Gender Cell

Action Plan

Gender Cell's focus is on women’s health and hygiene which typically outlines the steps and initiatives taken to address the challenges related to women’s health and hygiene. It reflects the progress, strategies, and measures implemented in response to identified needs. Hence, Our institution has taken the following action to solve the issues regarding women health and hygiene :
Awareness Campaigns: Conducted awareness programs on menstrual hygiene and reproductive health.
Distribution of Sanitary Products: government initiatives to provide free sanitary napkins and other hygiene products to underserved communities.
Improvement in Sanitation Facilities: Focused on improving toilet facilities in schools, colleges, and public spaces, particularly for women.
Training Programs: Facilitated training for women on basic hygiene practices, nutrition, and self-care.
Collaboration with Health Services: Worked with healthcare providers to ensure women have access to necessary health services, including maternal health and vaccination programs.
Policy Advocacy: Engaged with policymakers to promote gender-sensitive health policies and create a safe, supportive environment for women’s health needs.

Outcomes Achieved:-
The positive outcomes and impacts of these actions taken, such as:

Increased awareness of menstrual hygiene in schools and communities.
Reduction in health-related issues due to poor hygiene practices.
More women gaining access to hygiene products.
Improved sanitation facilities in public spaces and educational institutions

Additional Measures initiated by the Gender Cell:

Safety and Security:

The Institution, under the able guidance and direction of the Gender Cell, has certain well placed safety and security measures to protect and encourage its female students to feel free and secure. These safety and security measures are as follows:
--The College is well protected from all sides by boundary walls.Its entrance and exit points are well guarded by security person all throughout the day and night.All the major and important areas of the college have been brought under CCTV surveillance for security purposes.
--The college has an Anti-Ragging Cell.
--To protect the female students, the institution has constituted Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), following the guidelines of “The sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) act, 2013”. It is now an integral part of the safety and security shield for the students of this college.
--The Gender Cell of the college works in tandem with other bodies to sensitize and promote gender specific issues amongst both the female and male students through various awareness programmes.
--Beside their regular activities, the NSS and NCC Units of the college are also involved in gender sensitivity programmes. The students of this college mostly belong to the underprivileged and poor sections of the society.
--Keeping in mind their health and hygiene the College provides sanitary napkins at a very low cost through a vending machine.

Counselling: Female students of the institution are primarily provided Personal Counselling through the departments. Departments counsel students who are in need for urgent help and if necessary they are sent to members of the Gender Cell for further help. In extreme cases, the parents of the female students are called and advised to seek the help of a professional psychotherapist. Apart from the usual mechanism, Abhedananda Mahavidyalaya also reaches out to its female students in particular and male students in general, through its academic teaching-learning processes. Special care has been taken in classes itself to counsel students through increasing awareness in areas such as, the role of women in society, individual and the family, the rights of women, history of women empowerment, gender and social justice, role of women in India’s Freedom Struggle and so on.

Common Room: The Institution has a well equipped Common Room for its female students. It is strategically located right beside the Teachers’ Common Room to inspire a spirit of protection and safety. The number of washrooms inside the common room is four. The Common Room has its own separate water purifying unit for drinking water. The common room is well protected from outside by CCTV cameras. It also has a lady attendant for closely looking after the female students. The lady attendant attends to their various needs during the college hour. To further help its female students, the institution has installed a vending machine for sanitary napkins for its female students at the Common Room itself and organizes sensitization programmes to promote and encourage its female students to lead a healthy and hygienic life.