Central University of Kashmir (CUK) Vice Chancellor, Prof. Farooq Ahmad Shah Friday said that holding of awareness and sensitisation programmes on sexual harassment and violence against women will immensely help in eliminating these social evils.
“There are stringent laws to check the sexual harassment and abuse against women at homes and workplaces, but such incidents are still increasing with each passing day. The need of the hour is to fully aware girls and women folk about their legal rights and measures to be taken to stop the sexual harassment and domestic abuse,” Prof. Farooq Ahmad Shah, said, while addressing the participants during one-day sensitisation programme organised by the varsity’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to observe the international day on “Elimination of Violence Against Women.” Prof. Shah said the females are playing a pivotal role in socio-economic growth and development of the society and are simultaneously doing a commendable job on the domestic front.
Addressing the gathering, Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, said, the central university has zero tolerance towards the sexual harassment and abuse of students, scholars, and employees. “The university has established the ICC with a mandate to receive and thoroughly probe the complaints of such nature, if any, and take stringent action against those involved,” he said, adding that the safety of the women is of paramount importance in the institution. Prof. Zargar said the girl students and women are outshining their counterparts in every professional field and duly deserve a special place in the society.
Controller of Examinations, and Dean School of Legal Studies, Prof. Farooq Ahmad Shah, said, the rampant sexual harassment, injustices and domestic abuse have turned the lives of females miserable. “Those suffering from these evils should raise their voice and take legal recourse,” he said, and asked the participants to take the pledge to highlight such cases so that the perpetrators are booked under law.
Dean Students Welfare and Finance Officer, Dr Mehraj ud Din Shah in his speech, called for framing of more tough and stringent laws to check the growing incidents of rape and other forms of harassments. “The girls and women are being exploited at the workplaces and the need of the hour is to provide a conducive environment for their working,” he said.
Dean School of Life Sciences, Prof. Muhammad Yousuf, asked the ICC members to tread with utmost caution while receiving the sexual harassment complaints and ensure confidentiality of both the victim and the accused, till the case is settled.
External experts including Dy. SP Hqrs, Ganderbal, Mr. Ghulam Hassan, Dy SP, Police, Ms. Rukhsana Chaudhary, KAS officer and social activist, Ms. Mantasha Binti Rashid, Ms. Beenish Mehraj from Pledge NGO also spoke on various issues confronting the women including prevention of sexual harassment at workplaces, online harassment, harassment on the streets and the laws to check the menace. They gave real-life examples of cases filed by some women and the punitive action taken by the law.
ICC Presiding Officer, Dr. Mir Insha Farooq, said the primary objective of holding the event was to inform the students, scholars and employees about different forms of harassment and the role of ICC in curbing the same.
ICC member, Dr. Ibraq Khursheed, conducted the programme proceedings and also proposed the vote of thanks. Dr Ishrat Bashir moderated the technical session while Ms Pooja acted as rapporteur.
The dignitaries later distributed certificates among the participants.
WITH PIC ATTACHED
CUK holds workshop on ‘entrepreneurship and Innovation as Career Opportunity’
Ganderbal, Nov 25: Under the National Innovation and Startup Policy (NISP) as part of Institutions Innovation Council (IIC), Government of India, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) organised a one-day national workshop on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation as Career Opportunity,” at science campus, Nuner here.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Farooq Ahmad Shah, expressed strong and urgent necessity to establish a platform for creating an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset among the students of the University for maximal tapping of the talent. He said the workshop objective was to share brainstorming knowledge regarding the nation’s focus on Aatma Nirbhar Bharat to establish the research skill based scientific entrepreneurial and innovative strategies for addressing the needs in various sectors.
Addressing the gathering, Registrar, Prof. M. Afzal Zargar appreciated the efforts of NISP & IIC and highlighted the need for shifting the focus of young minds from traditional academia to experiential learning in diverse fields, so that society of innovators & entrepreneurs of tomorrow can be developed by employing the new and old ideas into practice. He emphasized upon the faculty, scholars and students to make the deliberations and discussions routine with their innovative ideas by converting investments of research into successful entrepreneurships for the economic prosperity models.
Dean, School of Life Sciences, Prof. M. Yousuf, stressed upon the significance of new thinking in Organic farming, Sericulture, Apiculture and Poultry farming that may have tremendous positive impact on the economy without environmental hazards.
NISP-Coordinator NIT, Prof. Saad Pervez, deliberated upon the basic understanding of ‘Design thinking: A launching PAD for Startups’ and stressed upon the students and scholars to come up with ideas that can be shaped up to the development phase with mutual collaboration with commercial aspects.
NISP-Coordinator SKUAST-K, Prof. Raihana Habib Kanth, gave the technical knowhow on various aspects and parameters of NISP along with many Institutional success stories that has gained national importance in Innovation and Startups.
In his vote of thanks speech, NISP Coordinator of CUK, Dr. Abid Hamid Dar emphasized upon the need of translating Research & Science into Development & Technology for addressing the societal challenges for human welfare and livelihood. He stressed upon the importance of incorporating the ideas of Skill-Innovation-Start-up-Entrepreneurship axis in curriculum at earlier stages of academic & research training. The workshop was attended by more than 1200 delegates in offline and online mode.
