Giving the key note address at the two day International webinar at Vasantha College, Benaras University Varanasi.Vasantha College for Women, established by Dr. Annie Besant in the year 1913 in the campus of Theosophical Society and today is a pioneer institution with an aim of providing higher education to the girls. In 1954, it was shifted in the campus of Krishnamurti Foundation and was once again established by Shri J Krishnamurti the foster son of Dr. Annie Besant.
The Centre for Social exclusion and inclusion, University of Hyderabad and Red rope celebrated the Anti human trafficking day on 30 th July with a two day Conference on Human trafficking. I moderated a panel discussion with four activists and scholars, Biju Thambi from Vision Rescue, Matt Nathniel the Regional Director of the Global charity called Saving Moses, P. M. Nair, DGP and the Anti Trafficking crusader and Dr. Sangeeta Saxena from the NGO, Enfield Proactive Health Trust. The discussion focused around issues of creating awareness among slum children, infants and trafficking, creating awareness in Colleges and rural areas and creating a value based education to deal with trafficking. A wonderful programme and thanks Ajailiu Niumai and Red rope from bringing in very good speakers and police officials who are dealing with this issue of trafficking. Indeed a fitting tribute to celebrate this day and create awareness around this issue.
Delivered the Key note address in the two day Seminar on 29th and 30 th July, at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar. The seminar on Gendered Societies saw 195 participants connected to the online Conference. In my key note I explained how society becomes gendered and then went on to talk on inequality and the areas where it exists. I concluded by speaking about how inequality which is already existing becomes more intensified in the times of the pandemic and the kind of impact this pandemic has had on women. I was very happy with the Dean Prof. Rajeev Kumar who listened to my talk very carefully and was able to summarise and synthesise this brilliantly. Thanks a lot Sweta and the sociology Department for taking the lead and inviting me for the key note address. It was also nice to listen to a young scholar from the University, Sanjay kumar speak on Masculinities.I will be very happy if more men and boys come to speak and express their views in a gendered Conference for as I pointed out in my talk unless men and boys are involved, our agenda will not be able to fulfill its goal.
I was connected to 127 participants from different Universities and Colleges all over India in the Refresher course organised by the MHRD, Osmania University, where I was invited to give the key note address and another lecture to the faculty. It was a pleasure to interact and get to know the faculty from Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Odhisa, Andhra and Telengana. The reach of this new form of teaching amazes me with its reach and unlike a face to face refresher course where we could connect to thirty or forty faculty at the most now the reach is unimaginable. But it is indeed very exhausting and requires a lot of energy to keep speaking for hours together with out seeing the facial expressions at the other end. It is only in the discussion later that one comes to know if they have followed or not.
An online book release function. Indeed academics and the way things are today, our world is changing and changing fast.
The Maulana Azad National Urdu University(MANUU), MHRD, UGC is organising a one week faculty improvement programme on Gender sensitisation. I interacted with the participants who were seventy in numbers and came from all over India on the issue of Gender violence and Sexual Harassment and the women's Movement in India . It was nice to see some of my students who are now faculty members and faculty from the University of Hyderabad attending this. This is good opportunity to talk to the Science faculty and faculty from other disciplines about gender issues.
The International webinar in SSLNT Mahila Mahavidyalaya in Dhanbad Jharkhand saw participants from Odhisa, Mumbai, Delhi, USA and Nigeria besides my self. This was a webinar organised by the history department, where Ishrat Alam, Aparna Bandopadhyay and myself also looked at the past and examined the pandemics in the past and how they changed society ,economy and cultures. However, with many good speakers lined up it became too lengthy and I told Tanuja the organise that it would have been great if she had kept the historians on one day and the Gender studies experts on another day. She too agreed but being a first time effort it was great. We have to hold hands of many Colleges and organisers that are moving ahead in these difficult times and carrying out the work with the new online technologies. It is heartening to see youngsters taking on to this technology with great enthusiasm.
About the State Bank of India, Hyderabad Central University,HCU Branch. I am writing this post especially for my Friend Anil Joshi. Even my children hate going to the State Bank and prefer to Bank with ICICI, HDFC or even IDBI. However, being an old timer, my faith is only with the State Bank of India. I had not been to this Bank in the Hyderabad University Campus for more than a year, thanks to online banking. Today, however, I had to go to the bank for a personal visit and my, was I surprised. Having Banked with this Bank since the 1980's, I have learnt patience in dealing with them and getting our work done.I have learnt to deal with the lethargic staff not at all interested in assisting you and taking their own time to address your concern. But today,we were in for a surprise. The infrastructure could beat any private Bank. There is a new Manager who had been transferred from Gujarat and addressed my concerns immediately. Every thing was so efficient and professional and it could beat any private bank. He told us we have no other alternative but to change if we need to survive in the market dominated by private players. Indeed a very pleasant experience and a modern infrastructure in place. May be slowly, these banks will change all over with the passage of time.
The Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Dhanbad, is holding an International webinar on,Parading shift in gender equality during Covid 19 , on 21st July.
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Delivered a lecture on Digital divide, Gender and Covi-19 at Cotton University, Guwahati. In spite of Assam facing a serious flood situation and a lot of rain, things went on very smoothly. I first explained the four concepts of Information technology, Digital divide, sex and gender. Then I went on to talk about the history of Information technology and how there was a gender divide based on access to technology or absence of it. I then spoke of the current scenario and looked at school education and the higher education scenario with regards to online methods of teaching. Whether we like it or not this technology is here to stay and there is a need to upgrade oneself to be relevant in this new world. We also need concrete efforts on the part of the policy makers, government, teachers, students to bridge this gap. I was very impressed with Dr. Rakhee, the Head of Women's Studies for summing up my talk so well and very happy with the questions asked by the participants and the lovely interaction that we had towards the end. Thanks Cotton University for having me here. A webinar connects us to so many people across gender, disciplines, regions and locations.
