Powering India, emPowering Girls

Beyond its core area of powering the nation through electric generation, NTPC has come forward in empowering girls through its pan-India Girl Empowerment Mission programme.

Just imagine a girl studying in class VI from a Govt School near NTPC-Ramagundam is having a serious discussion with the resource persons on Life Skills and Interpersonal Relationship.  Ten years back, such discussions were limited to Graduate /PG students or may be students from Private Schools in Metros were exposed to such things. But today, thanks to NTPC’s CSR Initiative through Girl Empowerment Mission (GEM) programme, girls from Govt Schools in the age group of 10-12 from nearby villages of the plants are facilitated to empower.

As part of the four-week residential programme, NTPC-Ramagundam conducting GEM from May 02-29, 2019 wherein 120 girls from Govt Schools of nearby villages registered. Always concerned for overall development of the nearby villagers, this GEM programme exclusively focused on empowering girls through a well-planned curriculum. It all started with the baseline survey to develop the customized curriculum, a combination of acdemic and extracurricular activities, that best suits the local girls. Aware Group, an NGO from Hyderabad, has been roped in as nodal agency to deploy resource persons to impart the training.

 NTPC-Ramagundam has provided all facilities like personal use items, accommodation, food, clothing, Uniform, regular health checkup, security, etc so that girls will feel at home even though they are away from their home. To further instill a sense of confidence and rather we can say to create belongingness, NTPC employees and Deepthi Mahila Samithi members regularly visited the workshop to further motivate them. Even CMD-NTPC Shri Gurdeep Singh; RED-South Shri D K Dubey; ED-Ramagundam/Telangana Dr P P Kulkarni and other senior officials visited the GEM workshop and interacted the girls besides motivating them to achieve their goal.

Today (26.05.19), even after 24 days of stay at GEM workshop, J Sahasra, Class-V from MPPS-Gandhipark, Godavarikhani does not feel any homesick. “I am enjoying the food and facilities here. I am comfortable with other girls even though they are from different schools. We do our team work and enjoy the extracurricular activities like Public Speaking, Yoga, Dance, etc.” I will share the good things learned here to my classmates once I return to my school, she added. 

 But she is not the only girl who is engaged in extracurricular activities.  Like her, while few are busy with Arts & Craft, some are engrossed with Yoga and few others in sports. There are many who are enjoying the movies screening, dance and music, while few others learning the intricacies of self-defense.  However, most of them do not miss to attend the awareness classes on Good Touch, Bad Touch, Personal Hygiene and Gender diversity issues which are very important for them in their journey for empowerment.  

Girls are so impressed with the curriculum and the method of teaching that they do not forget to appreciate NTPC and the resource persons. “Our day starts with Yoga followed by Boost Energy drinking and Breakfast. All the required items for us are easily available. The teaching staff, the support staff, the catering staff and others are very supportive. We never felt far from our home. Further, the academic exposure with extracurricular activities make things fun,” says T. Rachana, Class-VI, MPPS, Ramagundam who excelled in drawing and wants to be a teacher in future.

So motivated after the exposure classes, the girls are now setting big goals for themselves. “I wanted to be a doctor.  It is core to my heart. Whatever I learned here will definitely help me in future especially the awareness classes on Good Touch, Bad Touch, Personal Hygiene and Gender issues. I did well in Arts & Crafts by making of Teddy bear,” expressed T. Rankita, Class-VI from MPPS, Pedampet. Echoing similar positive influence, Arshiya Begum, Class-V from MPPS Shantinagar says she improved her sports skills in Shuttle besides learning the intricacies of Arts & Crafts in Clay Molding, Candle Making, etc. Aspiring to be a teacher, she says whatever we are learning here will help us during our college days.

The GEM programme at Ramagundam is coming to end on May 29 even though the girls are in no mood to leave the workshop. But the learning will remain forever and will help the girls in their Personality Development. After all, this programme aims at helping them to identify their area of interest and work on it to further improve.

Besides Ramagundam, other projects of NTPC throughout the country conducting the Girl Empowerment Mission with an objective of transforming the society in which equal opportunities of growth can be suitably provided to girls so that they can co-exist with their counterparts by contributing equally in the growth of the society.

                     By Sahadev Sethi, Manager (Corporate Communications), NTPC-Ramagundam