Women’s Cell of PDEU, on 5th March 2020 organized an event to mark the celebration of International Women’s Day. Thus to support women, to make an informed decision about their health and to encourage inclusive approach, Women’s Cell organized an awareness program on “Women’s Health Education - Transforming Community”.

The event was primarily divided into two phases. The first phase took care of the free health check-up of all the stakeholders of the university, especially all women members. The second phase consisted of an interactive session with gynecologists and a physician to address the health concerns faced by women. The health checkup was carried out by a team of doctors which included Dr. Rajhans Pathak, Mr. B. K. Pathan, Mr. Nilesh Labana from Global Hospital, Ahmedabad. The event was also graced by the presence of Dr. S. Sundar Manoharan, Director General of PDEU. PDEU Officials shared their valuable insights for crafting an equal and safe environment with the essence of care.Prof. Tarun Shah,registrar PDEU,Shri Ankur Pandya,CHRO PDEU,Shri Deven Prajapati,CCO PDEU, Dr.Ritu Sharma, Convener Women Cell,Dr.Niyati and Ms. Divya alongwith other faculty members and staff members facilitated the program.

We also had two gynecologists Dr. Nisha Goswami and Dr. Bhavik Modi for the later session. The Q & A round opened up real-life concerns such as malnutrition, mental health, menstrual cycle, cervical cancer, and menopause. The interaction provided a scientific and clear understanding by demystifying a lot of health aspects. All the women employees were gifted with a free medical kit to assist initial health concerns.

The sensitive attempt by Women’s Cell, PDEU to embrace inclusivity in the form of raising health awareness generated satisfactory responses.

Women Cell in collaboration with the clubs Jharokha and Rang organized an event on Gender Equality and Safety on October 21, 2019 at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University. The event was divided into different sub themes and the students who participated had to pick one of the themes and had to express the individual perspectives either in words by writing poetry or essay or through pictorial presentation. Some of the students essayed it with words while some of them made a pictorial presentation from the themes given to them. Students were given 45 minutes to complete this task of creative visual illustrations and writings.All the materials regarding drawing was provided by Rang, and with the help of the materials students presented their ideas. After the completion of the time limit, students were asked to present the work done by them. The panel members for judging the presentation included Mrs. Hetal Vasani, Dr. Rohit Srivastav, Dr. Ritu Sharma and Ms. Shiji John. The event was concluded with the awards felicitation and insights by the Women’s Cell PDEU.

 

Women Cell had Organized One Day Seminar on legal Provisions for Women’s Empowerment on October 10, 2018. The speaker’s for the seminar included the following:

• Smt. Veenaben Patel, Additional Collector
• Member Secretary, Gujarat State Commission for Women, Gandhinagar
• Smt. Leelaben Ankolia-Hon. Chairperson, Gujarat State Commission for Women, Gandhinagar-Gujarat.
• Shri Anil Pratham, IPS, A.D.G.P. (Women Cell), Gandhinagar
• Justice Ravi R. Tripathi, Member National Law Commission , Retd. High Court Judge
• Ms. Vaibhavi Nanavati, Advocate

 

A Half day workshop on Internal Complaint Committee was organized by Women’s Cell on 27th December, 2018. The members were given clarity on the various definitions, role, functioning of the ICC, the Rules and Regulations to be followed under the policy of sexual harassment act of the University. The attendees were a part of Women’s Cell and Student/ Employee facing employees. The workshop also aimed at sensitizing about Boundaries and Consent while dealing with cases.

 

In order to support Women Hygiene, Comfort and Privacy of Female students and employees of the University, Women’s cell initiated the installation of Sanitary Pad Vending Machines and Incinerator across the Campus and the Hostels of the University.

 

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Women’s Cell circulated a Badge with a message “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity” to celebrate Womanhood, Encourage Women Empowerment and Gender Equality.

 

Wellbeing Workshop with Female Housekeeping Staff, and Female Faculty & Staff at PDEU
Date: 23 September, 2016 (4 to 6 pm)

The Counseling Service Centre and the Women’s Cell collaborated to host two Expressive Arts Workshops for the women on campus. They were conducted by Guest Facilitators, Ms. Anshuma Kshetrapal and Mr. Mike Clarke, who have trained from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK.

The workshops were held to support the emotional wellbeing of staff and faculty on campus and were divided into two separate workshops.

The first workshop, conducted by Ms. Anshuma, was in Hindi, and helped the housekeeping staff voice their experiences of constantly being on the move, at home, at work- and reflect on the daily cycles of home, college, family commitments they had taken up. Ms. Anshuma used visual arts therapy techniques, images and art to invite the women to express their current states of mind, as well as small joys they found in their lives. Ms. Arpita Bohra, who heads the Centre for Counseling Services, also gave the housekeeping staff a basic orientation about mental health and emotional distress, and explained the role and purpose of seeking counseling during periods of acute emotional distress and overwhelm.

Mr. Mike Clarke was the primary facilitator for the second workshop, which was in English. This was with the female faculty, and staff. Mr. Mike used drama therapy processes to bring a different level of emotional exploration to the group. The session was closed with an art activity and a reflection circle to understand the emotions that had come up in the process.

The participants were informally asked for feedback afterwards, and many of them reflected that it had been a refreshing break to do something new and different while connecting more deeply to their emotions.

This workshop is the first of more such collaborations for Women’s Mental Health between the Centre for Counseling Services and the Women’s Cell.

 

Session on Engaging Women at Workplace
Date: 6 August, 2016 (11am to 1 pm)

CII – Indian Women Network (IWN) , Gujarat Chapter organized an Interactive Session on “ Engaging Women at Workplace” on Saturday, 6 August at CII office, Ahmedabad 11am to 1 pm

The Convener PDEU Womens’ Cell shared the details with PDEU family for participation. It was for both men and women. This session was facilitated by Ms Pallavi Jha - Chairperson & Managing Director , Dale Carnegie Training India & Walchand People First Ltd and Vice – Chairperson, Indian Women Network – Western Region. There was no registration fee for the session.

 

Session with CII Dream Catcher: Mind, body & Soul
Date: 9 August, 2016 (2-3:30 pm)

A session by PDEU Womens’ Cell along with CII was organized at PDEU campus on 9 August 2016 on Dream Catcher: Mind, body and soul. This session was for both women and men.

The speaker Ms. Rajika T Kacheeria is a cosmetologist and a facilitator for soft skills. She is a columnist in Femina, Stree, Sandesh and many foreign publications. She has her tips on wellness on most of the radio stations. She is the receipient of Super Women award by Radio One and Women Achievers award by Shri Subhash Ghai.

She is founder of youth Program called dream catcher which is Wellness based Program sensitizing youth on various social issues. She is invited as guest speaker in various institutes across Ahmedabad.

 

Dr Sheela Lavakare visit
Date: 22 July, 2016

Dr. Sheela Lavakare obtained her M.A. degree in Sociology in 1963 and an LL.B degree in Law, in 1965 from the University of Bombay. She was a lecturer at the Elphinston College, the St. Xavier’s College & the Mithibai College in Bombay University during 1963-66. As a Fulbright Scholar during 1967-68, she pursued her post-graduate studies in the University of New Hampshire (USA) and held a Teaching Assistantship during this period. On return from USA, she was a member of the faculty in the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, of the Mumbai University during 1969-74 and later a member of the faculty of the Management Development Institute in Delhi, during 1975-78. In 1978, she joined the corporate world as Manager (Training) in the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI). During this period she participated in the three week programme on “Training the Trainer” sponsored by the World Bank in July 1987 at Washington D.C. During her stint at the IFCI, she served as a Director on the Boards of several companies and provided value addition in terms of business policies, growth plans restructuring, strategic tie-ups, etc. The IFCI subsequently appointed her as the CEO, of the IFCI Venture Capital Fund – a position from which she retired in March 2001. After retirement, she has been an active member of the Soroptomist International Association of Professional Women (NGO), and served as the Program Action Chair, India Chapter; (2011-14). She has also been a member of the University Women’s Association (UWA), Pune Chapter and has been the Editor of the organization’s Newsletter. She was the Secretary of the UWA, during 2013-15 and was associated with various activities involving issues connected with Women’s Studies. Her professional interests are Women Studies on issues relating women empowerment in India, including girl child education.

She had paid a visit to PDEU on 22 July, 2016 and met with Convener PDEU Women’s Cell for understanding the activities of PDEU Womens’ Cell.

 

Women in Business and Entrepreneurship
Date: 09th October, 2015

The session on "Women in Business and Entrepreneurship" started with welcoming our esteemed guest Ms. Ruzan Khambatta.

Ms. Ruzan is actively involved in Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment. And also been recognized and awarded with - Women of Excellence; Real Diamond of Gujarat Award; Ahmedabad Management Association; 7th Annual awards for Excellence.

Her talk started off with sharing her own experiences. Initially she mainly focused on "NOT GIVING UP" and "COMMITMENT". Later she made the session more interactive by asking the gatherings about their opinions on success and failure. She gave her own example and enlightened us with the fact that women should be strong and determined in order to become an entrepreneur and thus can survive in any business.

Also she stressed on the fact that people should have a simple living and high thinking in contrast to the youth with complex living and confused thinking by narrating a story.

She ended the session by giving us an idea about lateral thinking and how thinking out of the box is necessary in today's scenario.

Dr. Poonam Savsani (Convener, Women Cell), Dr. Gita Rajan (Professor, Fairfield University), PDEU Faculties and Staff also graced the session by their presence and discussions.

The entire talk was facilitated by Ms.Vaishali Sharma.

 

Clean Energy- Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Organized by Indian Women Network (IWN)
Date: 11th August, 2015

Speaker:
Mr. Sanjay Gorakhia
Vice President
Ambuja Cement, Ahmedabad

Supply Chain Management forms an integral part of all business entities. Going beyond, in today's times of environment friendly processes, creating a sustainable supply chain is also equally important. This session was majorly aimed at a speech on these issues. Also supply chain management of Cement Industry and Ambuja particularly was talked about.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is management of logistics, inventory, distribution demand management, pricing etc. In cement industry, SCM starts with procuring raw materials like calcium, iron clay etc.. Then the manufacturing is done and storage of cement is considered before reaching the cement to the dealers.

Few products of Ambuja include Portland Pozzolana cement (PPC), Fly ash, Ordinary Portland Cement(OPC) which are offered either in bulk or bagged stock. Also pre cast structures are been offered nowadays the benefits of which were explained to us. It reduces the cost of construction and also increases feasibility.

Talking of Green policies of Ambuja, we were pleased to know that Ambuja has won a national award for Environment Concern. Few of the practices undertaken by Ambuja are

• 100% restoration of Mines after Digging
• 100% recycling sewage waste
• saving water by 4 times than usual
• Green procurement Policy
• Safe movement of trucks on premises to avoid accidents

Having started business in a small town in Gujarat, today Ambuja stands to be one of the biggest cement names in India. It was a prime privilege for us, the students of PDEU to have Mr. Sanjay Gorakhia to share his knowledge with us.

Source of description
Academic committee, PGP’15, SPM

 

CII Session on TIME MANAGEMENT
20-27 February, 2015

PREFACE
In this fast pacing world, where multitasking and just in time services are aspects that every individual should possess, Time management becomes mandatory. Students with ambitions in their pocket are expected to perform well along with excelling in extracurricular.

Keeping this in mind, Women cell joint hands with CII and arranged a session on TIME MANAGEMENT. The speaker invited to conduct this session was Ms. Anita Shah. She has a decade long experience in soft skill experience and has undertaken significant training projects for Government of Gujarat and Government of India.

ABOUT THE EVENT
The event started with a short introduction to Ms. Anita Shah and her achievements. Then after, Ms. Shah took over the stage and asked the participants to calculate the hours they keep reserved for their routine chores. It was surprising to know that everyone was left with an average of 4-5 of unoccupied slots, where we could indulge in activities that we liked. She then gave some procrastination analyzing exercises. There were some inquisitive questions asked by curious minds. Ms. Shah answered them tactfully. The session was finally concluded by a vote of thanks.
Ms. Anita Shah was accompanied by Ms. Debleena, from CII. The event was attended by Mrs. Tanushree Banerjee, our faculty mentor and by faculties and students from different schools.

MOTIVE OF THE EVENT
The event aimed at making students aware about the various aspects of time management. To help them manage their day to day hours and keep a count on how they are spent.
The event witnessed the inquisitive nature of the participants.

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE EVENT
The achievement of the event was clearly depicted by the way participants showed their willingness to learn. The overall session was quite interactive and students gained new insights and more comprehensive understanding about the time management. Participants also a comprehensive understanding of reasons behind procrastination.

 

A GLOBAL APPROACH 
5th February, 2015

• This event was an open discussion session held by the Women’s Cell in collaboration with AIESEC.
• For this discussion session the topic chosen was ‘Cultural Differences and Problems Faced by Women in Various Countries’.
• The discussion was initiated by the 11 AIESEC interns who were from various countries (Oman, Russia, Indonesia, Mauritius and China). They began with introducing themselves and presenting their view points about the topic decided.
• From PDEU, this session was attended by quite a few students, faculties and other staff members.
• As the discussion proceeded we got to know about the various cultures, systems and thinking of people from varied backgrounds. A lot of varied perceptions related to women, and the problems faced by them in different countries and work cultures, came up.
• It was interesting to see the interaction between the college students and the interns through their questions and arguments. Overall it was a healthy discussion which helped everyone present, learn about different perceptions.

 

Rampantly changing role of a woman in the society is certainly an indicator of modernization and evolving society. However, there is still a substantial chunk of people, particularly women of the society who are viewed to be weaken compared to their counterparts and are thus exposed to exploitations like sexual harassment, human trafficking, indecent representation before people through various mediums, gender biasness so on and so forth. A women is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a companion, a friend, a colleague, a guide; above all a HUMAN. Newspapers filled with various assaults women go through in different parts of the world do not portray a merry picture of India as a nation; infact it shows a higher deterioration in the minds of the “so-called” civilized people. Such activities should be curbed to greatest possible levels giving due respect to each and every woman because we even address our land with the word ‘Mother’ In this era of modernization and our country reaching new heights, we are still lacking somewhere considering the condition of women of our society.

To bring out issues related to sexual harassment, human trafficking and indecent representation of women in our society, there was a workshop organised on "Gender Sensitization". This was conducted by Faculty member and students of LAW School at Nirma University. The student coordinators of Women Cell, PDEU from SPM (Mruganda Shah and Preeti Pal) took the lead along with student volunteers from other schools in organizing this event.

This small effort hopefully will sensitize the students who are future makers of the country and thus help in changing the status of women in our society.

 

Women’s Cell PDEU is proud to launch a lecture series Extraordinary Women on  8th March, 2013 the International Women’s Day in association with CII ,Yi PDEU, Department of Women and Child Development, Govt. of Gujarat and Gender Resource Centre, Ahmedabad. This lecture series will have 12 lectures in 1 year addressing students on topics like Women’s in business, women & law, women & leadership, women & education, Public Relations & Networking, Harassment at Workplace, etc.

The idea of introducing this Lecture Series is conceived by convener Ms. Urmi Satyan who considers this launch as one of the biggest event of Women’s Cell during 2012-13.The invited guests are:

- Smt. Vasuben Trivedi- Minister of State for Education, Women & Children’s 
Welfare, Government of Gujarat 
- Ms. Anju Sharma, IAS , Commissioner, Women & Child Development 
Department, Government of Gujarat.

The special presence of most of the Directors of PDEU, Education Advisor Prof. N. R. Dave and Mrs. Pandian added feathers to the success of this launch. The concluding remarks were offered by Education Advisor Prof. N. R. Dave.

On 7th February, 2013 Women Cell PDEU invited City Pulse students to perform a drama Kaua Chala Hans Ki Chal, a Rajat Kapoor adaptation of Moliere’s The Bourgeois Gentleman.  It is a humorous drama mocking the hypocrisy embedded in aristocracy. At Women Cell PDEU the initiative was taken by Dr. Rita Banik Counselor Women Cell. Convener Women Cell  Ms. Urmi Satyan was the Master of the Ceremony and Cultural Committee Head Ms. Niyati Shah was the organizer of this event. Prof. P. K Banik, Director General PDEU, Mr. Tarun Shah, Academic Co-ordinator PDEU, Prof. Pramod Paliwal and other senior professors remained present for this drama. Respected Mrs. Asha Pandiyan was kind to accept the invitation and joined us for the witness of this drama. 
The students who performed:

• Parimal Vaghela
• Milan Patel
• Manorath Sinh Gohil
• Madhuja Muniya
• Parth Patel
• Somya Joshi
• Dhruv Patel
• Nirav Parmar
• Prashasya Chaudhary (student, PDEU)
• Jimesh Patel
• Nikunj Chauhan
• Monil Der

This drama is directed by Firoz Zahid Khan, a Post-Graduate in Dramatic Arts from National School of Drama (NSD) and Diploma from Screen Acting from Mountview Theater, London.

Women Cell PDEU is especially thankful to Mr. Anwar Jamal, director CPIFT for accepting the invitation and holding the excellent theatrical performance by the students of CPIFT. Dr. Rita Banik offered vote of thanks which was followed by a dinner.

Women's Cell PDEU  and Let’s Express Debate Club PDEU jointly held an Open discussion on Is India a Fractured Society? Thoughts and Reviews. Ms. Urmi Satyan (convener, Women's Cell, PDEU) took an initiative to hold this program with the help of student member Saksham Singh and Vaibhav. This forum took place in LTC 1 on 7th January 2013 from 4:30 to 6:00. The panelists of this Open Forum Debate were:

- Prof. P.K Banik (Director General PDEU) 
- Prof. N. R Dave (Education Advisor, PDEU)
- Prof. Ranjana Harish (Head of School of Languages, Gujarat University) 
- Prof. Ashish Sarkar(prof. in Petroleum Technology, PDEU) 
- Prof. Nigam Dave (Director, School of Liberal Studies, PDEU) 
- Dr. Ritu Sharma (Psychology, SLS) 
- Dr. Rita Banik (Counselor, PDEU).

The main focus of the Open Forum was on the changing or in harsh words degrading scenario prevalent in Indian society. The role of a woman in Indian Society is not negligible. This society has always respected women like Lakshmi Bai, Kasturba, Indira Gandhi, Shushma Swaraj, Indra Nooyi and many more. But unfortunately there is another disheartening side where women are deprived of this respect and are treated as commodities.

The success of the forum was based on the logical questions by the students and the intellectual comments and answers by the panel. The active involvement of the audience and the scholarly observations of the panel helped understanding the complexities through which the society passes from. The forum reached to the conclusion that if the society of India is fractured it is just because the individual—the strongest unit of the society—is fractured. If we want the society to be powerful we, as individuals—need to be powerful and strong in our minds, speeches and deeds.

The sad demise of NIRBHAYA – a medical student, has shaken the whole country.
Women*s Cell, PDEU requested all the members of PDEU to jointly pay  homage to the sadly departed soul by maintaining silence for 2 minutes and lighting candles on 31st December, 2012 at 6 p.m. All the students, faculty and staff members assembled on time and paid their sincere tribute to her.   

All male students, faculty and staff members took a pledge not to remain a silent observer if any incident of eve teasing, molestation or rape takes place in their knowledge. Women*s Cell PDEU is thankful, particularly to the male students and colleagues who have jointly vouched for the pledge.

PLEDGE

Having respect for the dignity of womanhood and my responsibility to honor it at any cost, I solemnly pledge that I shall never indulge in any act of tormenting, molesting, raping or sexually harassing any girl/woman.

I further pledge that in the event of such despicable act being committed in my presence or with my knowledge, I shall stake my life to prevent this and shall assist all legal procedures as required to book and punish the culprit.

The initiative for this condolence was taken by one of the students named Sandeep Bose and was taken further by Dr. Rita Banik (Counselor, PDEU) who addressed the gathering.  She expressed her hope that this last day of 2012 would end all such disgusting incidents and with the starting of 2013, girls of India would be able to move around with “nirbhayata”.  Convener Women*s Cell, Ms. Urmi Satyan, is thankful to all the students (Sandeep, Gurveer, Honey, Prerna, Mansi and others) who organized the event within a short time  and appreciates support from Education Advisor PDEU Prof. N. R Dave, Director General PDEU Prof. P.K Banik and the whole University.