Purulia administration takes up adolescent sensitisation programme

The Purulia district administration on Tuesday took up a unique move by inviting 52 adolescent students to the District Magistrate's (DM) Office for a feedback session.

Purulia DM, Alokesh Prasad Roy, interacted with the students on issues that affect them the most like education, protection and access to key services provided by the Mamata Banerjee government. The students openly discussed adolescent issues like problems faced during menstruation and other issues. Besides sensitising girl students, the district administration also spoke to the male students to make them understand the issues revolving around women. According to Prasad: "Only sensitising women will not help. We spoke to the boys and the parents as well."

"We have received support from the state government and the entire work is being carried out step-by-step by the NGOs and Unicef. I would like to thank them wholeheartedly for the support," added Prasad. Under Kanyashree Prakalpa, the Purulia administration met the Block Development Officers (BDOs) and discussed how to spread the scheme at the grassroot levels. In total, the district administration has been successful in sensitising 61,925 girls, 9,046 boys and 9,095 guardians.

The DM also said on the occasion of Kanyashree Utsav, the district administration has decided to launch a counselling and grooming session for the ones who are shrouded in social voodoos and superstitions and are still to join the mainstream. To make Kanyashree scheme stronger, the district administration has been successful in building 173 Kanyashree clubs run by girl students of different schools.