Nishant Saxena

Over two lakh girl students in around a thousand government-run schools in Uttar Pradesh are undergoing training in self-defence.

The Department of Basic Education, Uttar Pradesh, has made this announcement through a tweet from its official Twitter handle. Aimed at empowering girls with self-defence skills, the department is organising this on-campus training with the help of special instructors in 1,000 schools. A total of 2,33,035 girl students have already received training under this initiative.

This training initiative is part of the fourth phase of Mission Shakti, which was launched by the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh, last year.

Launched in October 2020, ‘Mission Shakti’ is one of the flagship programs of the Uttar Pradesh government. The focused program is aimed at promoting the security, dignity, and empowerment of women. It is structured in a way that promotes the cause of safety and well-being of girls, apart from promoting their physical and mental self-reliance.

Self-defence training has been made compulsory for upper primary and composite schools as part of this initiative. The training began in December 2022 and was supposed to complete in February. It had physical education instructors, as well as Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) sports teachers, providing this training to all girls studying in various schools under the ambit of this program. The headmaster of each school supervised this specialised training.

Not just schoolchildren, but a teacher from each of the schools, was also included in the training process. During the course of the training, apart from the self-defence training, girls were also made aware of the various safety measures, laws, and helpline numbers that are relevant to them in this context.

Key points from a booklet about the important laws concerning crimes against women and children, published by the Women and Child Protection Organization Headquarters in Lucknow, were read and discussed in detail with the children during the course of the training.

According to the government, this initiative is intended to support girls in developing their intellectual, psychological, and physical resilience to defend themselves in odd and tough situations.