Mangaluru: International Women’s Day was celebrated by the Centre for Ethics. On this occasion, Dr Akkai Padmashali, Transgender Rights Activist and Motivational speaker was invited as the special guest. The program was organized by the Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University).
Special guest Dr Akkai Padmashali shared her experiences and gave an inspirational account of her life journey and about the sufferings faced by the Transgender Community in the real world.
The Honorable Vice-Chancellor, Dr M Vijayakumar was the Chief Guest. The program started with a uniquely different welcome speech by Dr Vina Vaswani, Director, Centre for Ethics, wherein the Constitution of India was invoked rather than a traditional prayer. This was followed by the felicitation of Dr Akkai Padmashali for her work and contribution to society. The Honorable Vice-Chancellor Dr Vijayakumar recommended having a humanitarian approach towards society and striving towards a casteless and genderless society where our attitudes towards people should arise from mutual self-respect and not be incumbent on race, gender, caste, creed and religion one is born in.
Dr Beluru Raghunandan, Scriptwriter and Director who has recently directed a drama, a biopic on the life of Dr Akkai, was also the guest for the program and gave an eye-opening account on the gap between calling ourselves human and not following it up with humane actions. He was unhappy about the teacher as well as the parental responsibility as a role model. He also touched upon the inclusion of such values in the formal education system. He appreciated the role of Yenepoya (Deemed to be University) which is striving to inculcate inclusive values and a rights-based approach. The program ended with a vote of thanks by Dr Naheeda Hamza, Research Assistant, Centre for Ethics.