Awareness Programme ‘Kanya Kiran’ To Continue Year-long: Achyuta Samanta

Bhubaneswar: Kanya Kiran, the campaign to stop violence against women and girl child, will continue year-long, announced KIIT and KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta.

Attending as the chief guest of the thanksgiving ceremony of the drive, Minister of Women and Child Development (Mission Shakti) Prafulla Samal said awareness programme to stop violence against women and girl child is need of hour. The KISS has taken a remarkable initiative in the name of ‘Kanya Kiran’. This programme will continue through the year, is more fruitful and praiseworthy, he added.

Dr Samanta said violence against women and girl child has no place in the civilised society.

On the occasion a panel discussion was held on violence against women and girl child. Many Odia cine stars, social activists and intellectuals participated and gave their views on how to stop the violence.

‘Kanya Kiran’ was launched by Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in association with UN Women and Kalinga Fellowship in all the 30 districts of Odisha on June 3.

In a mobilisation of scale and spread unheard of before, the programme covered all the Panchayats of the state, spreading awareness on social evils of violence against women and girl child among millions of households.

Over 3,000 staff of KISS and KIIT, particularly women staff, as well as 27,000 KISS students and their guardians were actively involved as coordinators and volunteers. They disseminated the message at household level in villages amid overwhelming response.

The awareness programme ‘Kanya Kiran’ has been successful in touching the public conscience and it will have a positive impact on curbing the problem of violence against women and girl child, said the intellectuals.