Workshop on Gender Equity and Inclusion in KISS
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and KIIT University in association with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP) host a three-day workshop on Gender Equity and Inclusion: Transformative Pathways in Higher Education Inaugurated on 26th November.
Inaugurating the workshop,Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Director, WISCOMP said, educated youth, fully enfranchised, need to develop the ability to push for structures of inclusion and partner with enlightened managements to create not just ‘Safe’ but ‘Enabling Campuses’. Such campuses will move colleges beyond law mandated anti-sexual harassment guidelines and self-generate gender equality processes in keeping with the changing times.
KISS and KIIT have been doing exemplary work in Gender Equity and Inclusion. She said, 50 percent of the students of KIIT Deemed to be University are girls, where 40 percent of staff are women. Most of the higher posts of KIIT Deemed to be University are occupied by women. Similarly in KISS 60 percent of students are girls. The United Nations sustainable development goal includes Gender Equity and inclusion. But KIIT and KISS have been fulfilled it by its own sustainable development goals. In India there are more than 900 higher education institutions. But it is seen that only 3 percent of women are in the highest posts in such education institutions, she added.
Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro Vice Chancellor, KIIT Deemed to be University said, the participants would take the idea that the American academics and WISCOMP had brought to the University, to evolve context and milieu-specific gender equality processes. Among others R. N. Dash, Secretary, KIIT & KISS; Seema Kakran, Dy. Director, WISCOMP were present.
This unique initiative is supported by the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy-New Delhi and has brought together eminent educators, lawyers and civil society representatives from Odisha in a stimulating exchange with American scholars and feminist experts from around the country. Gender audits as a tool have been employed by international development agencies, corporate and American universities to assess progress on gender mainstreaming. The dialogue-cum-workshop at KISS is part of first such Pan India initiative for universities and colleges.