By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR:International Women’s Day 2017 has been celebrated by Indian Oil on behalf of Oil Industry on 8th March’2017 with participation of women employees, women dealers and distributors of all three oil companies. Pritish Bharat, General Manager, Indian Oil, Odisha cum SLC, senior officials of IOC/HPC/BPC graced the occasion with their presence.
The program started with key note address of GM, IOCL who appreciated the role of women in taking up positions which are considered unconventional like fighter pilots and commercial taxi services. He also opined that women are capable of successfully managing family & career with proper focus & prioritization.
The theme for the year for Women’s Day is “Be Bold For Change”. Amongst the various eminent gathering of speakers who graced the occasion on day was Ms B. Radhika, IPS, Addl DG of Police, Govt. of Odisha, SAP, Cuttack, who presented data on women in India being ill-treated for ages in our male dominated society.
This type of ill-treatment transgresses the boundaries of caste, class, region or religion and is prevalent in almost all societies. She also deliberated that mental conditioning from childhood plays vital role in shaping the gender inequality in society which often results in violence against women. Hence the solution lies more in changing the thought process as well as sharing the workload of the women.
Rebathy Pany, Interior Designer, Social Activist and Golfer, Dr. Iti Samanta, Writer, Publisher, Editor (Kadambini Magazine), Bandana Mishra, Editor, Tirataranga Magazine, Dr. Aparna Mohanty, Retired HOD (Oriya), Eminent Feminist Poet, Ms. Padmini Rout, International Master (IM) Women Grand Master (WGM) in Chess encouraged women to be bold, stronger and more powerful in all spheres of life in following their passion while overcoming challenges.
The support and respect for women’s rights should not to be limited to a day but should be a continuous process. Prof. (Dr.) Sharmila Subramanium, Principal, Astha School of Management show cased games in explaining that breaking the inhibition in women is stepping stone to becoming bold. Snehanjali Mohanty, Member Women’s Commission stressed the need for acquiring knowledge of rules and regulation for protection of women against gender inequality to ensure women empowerment.
There was also a presentation cum demo on Self Defense techniques to safeguard women in distress situation.In addition two Free Health Check Camps were organized at Indian Oil Bhavan and COCO Raj Bhavan premises with enthusiastic participation from employees / pump attendants / families.
