Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Feb 5 (IANS) With the aim to become self-sufficient and to protect themselves from anti-social elements, nearly 150 college girls of Chandigarh are taking karate lessons under the supervision of experts from Traditional Karate Federation of India (TKFI). “Many times we come across eve-teasers, who pass nasty remarks at us and sometimes even try to misbehave with girls. The saddest thing is that most of the times we are helpless and cannot defend ourselves,” said Priyanka Sharma, one of the participants in this two-day workshop.

“However, after attending this workshop, I am feeling quite confident and believe that now I can counter anybody in my self-defence,” she added.

This workshop was organised by the Institute of Computer and Finance executives (ICFe) in collaboration with TKFI as part of their project ‘Shakti - women empowerment program’. The workshop began Feb 4.

Riya Jain, another participant, said: “I did not get any chance to learn karate or any self-defence mechanism. I really wanted to learn these but my parents were not in the favour of sending me anywhere for coaching. However, this workshop in our college has solved this problem and it was a great learning experience here.”

The girls were imparted training in karate by Rajiv Sinha, who conducts karate classes at educational institutes and corporate offices all over the world.

“My main emphasis here was to enthuse self-confidence in these girls. They all are very enthusiastic and energetic and I taught them basic techniques of self-defence. The response was overwhelming and I certainly want to come here again to conduct more such workshops,” Sinha told IANS Thursday.

Prabh Kirtan Singh, centre director of ICFe, Chandigarh, said: “This is for the first time here that anybody has taken this initiative. This workshop is absolutely free and any woman can take part in this. Our talks are on to conduct similar workshops in other colleges of the region in the coming days.”