Event

Women’s Grievances Redressal Cell (WGRC), Department of Computer Application, promotes a healthy studying environment for all our female students, and faculty. Also, it works towards building a gender-sensitized environment in our department. With the aim of organizing seminars, workshops and awareness programs at regular intervals toward building a gender-neutral department, the WGRC of the Computer Application department, Integral University, organized a seminar and debate competition on December 5^th, 2022, and December 6^th, 2022 respectively.

Key insights: Day 1 (5^th December 2022): The seminar on “Gender and Mental Health” was presented by Dr. Samreen Khan, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Integral Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Lucknow. She is a gold Medalist from JNMCH, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, with a diploma in Mental Health from NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and Diploma in Public Health Nutrition from NIHFW, Delhi. Dr. Khan talked about the implications of poor mental health in adolescent and student life, and how gender-related differences are essential in the increasing prevalence of mental health disorders. It’s important to know the signs of deteriorating health and warning signals in our family members, friends, and peers, to prevent complications, particularly suicides. Early diagnosis and management, expert counseling, healthy diet, and lifestyle are the key solutions to tackle the burning issue of poor mental health in people these days. Furthermore, she explained the concepts of stress, anxiety, and depression. She emphasized on the government initiatives like National Mental Health Program (NMHP, 1982), District Mental Health Programme (DMHP, 1996), Mental Health Act (2017), Kiran Helpline (2020), Manodarpan Initiative, and MANAS Mobile App, to promote mental health, and that it's important to create awareness among the population especially youth regarding these schemes. In conclusion, she asked the audience not to hold onto these situations or research themselves in exchange for joining a therapeutic alliance. She explained that positive thinking often begins with self-talk.

The seminar ended with an interactive session with the audience and Dr. Khan answered the queries of the students related to mental healthcare. A total of 122 students from different streams clubbed together and participated in the seminar with great enthusiasm and seriousness.

Day 2 (6^th December 2022): A debate competition was organized on the topic: "Has social media benefited or harmed people's mental health?", in total of 9 female students from varied streams participated in the debate competition with 50 students as an audience. Among the 9 participants, 6 students spoke against the motion and 3 students spoke for the motion. All of the participants gave their best debate delivery. The judges for the event were Dr. Halima Sadia, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Dr. Orooj Siddiqui, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce and Management, Integral University, Lucknow. The results were declared on the same day by the jury. The winners of the debate competition are listed as under:

First Position (For the Motion): Ms. Ramsha Fatima (BCA)

Second Position (Against the Motion): Ms. Rakhshan Hussain (Diploma CS)

Third Position (Against the Motion): Ms. Alina Fatima Ansari (BA Psychology)

We congratulate all the winners and we wish them all the very best for their future competitions organized inside and outside the university with the hope that they bring more laurels to the university. Both the seminar and debate competition was moderated by Dr. Afreen Khan, Member WGRC and Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Application. The two-day event was skillfully coordinated and managed by Convener, Ms. Nashra Javed, and Coordinators: Dr. Afreen Khan, Dr. Bably Dolly, Ms. Gausiya Yasmeen, Ms. Abida Khanam, Ms. Saman Khan and Ms. Eram Fatima Siddiqui. Student coordinators: Shagun Sharma, Prachi Prayshi, Vishal Sharma, Riya Mehta, Zikra Shakil, Huda Khan, Ariba Rahmani and Fauziya Siddique.