Oil India Limited, DAAA Move To Empower Girls on Health and Hygiene

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Aug 30: In a rare initiative, the Oil India Ltd and Delhi Alumni Association of Assam (DAAA) on Thursday came together to participate in sanitation awareness campaign among adolescent girls in Panbazar Girls Higher Secondary School here.

The day-long event started at the school’s premises at 10.45 am. One of the oldest schools in the state, the Panbazar Girls’ School was set up in 1883. The adolescent girls’ personal hygiene project is part of Oil India’s Swachh Bharat Pakhwada (Cleanliness Fortnight) programme – a company initiative for the government-led Swachh Bharat mission.

Oil India employees and DAAA volunteers met students of the school to discuss the importance of menstrual and personal hygiene and how to cope with these issues and simultaneously an interactive session was held by Dr Dipankar Bhattacharjee, Deputy General Manager- Medical Services, Oil India Ltd with regard to health & hygiene. Dr Bhattacharjee said, “Better the health, better the productivity”. He further added, “Regular physical exercises can prevent breast cancer, cervical cancer and colon cancer”. Thereafter, Krishna Hazarika Rao, Chief Manager, OIL India Limited handed over the hygiene kits to the principal.

OIL distributed more than 300 hygiene kits to the students of Class VII to Class XII. As part of the day-long event, the company took the initiative to clean the school toilets and school playground. This was followed by DAAA’s “Mission 100 Inspired Schools” Campaign consisting of an all women team from DAAA comprising of educationists, entrepreneurs, policewomen, independent filmmakers, sportswoman and the like.

DAAA is a non-profit organization set up by alumni students of Assam who pursued their education in Delhi. Bureaucrats, educationists, sports personalities, entrepreneurs, bankers, progressive farmers, social workers, lawyers, filmmakers, theatre personalities, actors and journalists form part of this group. In Thursday’s meeting, ladies members from DAAA who participated in the initiative were Mini Bhattacharjee Thakur of Gauhati University, Asomee Dutta Baruah, independent filmmaker, Sangeeta Barthakur of Cotton University, Vasavi Acharya, owner of pre-school chain, Deputy Superintendent of Assam Police, Gayatri Sonowal and Dimpy Mahanta of Cotton University. Mini Bhattacharjee Thakur from Gauhati University and an alumnus of DAAA urged upon the students to develop a social mission and contribute towards the society.

Meanwhile, Deputy Superintendent of Police Gayatri Sonowal motivated the girls to join police forces and asked them not to get discouraged by normal physical hindrances. In 2018, DAAA launched the “Mission 100 Inspired School” campaign – a move to provide knowledge, expertise, motivation and mentoring to the State’s school students with special focus on less-privileged vernacular students. Set up in 2017, DAAA has launched several initiatives in its short span of existence.