In bid to spread the word of women empowerment and make people aware on various dimensions of the issues involved, a Daring Debate competition in partnership with ‘Difficult Dialogues’ was organised by Phia Foundation at Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS) auditorium here on Thursday. As many as 34 students from five colleges of the Capital city participated in the debate and deliberated on the topic “Does an Empowered Woman Creates A Sense of Insecurity Amongst Men.”
Two winners Shrawani Vijaya from Women’s College, Ranchi and Fenil Sedaiya, from XISS Ranchi will represent Jharkhand in Goa for the face-off finale at Difficult Dialogues event to be held at Goa University on February 10 to compete with winners from other cities.
Daring Debate competition in partnership with ‘Difficult Dialogues’ is an annual forum examining issues of contemporary relevance in South Asia. It’s a one-of-a-kind debate series which gives a platform to bring students from varied backgrounds and regions in the discourse of critical issues that concern South Asia in general and India in particular. Difficult Dialogues 2018 focuses on how Indian gender constructs affect fundamental aspects of daily lives and citizenship.
Five colleges participated in the competition from St. Xavier’s College, Women’s College, Gossner College, Doranda College and XISS, Ranchi with four teams each. One team consisted of two members, each member of which spoke for the motion and against the motion. Several questions were put up during the daring debate competition from the jury members focused on the bridging ways to narrow down the insecurity among the role of women and men in the families and society at large.
The students also highlighted the case stories, data on gender gaps and best practices on empowering women. They also stressed on the importance of changing mind-sets and acceptance of women as an equal and giving them space to take important decisions inside and outside the house. Jury members had also probed the participants on some of the relevant Govt. schemes and their impact on the issue.
Apart from Fenil Sedaiya of XISS and Shrawani Vijaya of Women’s College, the winners of the competition included Ankit (Gossner College), Amit Kumar Anal (XISS Ranchi), Sumagna Panda (XISS Ranchi), Shreya (Women’s College), Pallavi (Women’s College) and Rashmi, Women’s College
The event was organised by Partnering Hope into Action (Phia) Foundation that has launched a gender equality campaign – Its Possible and endeavours for a gender equal world and strongly believes that gender inequality is one of the most crucial issues that needs to be tackled in the State.
Phia Foundation is taking forward the work of its co-collaborators who had successfully implemented one of India’s largest civil society programme-Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme from 2009-2016.
Students also showed enthusiasm about the campaign ‘It’s Possible’ and wanted to be a part of the campaign. They were asked to connect with the It’s possible’ s State Steering committee which is in charge to facilitate dialogues and discussions between various individuals and institutions from Government, Private Sector, academicians and Social Sector actors in the state, charting a road map of collaborative action, working towards a more inclusive and equal society.