Women's Study Centre, JMC

WORKSHOP BY RAAG ON CREATING FEMINIST SONGS, VOICING DISSENT AND DEMANDING EQUALITY -RIYA BINOJ The Women’s Study Centre in collaboration with RAAG group conducted a workshop on creating feminist songs, emphasizing the importance of voicing dissent and demanding equality for all, on 27 th September 2019. “RAAG: Revolution, Aazadi aur Aman ke Geet” is a feminist singing group that uses Bollywood style to keep alive the spirit of dissent. The workshop saw attendance of students from diverse disciplines, all linked by the common thread of being a feminist.   The workshop began with Ms. Shreya Ghosh, Vice President of Women’s Study Centre, introducing RAAG to the students. Subsequently, the members introduced themselves to the audience. A beautiful rendition of Sona Mohapatra’s “Bekhauff” was performed by the cultural team of WSC. Through the musical piece, the team wonderfully verbalized the oppressed individuals’ desire for freedom without fear. RAAG broke ice with the ...

“Writing the Self” Workshop Report -Neha Mustafi Women Study Centre, Jesus and Mary College organised a workshop on “Writing the Self: the importance of writing as an expression of one’s agency” on the 20th of September, 2019. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Nitoo Das, who is a birder, caricaturist and poet. She also teaches literature at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. When asked, all the students had different expectations from the workshop. Everyone interpreted the meaning of “self” and “agency” differently. While some were looking forward to a more theoretical, academic discussion about women’s writing- about how women writers have been sidelined through the history dominated by male writers and about the relevance of the canonisation of women writers others attended the workshop for a more practical learning a handful of girls wanted to go back to writing and hence came to the workshop to learn a few skills while others were curious about expressing ge...

The Women’s Study Centre of Jesus and Mary College started its certificate course classes on 6 th September 2019, Friday. One of the two courses was ‘Employment and Poverty: A gender perspective’. It was conducted by Dr Jessy Phillips, from the Sociology Department. The class started with discussions on how India is a gendered state and how most of its policies are not gender neutral. Taking the example of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, it was observed that giving the title of ‘beti’ (daughter) to the average Indian girl, by the government is wrong to the basic foundations. Doesn’t the government get agency over every Indian girl by giving her the title of ‘beti’? And should the government have agency over any citizen, irrespective of their gender? Many other reflections were made on the gender underpinnings of government policy. The next discussion was about how the idea of market fundamentalism has an effect on gender. A recession, for instance, would have a direct effect on wom...

CERTIFICATE COURSE CLASS ON WORKPLACE DYNAMICS, LAWS AND GENDER RIGHTS A MODULE BY DR. MAYA JOHN - RIYA BINOJ The Women’s Study Centre of Jesus and Mary College, conducts Certificate Course Classes from time to time. These classes are in the form of interactive lecture series where women-centric issues are discussed. The module on “Workplace Dynamics, Laws and Gender Rights” was conducted by Dr. Maya John, from the Department of History, Jesus and Mary College. It was on the 6 th of September, 2019 and consisted of a 2 hour lecture. These classes were open for all students of JMC, who participated in large numbers. The class discussed and debated about the dynamics found in the workplace, women’s conditions in these workplaces and the impact of laws on these conditions. The session started by introducing the newly formed core-team to the audience. The core-team members talked about their responsibilities and took suggestions from them. This acted as a good ice-breaking ses...