Self-defence clubs are to be a part of all degree colleges in the state of Odisha, as per The New Indian Express's report. The state government had earlier decided to impart lessons to female students of higher education institutions regarding self-defence techniques. Now, the government plans to expand it to the degree colleges as per sources.

Plan to be implemented in phases
In the first phase, clubs will be established in around 200 colleges and the government plans to gradually expand the scheme to other state colleges as well. Officials of the Department of Higher Education said that the clubs will be a replacement for the previously-run self-defence training programme for girls.

For the programme, an amount of Rs 50,000 will be disbursed in favour of each of the selected 200 colleges which include 43 government institutions.

On Tuesday, December 16, the department sent a notice to the principals of the degree colleges and asked them to appoint a faculty member as coordinator of the self-defence clubs.

What would be its purpose?
To promote the safety of female students and impart training to them in techniques like karate, martial arts, judo, and taekwondo, the club would aim to equip girls with self-defence skills, enabling them to recognise potential dangers including physical assault, molestation, and harassment and protect themselves besides building confidence in their abilities.

The girls will be taught by the trained girls of the institutions and qualified self-defence trainers on campuses. According to The New Indian Express, almost 1.09 lakh girls are enrolled in close to 1,000 degree colleges.

Inception of the programme
In the year 2013, the government of Odisha made a decision to train 2.5 lakh college girls, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in self-defence. It also provided Rupees 10,000 to these 10,288 youth clubs on higher education campuses as part of its commitment to the State Youth Policy 2013.

The training programme was further implemented keeping in mind the rising number of crimes against women in the state.