Bearing testimony to the fact that what happens in a nation has a strong impact on the youth, who is willing to fight back to achieve a better society, Hansraj College saw the emergence of a new society dedicated towards providing self defence training to girls, including those who are not a part of Delhi University.
An inaugural programme was conducted in the college on the 16th of January, which also served as the orientation programme of the ‘Girls Defence Society’. Dr. Rajnish Garg, additional District Commissioner of Police, Mr.Anil Kumar, ACP, Mrs. Sushma Rawat, SHO, Mr. Rohit, S.I., were present at the ceremony to lend support to the initiative. A short film, made by the college’s Film Society, was screened, serving as a motivating factor along with the encouraging words spoken in praise of such an initiative.
“The training programme has been initiated with the reference to the Nirbhaya gang rape case. We have kept three time slots, of an hour each, for the training for convenience and greater participation. As of now, fifteen days’ training will be provided by the constables of Delhi Police. It is free of cost. We want to provide a platform to the girls to be able to defend themselves against any mishappenings.” said Vanshika Singh, the President of Girls’ Defence Society.
The training programme would be held in the college itself. The programme aims at strengthening women, both physically and mentally, to be able to answer back during instances of eve-teasing and protect themselves. Certificates would be provided to those who would join this programme.
The annual parliamentary debating tournament of Hansraj College was held from 17th-20th March, 2013. The festival is seen as one of the most awaited debating festivals in the Delhi University debating circuit because of the quality of debaters and adjudicators it invites, while the prize money is an added perk.
The tournament saw the participation of 24 teams from across colleges that are active in the debating circuit and it also saw cross teams that included some senior debaters. After a course of five preliminary rounds, eight teams broke into the quarterfinals that included teams from the colleges- SRCC, KMC, HINDU, JGLS and two cross teams. The finals were held between Tarand and Nouman from Hindu, competing for the Shanti Narayan trophy with Siddhartha Thyagarajan (ex-RAMJAS)and Aishwarya Iyer (Hindu). The topic of the debate was “This house believes that social movements should discard the use of euphemisms.” Tarang and Nouman successfully defended the motion and won the trophy. The adjudicating panel of the finals included some of the best adjudicators in the debating circuit, such as Anirudh(Hansraj), Shaurya(Hansraj) , Tarun(Hansraj), Shuvam(Hansraj), Shachi(ex-Hansraj), Abeer(Hansraj) and Navin(ex-KMC). The best adjudicator prize went to Rijul from Hindu and best speaker went to Aashay Sahay (ex-RVCE).
Shachi Seth and Navin Kumar were the Adjudication Core of the tournament. The tournament got a lot of positive response in terms of its smooth running, efficient administration, and running on time, the latter feature being something mostly absent in debating tournaments.
The tournament was also an interesting one in terms of the unique strategies implemented to decide proposition and opposition in the post breaks round. Ditching the conventional coin toss, the Hansraj debsoc decided that proposition and opposition will be decided through means of rock-paper-scissors, tip-top, arm wrestling or dance offs. Particularly interesting was the dance off between Vardhan from KMC and Tarang from Hindu in the quarterfinals.
The tabs team was highly praised for carrying out the fastest tabbing in the history of debates, with the tabs being ready for the next round within 5 minutes.
Overall, the 6th Shanti Narayan was very efficiently run, stuck to time rules and provided an unforgettable debating experience.
Photo Credits: hansrajdelhi.batchmates.com
Siddhi Goel
