Kalgachia, 10th Aug: The Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee of Nabajyoti College, in association with the Alumni Advocates of Nabajyoti College, organised an awareness programme on the topic of Child Marriage, Domestic Violence & Pocso Acton 10th August 2024 in the college auditorium at 10 a.m.
The principal of the college, Dr. Shahjahan Ali Ahmed attended the programme as the chairperson and he presided over the meeting. Three alumni advocates were invited as the Resource Person of the programme. The programme started with a chorus by the chorus group of Nabajyoti College who commenced the programme by singing the Nabajyoti College anthem.
The dignitaries presentin the programme were the various alumni advocates from the Gauhati High Court and Barpeta Court viz., Advocate Dr. Khayem Uddin Ahmed, Advocate Abdul Awal Dewan, Adv. Mubaraq Hussain, Adv. Saiful Islam, Adv. Sukur Ali, Adv. Jahidul Islam, Adv. Hazarat Ali Bhuyan, Adv. Abdul Matin to name a few.
The welcome speech of the programme was delivered by the principal of the college, Dr. Shahjahan Ali Ahmed. He delivered his lecture on the inception of the college, the increased number of female students in the college, the brief history of the college, the NAAC cycle and accreditation and the formation of an Alumni Advocate Committee. The various Media houses were also present in the programme to capture this significant event of the day.
The first Resource person, Advocate Mubarak Hussain presented his valuable speech on Child Marriage. He described what child marriage was, the disadvantages of child marriage, and The Child Marriage Provision Act 2006. He also narrated the various punishments available by the law for anyone engaged in child marriage.
The second speaker, Advocate Abdul Awal Dewan discussed on the topic of Domestic Violence. He discussed the various forms of domestic violence that women have to undergo in society. He discussed various forms of Sexual violence like sexual abuse, name-calling, etc. and the various reasons for them. He further discussed how domestic violence can be prevented in society and the solutions that anyone suffering from domestic violence can avail of through law.
The final speaker, Advocate Dr. Khayem Uddin Ahmed discussed what POCSO Act is all about. He discussed what Sexual Assault is and the various forms of Sexual Assault like Penetrative Sexual Assault and Aggravated Sexual Assault. Addressing the various media houses presented in the programme, he discussed the various POCSOacts for the media like the Section-23 Procedure for Media (POCSO). He concluded with a quotation by Martin Luther King who said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and hence advised the participants to raise their voicesagainst any form of injustice. There was an interaction session among the resource person and various participants present after each session which helped to clear the doubts among the participants.
After the lecture by the appointed speaker, there was a session on the Key Findings, where the various advocates present in the programme summarized the key findings of today’s discussion. Following are the various key findings that were found in the discussion.
- More importance to education should be given in society and parents should be made more aware towards providing education to their children. Education is the only tool that might help us fight against any kind of odds in society.
- Every citizen is encouraged to have basic knowledge of the law and should know about the implementation of the law. Our education system should mandatorily teach students about the law. Ethics and morality should be given high priority in society for the smooth running of society. Law alone won’t eradicate the problems if there is no basic ethics among the citizens.
- Every month schools and colleges should have extracurricular classes on the implementation of the law, to make the students aware of the topic.
- Another speaker suggested about adding about the law in the NCERT and State Assam Govt. School Curriculum. Under 46 Section, many more awareness programmes like this should be organised in schools, colleges and society.
- Every participant present in the programme should not keep this information to themselves and should share the teachings with their friends, family and society.
- Another speaker used a metaphor and compared the acts to the fire and anyone not maintaining the law would suffer in the hands of law.
- Advocate Khayem Uddin Ahmed suggested having courage and fighting against any injustice and should not shy away from taking the help of the law. The right action at the right time needs to be implemented.
- Advocate Hazarat Ali Bhuyan suggested that misuse of these laws should not be done. Legal awareness programmes should be organised in the rural or backward areas by the colleges or NGO’s.
- The media houses present in the programme are advised to spread authentic awareness of today’s programme through their media house to society.
- The teachers of the schools and colleges should also raise awareness among the students on these topics.
- The mothers should be more aware about these laws.
- The children should have a homely space at their house so that they can share freely about anything with their guardians.
- Drug awareness programmes should also be organised by the schools and colleges and the respective NGO’s.
- Ethical sense should be present among the citizens of the country and misuse of phones should not be there in society.
- There should be the formation of a Legal Cell committee in the college.
At the end, there was a video-conferencing session by Advocate Moijuddin Mahmud, Senior Advocate of Gauhati High Court where he discussed in detail the above three topics. After the lunch break, there was a formation of the Advocate Alumni Committee of Nabajyoti College. The vote of thanks was given by Dr AyetreeBanaspati, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry. The host of the programme was done by two students of B.A. 3rd Semester of the College, Sultana Nasrin and Enzamamul Haque.
