S. Vishnu Sharma
‘UnMute’ campaign launched by IIT Madras students focuses on menstrual hygiene management and self defence against sexual harassment. ‘UnMute’ campaign is a part of Shaastra 2022.
UnMute campaign
Students of IIT Madras are partnering with NGOs as the part of UnMute campaign for various initiatives like pad distribution drive in Bengaluru, online session on gender inequality and menstrual hygiene management awareness sessions for school going girls in Chennai.
There is more to this UnMute campaign. Through this initiative, the students aim to help women speak up on these issues and also conduct awareness campaigns.
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Shaastra 2022
This UnMute campaign is a part of Shaastra 2022 which is the annual tech festival of IIT Madras. Students have partnered with Non-Governmental Organizations such as Chudar, Go-Hygiene, CRY, Sakhya and Swayam to conduct programs like Pad distribution drive in Bengaluru, online session on Gender Inequality and Impact on people’s lives, Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Awareness sessions for school-going girls in Chennai are being conducted since 16 October.
The launch
Every year, the Shaastra Team attempts to identify a social issue and undertake initiatives to tackle it. This year under Shaastra 2022, the students have taken up ‘UnMute’ campaign. The ‘UnMute’ Campaign was launched virtually on 24 October in the presence of Actor Ahsaas Channa.
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Unique aspects
Faculty advisor for Shaastra 2022 at IIT Madras spoke about the unique aspects of UnMute campaign. This year the team has put tremendous efforts to execute UnMute, that primarily associates with Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and self-defense for women.
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Having collaborated with various NGOs, the students hope to create a long-lasting impact by helping women to pursue a confident life, he said speaking about UnMute campaign.
School
Each year, about 23 million girls drop out of school in India as soon as they start menstruating, according to a report by ‘youthkiawaaz.’
Also, 62 per cent of women in the age group of 15-24 years still rely on cloth during periods. Facts like these highlight the need for educating girls about the importance of MHM.
The students also intend to inform girls about how MHM can be followed and give them the tools they need to do this as well as a part of UnMute campaign.
Nitish Gupta
Nitish Gupta, Co-curricular Affairs Secretary, Shaastra 2022 at IIT Madras speaking about UnMute campaign said they believe that a lot of these incidents can be mitigated by informing women about some basic self-defence techniques along with helping them and, even men, understand how to assess a situation so that they can help people, even if they aren’t the ones being assaulted.
As a part of our event, speakers are contacted by various organizations to talk about why women are even now sexually assaulted, empowering the women to understand the disparities in society and enabling them to defend themselves by identifying dangerous situations and employing simple techniques, he said speaking about UnMute campaign.
Events
There are events planned as a part of UnMute campaign and they are given below:
1. MHM Awareness sessions – Speakers trained on the subject of Menstrual Hygiene will be invited to speak to girls/women of the target audience NGO in an online/offline mode.
They will speak about the need for menstrual hygiene, how the lack of it can lead to diseases and teach how to maintain good menstrual hygiene. In the end, menstrual pads would be distributed to the women.
2. Self-Defence – Address on the topic of why women are even now sexually assaulted, empowering women and enabling them to defend themselves by identifying dangerous situations and employing simple techniques. The students plan to conduct a few sessions as the speakers themselves.
About IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’
The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres.
The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations.
IITM is a residential institute with more than 600 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.
IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for the third consecutive year in India Ranking 2021 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India.
The Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for six consecutive years – from 2016 to 2021.
It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019 and 2020. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.
