sanitary pads were distributed courtesy Star Cement under their CSR.

A talk on “Sexual Harassment at workplace” was held in the same year wherein the Resource Person Anurita Pathak, State Director, North East Network spoke on the various types of harassment which may be faced in the workplace and the provisions available in the constitution to tackle them. The speaker who is a women’s rights activist and who has contributed greatly in shaping the rural feminist movement in Assam, answered the queries and shared a video clip on the topic.

Following the above talk, an information dissemination initiative was started by the cell. Printed leaflets published by the NEN on Sexual harassment at Workplace were distributed among the departments in the college.

A day-long Extension activity was organized by the Women’s Studies Cell under the aegis of IQAC to Amodpur, Rajapukhuri in 2023. This is the village which has been adopted by the college for its welfare activities.

A poster competition was held in 2024 to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The topic was “Accelerating Gender Equality through Economic Empowerment”.

Many students participated in the competition in groups of 2 and 5. The total number of groups was 17. Resource Persons were Mr. Shakeel Zamal from Physics Department and Mrs. Mrigakshi Sarma Hazarika from Education Department. The takeaways from the activity were that the students learnt the importance of inclusion in the light of the theme given.

Besides getting the idea of poster presentation and display of a slogan (or tagline) keeping in mind the topic, the participants came to know more about the gender equality and empowerment in the process.