Committee Reports: Gender Equality 2020-2021
Director-in-charge: Rtn. Meera Alreja
Chair: Rtn. Varsha Daiya
Co-Chair: Rtn. Anar Shah
Members: Rtn. Arin Master, Rtn. Dr. Aashish Contractor, Rtn. Ravindra Fotedar
The Rotary Club of Bombay partnered with Salaam Bombay to impart skill training to municipal school children this past year. Given the lockdown, SBF began delivering an online training programme through platforms like Zoom and Google.
This year, we donated 160 tablets to Salaam Bombay. This helped bridge the digital divide and enabled seamless access to those students who were unable to access online sessions due to the unavailability of smart phones at their homes.
The Gender Equality Committee (GEC) ensured that the children completed their training in courses such as Beauty and Wellness, Mobile Repair, Robotics, Jewellery Design, Home Appliance and Financial Literacy. The beneficiaries specialising in robotics participated in National Science Day and presented a working model school concept to government officials. They made models of soap and water dispensers, thermal screening, and IOT-based classroom automation to minimise contamination of the virus.
GEC in collaboration with Saukhyam conducted an awareness programme on reusable pads for our Vocational Training Centre and Night Study School students and teachers.
Saukhyam trains rural women groups to produce reusable pads from cotton cloth and banana fibre that eliminates non-biodegradable menstrual waste and helps prevent the emission of carbon dioxide. At the same time, women who make the switch save money because repeated purchases of disposable pads are not necessary.
To support frontline women workers who have been working tirelessly, we received a donation from Nua Wellness – a women’s wellness brand to provide feminine hygiene kits to the heroes. 330 kits were donated to Masina Hospital to celebrate Nurses Day on May 12th, 2021 and another 550 kits to Parsee General Hospital’s staff and families.