Students in more than 200 girls’ schools will be imparted self-defence training as part of a project undertaken by the state school education department.
The schools in Calcutta that have enrolled under the project will be trained in association with Calcutta police.
The project named Rani Lakshmi Bai Atma Raksha Prashikshan 2023-24 was inaugurated at Beltala Girls’ High School on Wednesday by the commissioner of city police, Vineet Goyal, in the presence of education minister Bratya Basu.
“Sukanya — another project to train young girls, was started in schools in 2014. Since then 9,000 girls have received training in self-defence. Now this project will be carried out in 233 schools for the next three months. Classes will be held every Saturday,” said Goyal.
“Everyone needs training in self-defence. We are glad that the schools are taking this initiative,” he said.
Police sources said that the programme launched on Wednesday would target students of Classes IX to Class XII and would aim at empowering girls in terms of “mental calm, body flexibility and self-defence skills”.
“It also aims at generating awareness among school teachers and guardians in this aspect. The programme is being directly sponsored and supervised by the Paschim Banga Samagra Shiksha Mission under the aegis of the school education department,” said an official of the state education department.
The training will also be given across schools in Bengal.
Earlier, Calcutta police had started projects like Tejashwini to impart training in self-defence to women of all age groups, following which the model was replicated in the neighbouring police commissionerates.
A senior police officer said it was an important step to instill a sense of self-confidence in girls and women so that even if they are under attack, they can either defend themselves or raise the alarm and report the matter to the police in time.