OdishaPlus Bureau
A research chair in honor of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama would be set up in KISS Deemed to be University here in association with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP).
This was announced by WISCOMP Director Meenakshi Gopinath at the workshop on ‘Gender Equity and Inclusion: Transformative Pathways in Higher Education’, organized by Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and KIIT Deemed to be University in association with WISCOMP, here on Tuesday. The initiative has been taken by WISCOMP and the final outcome will come out after complete discussion with KISS authorities, she said.
Addressing the gathering at the workshop, Gopinath said, educated youth, fully enfranchised, need to develop the ability to push for structures of inclusion and partner with enlightened management 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, elaborating that 50 percent of the students of KIIT are girls, whereas 40 percent of staff are women. Many senior positions in KIIT 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 fulfilled it by its own sustainable development goals, she stated.
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 educational institutions, Dr. Gopinath informed.
Pro Vice-Chancellor Sasmita Samanta said, the participants would like the idea that the American academics and WISCOMP has been brought to the University, to evolve context and milieu-specific gender equality processes.