Women’s Development and Extension Centre (WDEC)
INTRODUCTION:
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar open university is a pioneer in India to provide distance education to the most disadvantaged sections of the society including house wives, women employees and women prisoners. Women are the most disadvantaged group who cannot pursue higher education owing to various social and economical barriers. DR.BRAOU promotes women higher education through flexible system of distance education.
DR.BRAOU established Women’s Development and Extension Centre (WDEC) for the welfare of women employees and women students of the university. WDEC is established in July 1993. since the inception, WDEC has been playing a vital role in the development of the women employees and female students of the university at several fronts .WDEC has been instrumenting , enhancing the social consciousness and awareness among the women employees and female students. As we believe women education will lead to women empowerment, WDEC has been striving for the social change in the society by encouraging women higher education. DR.BRAOU has exclusive study centres for women, it shows the commitment of the university for the cause.
In the journey of 28 years of WDEC, several programmes have been organized for the physical, mental and professional development of the women employees. These kind of programmes help the women employees to excel in their work without stress and help them in time management. The programmes on the personal and professional life balance instill the confidence in the women employees to face every-day challenges both in personal and professional lives.
WDEC organizes Awareness programmes on domestic violence and sexual harassment at work place by inviting the eminent women police officers, advocates and social activists to create the awareness about the types of crimes women may be facing without actually knowing it is harassment. Such discussions enable women employees to face these challenges of life.
WDEC celebrates international women’s day every year not as a ritual but brainstorming and enlightening sessions take place amidst the women of excellence from different fields.
Over all WDEC is trying to educate the women employees through the lectures and the symposiums and all other activities and inculcates social awareness among women employees.
Womens’ Development & Extension Centre:
In 1993, the university has set up women studies cell which was later renamed as women’ development and extension centre. The establishment of the centre provides an opportunity for women’s development.
Over all WDEC is trying to educate the women employees through the lectures and the symposiums and all other activities and inculcates social awareness among women employees.
Womens’ Development & Extension Centre:
In 1993, the university has set up women studies cell which was later renamed as women’ development and extension centre. The establishment of the centre provides an opportunity for women’s development.
Objectives:
The main objectives of centre are:
The main objectives of centre are:
- To critically study problems, aspirations and needs of the women learners
- To promote incorporation of womens studies perspective in course offerings.
- To encourage research on socially relevant areas within womens development and status.
- To generate source material by building documentation on women specific issues in the region.
- To provide information, knowledge and skills for economic independence of women.
- To enhance access to legal literacy and information on womens rights and entitlements in the society.
- To organize extensive activity in the areas of literacy, health, nutrition, environment, entrepreneurship, etc.,
- To sensitize our teachers and administraters and all women employees to become agents of womens empowerment.
- To establish strong networking with in and outside the university.
The centre has been organizing a number of formal and informal activities, prammes, workshops, seminars by involving women activists, academicians, lawyers and intellectuals on contemporary issues related to women working in the university.
Officer in-charge of the WD&EC:
The officer in-charge of the WD&EC is the coordinator who takes up the programmes. The WD&EC has a core committee. The officer in-charge is the responsible person to initiate and organize the activities of the centre in consultation with core committee. Presently Dr.N.Rajani is the officer in-charge of the centre.
The officer in-charge of the WD&EC is the coordinator who takes up the programmes. The WD&EC has a core committee. The officer in-charge is the responsible person to initiate and organize the activities of the centre in consultation with core committee. Presently Dr.N.Rajani is the officer in-charge of the centre.
Core committee:
For the regular monitoring of the programmes, the centre constitutes a core committee with senior and active members of the faculties and employees. The core committee looks after the activities of wdec. Apart from the regular programmes the core committee acts as the organizing committee of the events on special ocassions like international womens day.
The wdec has its own office with all necessary infrastructure and supporting staff with in the main campus of the university.
For the regular monitoring of the programmes, the centre constitutes a core committee with senior and active members of the faculties and employees. The core committee looks after the activities of wdec. Apart from the regular programmes the core committee acts as the organizing committee of the events on special ocassions like international womens day.
The wdec has its own office with all necessary infrastructure and supporting staff with in the main campus of the university.
Internal complaint committee for work place harassment:
For awareness of sexual harassment in workplace, WD&EC has a committee with 3 external members (academician, journalist and an NGO), 2 non-teaching employees of both genders, 6 from teaching community .They look after any incident that occurs in the work place, and they meet immediately to discuss the issues and further actions or solutions regarding the problem.
Smt. rajul ben desai, member for national women commission came to address about sexual harassment in work place on 15th February,2020. representatives from several universities also participated in the discussions about their respective work places.
For awareness of sexual harassment in workplace, WD&EC has a committee with 3 external members (academician, journalist and an NGO), 2 non-teaching employees of both genders, 6 from teaching community .They look after any incident that occurs in the work place, and they meet immediately to discuss the issues and further actions or solutions regarding the problem.
Smt. rajul ben desai, member for national women commission came to address about sexual harassment in work place on 15th February,2020. representatives from several universities also participated in the discussions about their respective work places.
Some important activities:
The women development and extension centre of Dr. Ambedkar open university organized a number of programmes, workshops and seminars involving women activists, academicians, lawyers, literary persons, police officers and intellectuals on contemporary issues relating to women.
In 1993, the university set up women studies cell which was later renamed as womens development and extension centre. The establishment of the centre provides an opportunity for womens development.
The centre has been organizing a number of formal and informal activities programmes, lectures and seminars by involving women activists and academicians.
Activities of women cell during 2017-22
-
International womens day celebrations conducted on 6th march 2017 with the theme ‘gender parity.’ smt.Chitra Ramachandran, IAS, SPECIAL SECRETARY to the Govt.of Telangana was the chief guest.
-
International womens day celebrations on 7th march 2018. Dr.Sasikala, famous gynecologist was the chief guest. She emphasized and analyzed how women education leads to woman empowerment. K Srinvas, Editor, Andhra Jyoti Newspaper was the guest of Honor. The topics of the day were- Woman empowerment in various fields by Sajaya, member of NGO Anveshi, ,open discussion by Sumitra from Ankuram, NGO. women empowerment in working class women by anita from Chaitanya Mahila Samakhya. The event was followed by cultural programmes.
-
International womens day celebrations on 7th march, 2019. professor Kalpana kannabiran, Director, Centre for Social Development was the chief guest. A famous lyric writer suddala ashok teja was the guest of honour. they both addressed women issues related to law & rural women. The children of ‘sannihita’ NGO performed cultural programmes based on women issues. Another group from Arunodaya cultural team also sang women issues related songs.
-
International womens day celebrations on 11th march 2020, professor padmaja shah, professor of journalism at Osmania University was the chief guest. enugu narasimhareddy was the guest of honour. cultural programmes followed.
-
International womens day celebrations on 9th march,2022. smt.sunita laxmareddy, former minister; Chair-person, telangana state woman commission was the chief guest. academician and linguist prof. reddy syamala was the guest of honour. Cultural programmes followed.
Other Events by WDEC:
-
On 18- 2 2017, lecture on gender sensitization by prof. rama Melkote.
-
On 15-9-2018, prof.soorya Dhananjay narrated her story and emphasized on the success of her education at Dr.BRAOU.
-
On 26-7-2019, Talk on Leader ship qualities in woman by Dr.Mamata vegunta singh
-
On 3-1-2022, savitri bhai phoole Jayanti, A talk on Savitribai by Dr.M.M.Vinodini
-
After the formation of Telangana state we have been celebrating Batukamma (Telangana State Festival) every year with our university employees in the campus. In 2018 October we celebrated Batukamma in the campus on the eve of the celebration, a brochure was released by WDEC. The brochure reflects on the completion of 25 years of women development centre, mentions women cell activities of the 25 years and the officers in-charge of the Cell till date along with their work in the Centre
-
On 29-9-2022 ,WD&EC celebrated batukamma festival on 5th day of batukamma.the grand celebrations was taken place..
-
Dr.N.Rajani, Incharge WD&EC, DR.BRAOU.