EDUCATION

CAMPUS
For SFI, it is time to make merry
Smriti Kak

THE yellow and the orange of the autumn are yet to set in, but in the expanse of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, red is the colour predominant. For the second consecutive year, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has managed to win three of the four posts in the central panel of the Students’ Union.

For Rohit, the win over his contenders has announced a second term in office. Ena Panda, Murtaza and Mona Das of the AISA join him in the panels as vice-president, joint secretary and general secretary respectively.

While the SFI’s performance was almost predictable, Mona Das’s victory is being seen as a big boost for the party, which many claimed, was losing its mien in the university.

The dismal performance in Delhi University followed by a similar feat in JNU, for the ABVP it is time for introspection. Considered a strong contender to the Left in the JNU, the ABVP was in the news for its low profile campaign as also for “not even living up to its own image”.

“The campaign was weak, the candidates and the poll issues too were not what the ABVP could have relied upon. It seems the defeat in the DU pools bogged them down or perhaps, the strategy to fight the polls went wrong,” pointed out Gaurav, a post graduate student of the School of Languages.

Despite tall claims, the NSUI, which aimed at creating “history by winning the JNUSU polls,” the party can only talk of a councillor’s post in the School of International Studies. As anticipated, the party’s performance elsewhere had no impact on their fate in JNU.

Besides, the party also found itself out of favour with some students who complained that the NSUI “brought too much of DU politics to JNU”. The reference was to the posters and the campaigners, most of who were allegedly to be from outside JNU.

For the SFI, however, it is celebrations time for this festive season. Apart from the central panel, the SFI managed to win the maximum number of councillor posts in the different schools. In the bigger schools, including the School of Languages (SL), School of Social Sciences (SSS) and School of International Studies (SIS), the SFI managed to win four, five and three posts respectively, one in School of Allied Sciences and their supported candidate has won a seat in GSCASH.

The SFI supported candidates also won posts in the GSCASH and School of Allied Sciences. The ABVP won the post of councillor in SIL and School of Sciences and in the School of Biotechnology. The NSUI has won a councillor’s seat in the SIS and the AISA has won the councillors’ post in GSCASH and SIS.

Gender Training

Having established a need for training individuals as well as companies vis-a-vis gender sensitisation, the Gender Training Institute (GTI), a wing of the Centre for Social Research (CSR), began the training for not just law enforcement authorities, but also NGOs and bureaucrats. The GTI is now planning to launch a similar programme for doctors.

While announcing the programme for medicos, the Head of GTI, Ms Madhumita Sarkar, said that their experience with medical officers has shown that they too needed sensitisation about gender-related issues.

She went on to say that gender sensitive medical officers would have better understanding of serious health concerns associated with sex-related diseases and family welfare programmes and learn how to communicate this information to women.

Ms Sarkar said that the GTI trainers in their interaction with family welfare officers came to know that they are sometimes confronted with bizarre statements, like a woman cannot be raped without her consent and a poor family cannot afford a girl child.

To help medical officers in removing such biases and misconception, their gender sensitisation has become imperative, Dr Sarkar said. The GTI has already carried out training for teachers and students in various schools and colleges.

The training, it was pointed out, helps them question the prevailing gender-based socio-cultural bias among men and women and helps to initiate necessary changes in the environment once gender-based disparities have been identified, she said.

Dr Sarkar revealed that at a time when women were under tremendous pressure in the society and subjected to physical and mental abuse, which include domestic violence and rape etc, the GTI has been playing an important role in bringing about attitudinal change among various sections of the society.

Workshop on WTO

The Amity Institute of Global Legal Education and Research organised a one-day workshop on ‘WTO: Challenges and Opportunities’ in association with the Amity Law School.

The Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr L. V. Saptharishi, was the chief guest on the occasion and traced the history of the GATT and WTO. Addressing the students, he said: “WTO has become fashion-oriented subject in today’s context. People want to talk WTO, not knowing what it is. For students, it is important that we must set in motion the process of mystification and de-mystification of all that is concerned with the WTO, as ignorance leads to pile up.”

The guests of honour were Mr M. N. Krishnamani, president, Supreme Court Bar Association and Prof B. S. Chimni, International Legal Studies Division, JNU.

Management Programme

Film bashers will be forced to reconsider their stand. Films, apart from showcasing the social and political aspects of life, are now being used to study lessons of management.

Corpworth Marketing Pvt Ltd. (CMPL) has launched a training programme titled, ‘Learning Management Through Mainline Cinema’. Facilitated by Jailpal Anand, the programme that was held in the New Delhi YMCA, helped put management principles in a new light.

The brief was, “look at the film clip being shown, understand the underlying message and see if it’s applicable to corporate life”. The movies used for the interesting lessons included ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and ‘Cast Away’.

Anchal at AAFT

Hollywood-based film producer Rajiv Anchal inaugurated the new academic session at the Asian Academy of Film and Television (AAFT). Addressing the students, Anchal who is known for his film the Guru, pointed out the power of the films to effectively enlighten the audience.

Director of the AAFT, Sandeep Marwah, said that AAFT would soon be granted the status of a deemed university. Also present on the occasion, producer of the teleserial ‘Sab Gomal hai’, Prasun Sinha told students that a producer’s role is one that is “very demanding and a challenging one”.

Debate competition

Maharaja Surajmal Institute organised an inter-college debate competition on ‘Wireless communication is the necessity of modern life’. The event was planned by the Department of Computer Science.

Undergraduate computer science students from various colleges and universities participated in the competition. Prof P. K. Kapoor, Head, Department of Operations, DU, was the chief guest. MSI, Janakpuri, won the first prize, JIMS, Kalkaji and MD University; Rohtak won the second and the third place respectively. Priyanka Nagpal of Govt GVM Girls College, Sonepat, was declared the best speaker.

Ideology in politics

Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal, who delivered a talk on ‘Political Management’ at the Institute of Marketing Management (IMM), said that ideology was paramount in politics. Highlighting the significance of marketing in politics, he spoke about the various approaches in political marketing including product orientation approach in, which stands and beliefs of a political party were important.

Mr Sibal said that for the survival of democracy, elimination of corruption and improvement of reputation of politicians, projecting to the people what is good for them and consensus on population control policy are essential.