Satish Pradhan Dnyanasadhana College Thane

Being Me

Being Me was started in the year 2020, to sensitise all the stakeholders of college towards various social issues.

Sr. No	BEING ME - OBJECTIVES
Objective 1	To change attitude of stakeholders towards sexuality stereotypes & to broaden the understanding about gender identity and equality
Objective 2	To create awareness about gender specific health issues like AIDS, Cervical cancer and PCOD
Objective 3	To help the unskilled working population in enhancing skill sets.
Objective 4	To sensitize stakeholders towards issues of differently abled and to help in their empowerment.
Objective 5	To sensitize stakeholders about the challenges faced by old age citizens and conduct programmes for their general wellbeing.

Being Me has been taken as an institutional social responsibility for the coming five years to focus on various social concerns. The very inception of the college was for imparting higher education to marginalised and vulnerable sections of society. The mission of the college is:

“To strengthen the students academically, socially and economically”

Society is dynamic and constantly evolving. In the process of evolution, society witnesses different issues, challenges and concerns. To take the cognisance of current scenario and demand of the society, the institution decided to focus on following aspects.

• LGBTQIA+ community
• Divyangjan,
• Gender related health issues,
• Unskilled labour
• Senior citizens

These are few of our activities conducted under all the five objectives in the entire year since its inception.

Objective	Activities
LGBTQIA+	Awareness about life of third gender Shuruvaat Navya Aayushachi- Interaction with Kareena Ade, Mumbai’ s First transgender Taxi Driver A talk on a genetic approach and a social approach of LGBTQIA+ community “Gender Sensitization program” and “Photography workshop” by the First transgender photo-journalist Zoya Lobo. Movie screening Astitva, Aligarh Judges invited from LGBTQIA+ community for V Utopia Women’s day celebration with Vidyasagar( Transgender performer)
Divyangjans	“Zebra Crossing “- IoT Tool for Visually impaired, Slogan writing competition for all the objectives. “Talk Show with Dr. Gauri Kavi on parenting of specially gifted children Poster competition - Building Back better: towards an inclusive, accessible and sustainable world by, for with differently abled persons.
Senior citizens	Movie screening Bagbaan An interactive exercise session by expert physiotherapist in Smit old age home and care foundation, Kalher
Unskilled	Webinar on Women in unorganised sector in India and impact of Covid 19 Webinar on Financial literacy for unskilled workers and illiterate people Inclusive cities – Denotified Nomadic Street Vendors of India
Gender related health issues	Cosmic Meditation Health and hygiene for students Report of the “Talk Show with Dr. Gauri Kavi on Cancer care Self Defense
Conduct of student survey for assessing their awareness level on the above mentioned objectives.

Being Me has organised a one day International Conference in association with ICSSR on the topic “Being Me- understanding different dimensions of LGBTQIA+ community” on 20th September in Blended mode (offline/online).

We received 140 registrations at National level out of which 100 students from different faculties of our college gave research paper presentations and articles on the theme “Historical context of LGBTQIA+ community” and “Problems and challenges experienced by LGBTQIA+ community and need for setting up of new norms in the field of education, health, employment etc”. The purpose of the conference is to sensitise all the stakeholders about the problems faced by LGBTQ community and also to break all the myths , stereotypes prevailing in the society and to broaden the understanding about gender identities and equality.

We were fortunate to have cross section of the world contributing to the conference by which we can updated ourselves about the status of LGBTQIA+ community. To name a few, eminent personalities such as Rahul Deshmukh (professor at Rosalind Franklin University Chicago & active members of Desi Rainbow Parents & Allies), Siyma Barkin Kuzmin Swiss (LISTAG Turkish association for families and friends of LGBTQIA+) shared the latest development in their part of the world.

The array of speakers from different corners of India were Dr Anand Joshi from Genesis Cosmetic surgery, Dr Sadhana Natu, Department of Psychology, Pune University , Avinaba Dutta from west Bengal, Adv Rajendra Nalage , advocate -Thane district and sessions court, Mario Da Penha (National coordinator , diversity and inclusion ,All India Professionals Congress), Mukunda Mala from sweekar foundation, Telangana , Nilakshi Roy (spokesperson of Sweekar Rainbow parents) joined from London, Maya Awasthy (cofounder member and co-chairperson of Tweet foundation), Urmi Jadhav ( Tweet foundation and founder of trans-led dancing group- dancing queens) Biraja (Gender researcher and trainer from Delhi) Shobhna S Kumar (founder of Queer Ink as India’s first queer-owned publishing house ), Akshay Tyagi (diversity and inclusion enthusiast from Delhi) and alike.

Disha Pinky Sheikh (poetess, columnist, LGBT and Dalit rights activist) was the key note speaker for the conference.

Satish Pradhan Dnyanasadhana College, Thane

Overview

Being Me