State govt to facilitate martial arts training for girl students

Kolkata: The state government has decided to introduce self-defence training for girl students across the state starting from January 2024.

The programme is being directly sponsored and supervised by the Paschim Banga Samagra Shiksha Mission under the aegis of the School Education department. The project christened as ‘Rani Lakshmi Bai Atma Raksha Prashikshan 2023-24’ was inaugurated at Beltala Girls’ High School recently by state Education minister Bratya Basu along with Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goel.

“Primarily, this training will be imparted in 153 schools in Kolkata and gradually more schools will be roped in. About 250 schools from the state have been earmarked for this self-defence training. The training will be imparted by Kolkata Police for the city schools and the state police will do the same outside the city,” said a senior official of the School Education department.

The state government will bear the expenditure for this training which will be compulsory for girl students of class IX to XII. This involves teaching martial arts such as Karate. This will help girls in terms of mental calm and body flexibility.

Bipasa Bandyopadhyay, headmistress of Metropolitan Institution (Main) for Girls, said: “ Every girl student will benefit from this training. The state government should make arrangements for such training from class V.” This institution has been training girls from class V in Taekwondo, Judo and Karate for the last few years.

“It is an important step to instill a sense of self-confidence in girls and women so they can defend themselves or raise an alarm and report the matter to the police on time,” headmistress of a school in south Kolkata said.