The Centre for Women’s Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Library and Information Sciences and Department of Commerce, University of Jammu organized 6th and 7^th workshop under ongoing series for students of these departments on 30^th  and 31^st August, 2022 respectively. Dr. Hema Gandotra, Faculty, Department of Sociology, University of Jammu was the resource person on 30^th August and Dr. Shallu Sehgal, Faculty, Department of Economics was the resource person on 31^st August 2022.  

Prof. Vishav Raksha, Director, Centre for Women’s Studies in her address welcomed all the participants and explained the aim behind the conduct of such workshops. While addressing the participants she explained that everyone is different and special and through these workshops the Centre is trying to sensitize everyone about the differences and acknowledge them. She further said, there must be a curiosity that why we mostly talk about women and not men in such workshops, it is because the women throughout the history and even now are being marginalized therefore, we need to debunk the old norms regarding the particular gender and inculcate gender sensitivity to think and act in more gender neutral way. She also stressed upon that gender sensitization is not only required in the educational institutions rather very important for other sectors as well.                

Dr. Hema Gandotra, the key resource person for the workshop, spoke about the relevance of Gender sensitization workshop especially for students and scholars. While explaining about Sex and Gender she elaborated how the gender formation happens in a very subtle way starting first from the family itself. She gave the reference of  Kamla Bhasin’s quote: “If women can cook so can men because women do not cook from their womb”, through which she tried to explain how women are kept in private sphere, where their work is not recognized ever, as it is an unpaid work. She also expressed how women even after working for so many hours, do not get any recognition. She used a saying from social media: “Aurat kaam se laut kar kaam par jatey hey”, to explain the never ending work within and outside the home. She also shared her personal experiences to explain the gender stereotypical thinking and structures operating in day-to-day life.

Dr. Shallu Sehgal, key resource person gave insight on the concept of gender by giving reference of Amartya Sen’s idea of development that each and every human being has a certain potential and their development lies in their environment. She said that in patriarchal society the gender roles have been constructed in such a vicious circle that it hinders the upliftment of one gender due to which we can witness the biasness for other gender in the society. Dr. Sehgal also explained about how the contribution of one gender is quantified due to which the work done by the women is not acknowledged as they are unpaid care workers/farm workers.

Dr.Meghna Dhar, Head, Department of Library and Information Sciences, in her address, emphasized on the importance of such workshops. She congratulated and appreciated the efforts of the Centre to conduct such workshop for their students and scholars as well.

Large number of Students, Research Scholars and Faculty members of the Department of Library and Information Sciences and Commerce very enthusiastically participated in the workshops and curiously raised queries about the issues like the impact of Patriarchy on women, why men are to be blamed. Origin of Patriarchy in the Indian society, Reasons for Gender differences and Role of socialization in building gender identity etc.

The workshops were conducted and coordinated by Dr. Saranjit Kaur, Faculty, Centre for Women’s Studies and the formal vote of thanks was presented by Ms. Kunzang Angmo Faculty, Centre for Women’s Studies and Dr. Jyoti Sharma Faculty, Department of Commerce, University of Jammu. The office staff of both the departments looked after the digital modalities of the workshops.