Kaushambhi (Uttar Pradesh), March 20 Kaushambhi has become the first district in Uttar Pradesh to introduce a unique concept in its schools, wherein teachers will interact with the students and encourage them to respect women.
Launched in February, the 30-minute session on 'Mahila Samman Kaksha' (classes on women's respect) in its 1,410 government schools for classes one to 8, encourage its students to respect the women.
The special class is conducted every Wednesday and the aim to build strong character among the children.
During the session, teachers interact with students and discuss issues like eve-teasing, why one should respect women, menstrual hygiene and gender stereotyping.
Kaushambhi District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma said, "We have received a good response from both the students and teachers. Some teachers have also uploaded videos of these classes on their social media accounts. Teachers are also working on improving the course module to connect with more students."
District officials and Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSA) have prepared a list of topics which would be discussed in these classes throughout the year.
During the classes, while girls will be trained in self-defence, boys will be advised against cracking jokes about the former and refrain from eve-teasing or passing lewd comments at women.
"Teachers will also encourage students to not hesitate in sharing their feelings and also behave like friends with siblings," he said
Moreover, boys will be encouraged to help out their sisters and mothers in the household chores.
Basic Shiksha Adhikari (Kaushambhi) Raj Kumar Pandit said that after the positive response to the special classes, several private schools too have shown interest in launching similar initiatives for their students.
"If we can teach the boys to respect women, there will be a drastic reduction in crime against women," he added.
( With inputs from IANS )