Unique International Women's Day celebration organized by Centre for Ethics

International Women’s Day was celebrated by the Centre for Ethics. On this occasion Dr. Akkai Padmashali, Transgender Right Activist and Motivational speaker was invited as the special guest. The program was organized by the Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya (deemed to be University). The Honorable Vice Chancellor, Dr. M Vijayakumar was the Chief Guest. The program started with welcome speech by Dr. Vina Vaswani, Director, Centre for Ethics, wherein the Constitution of India was invoked rather than a traditional prayer. This was followed by felicitation of Dr. Akkai Padmashali for her work and contribution to the society. The Honorable Vice Chancellor Dr. Vijayakumar recommended to have a humanitarian approach towards the society and to strive towards casteless and genderless society where our attitudes towards people should arise from mutual self-respect and not be incumbent on race, gender, caste, creed and religion one is born in. Special guest Dr. Akkai Padmashali shared her experiences and gave an inspirational account of her life journey and about the sufferings faced by the Transgender Community in the real world. Dr. Beluru Raghunandan, Script writer and Director who has recently directed a drama, a biopic on the life of Dr. Akkai, was also the guest for the program and gave an eye opening account on the gap between calling ourselves human and not following up it with humane actions. He was unhappy about the teacher as well as a parental responsibility as a role model. He also touched upon the inclusion of such values in the formal education system. He appreciated the role of Yenepoya (deemed to be University) which is striving to inculcate inclusive values and rights-based approach. The program ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Naheeda Hamza, Research Assistant, Centre for Ethics.