Students and staff of D.G Vaishnav College gathered at the International Women’s Day celebrations organised by Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. — DC
Chennai:
Hundreds of girl students in a Chennai college on Thursday resolved to launch a ‘Purple Club’ to create a ‘huge’ network of girls and women who will help each other in all possible ways, from tackling men’s harassment to sharing information on education and employment.
This first-of-its-kind initiative was launched at the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by Deccan Chronicle at D.G. Vaishnav College.
“Purple is the beautiful colour of the International Women’s Day and soon it will become the most vibrant and powerful colour too, as this initiative will grow into a national and even an international purple network of women sharing information and experience through mobile phones, Internet and Facebook.
Purple is all set to go viral,” said Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle. College principal, Dr S. Narasimhan, said the club would enable its members, to begin with women from his college, to share experiences and access other members through mobile phones at times of difficulties.
DC and D.G. Vaishnav College will set up the club with its girl students joining as members.
The membership is free, sponsored by Deccan Chronicle. A central data bank would be created for members to access at times of need. The members would be given a purple-coloured button to wear on the dress for identification among other members.
“There will soon be a time when romeos on the road will keep away from the woman wearing the purple button on her churidar or T-shirt,” said a happy student leader.
Purple Club for overall development of women
Purple Club will be a group of women and girls, perhaps students of a particular school or college, but eventually broadening its membership to include women of the entire neighbourhood, perhaps the city and state, for sharing information and experiences among themselves.
More importantly, a member would be able to access quick help from her purple friend through mobile phone or other e-means. The Purple Club members will wear a purple button prominently on their dress to identify themselves.
Deccan Chronicle is initiating the first Purple Club in association with D.G. Vaishnav College at Arumbakkam, Chennai, for its girl students. It is proposed to expand the network to bring in other girls and women from various schools and colleges in Chennai and gradually include ‘purple friends’ from other districts and states as well, according to Ms Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle.
DC is getting ready thousands of decorative purple buttons for distribution among the members of the club. “The empowerment stems from uniting their strengths through this club to share information and experiences. One member can quickly and easily reach out to another through mobile or other e-means.
I could be wearing a purple button and walking on the road in a new city, and come across another purple club woman in that place. We would be strangers but still a smile and a comfortable camaraderie will emerge even during that sudden meeting,” explained Ms Shanti Reddy.
In course of time, Purple Clubs could be expanded to include other cities and states, even other categories of women. For instance, there could be Purple Clubs of Mothers sharing their experiences about bringing up kids, hygiene, food information, education and scholarship opportunities for their children, their husbands’ mood swings and what not.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Pramila Krishnan / March 08th, 2013