As many as 4,472 girl students from 38 hostels in Dharwad district are among the total 50,000 girl students from across the State who will get training in self-defence.
Under the Obavva Art of Self Defence Training programme, the State Government plans to make girl students self-confident, physically strong and capable of protecting themselves against anything unacceptable in terms of social conduct.
These select girl students will be undergoing self-defence training for 90 days. During the training period, they will be learning Karate, Judo and Taekwondo skills so that they can skilfully tackle rogue elements.
The scheme has been named afterOnake Obavva (18th Century), the wife of a security personnel, who fought tactfully against the soldiers of Mysuru ruler Hyder Ali single-handedly with a Onake (traditional pestle or pounding stick) at Chitradurga Fort during the rule of Madakari Nayak. She is remembered for her valour and is a symbol of self-confidence.
In Dharwad district, 4,472 girls from 38 hostels have been chosen for the training. Of these, 996 girls are inmates of hostels run by Social Welfare Department and situated at Saidapur, Malamaddi, Shivagiri, Karnatak University campus in Dharwad and Shreya Nagar in Hubballi, 2,476 are from 23 hostels in various taluks of the district, while 1,000 girls are from 10 hostels run by Karnataka Vasati Shikshana Sangha.
As per the training protocol designed for the girls, they will be trained by experts in Karate, Judo, Taekwondo and other martial arts for two hours a week for 90 days.
According to Suman Kamati, trainer at Rani Channamma Hostel, said, that there is very good response from the girls for the programme. In fact, a demand has already been put forth by various women’s organisations to extend the self-defence training programme to all girl students, not just the hostel inmates.
Inauguration today
The formal inauguration of the training programme will be held at Gandhi Bhavan on Karnatak University campus in Dharwad on Tuesday. The inaugurationwas actually scheduled to take place on Monday but was put off following the demise of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi, Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti and district in-charge Minister Halappa Achar will be the guests for the event.
