How women break barriers and make a difference: Narratives of resilience and change

Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: The All India Radio, Bhopal and UNICEF office of Madhya Pradesh organized a story sharing event in Bhopal, providing a platform and opportunity created to share stories of change, women making a difference.

The event also included boys from a group in Bhopal who are working on gender.

Stories of sarpanch Rani Bhargav, Badminton player and UNICEF India Youth Advocate, Gauranshi Sharma, truck driver Yogita Raghuvanshi, Sakshi Bharadwaj of Junglevase, Counsellor Pallavi Sharma, entrepreneur Pratibha Tiwari and organic farmer Preeti Uikey were shared during the event. Adarsh Pasi, Gender Champion also shared his perspective.

The stories highlighted how they were able to overcome challenges and had worked their way forward to break barriers. The event was held ahead of the international women's day (March 8) with a theme ‘For all women and girls: Rights, equality, empowerment’.
Gauranshi, badminton player, won doubles mixed medal at Deaflympics, Pallavi a women counsellor works on mental health, Rani Bhargava, a sarpanch (elected village head under Panchayati Raj system) workson gender and bal panchayats and Adarsh is a young man working on gender.

Dr Sakshi Bharadwaj works on urban forestry and pushing climate action in Bhopal while Dr Pratibha Tiwari fought cancer and is now working to support others. Radio Professionals from AIR Bhopal, Radio LakeCity Voice, Radio Azad Hind and social media influencers were part of the event to hear these stories.
These stories of changemakers will also be captured by AIR and shared on radio channels and on social media channels of all those present.
Rajesh Bhatt, Programme Director, AIR Bhopal said that radio and in particular AIR has and will keep on playing a role to encourage women participation and empowerment. AIR has provided a platform for these stories in all its programmes and the stories we heard today will also be shared on our platforms.
Anil Gulati, Officer in Charge UNICEF Madhya Pradesh thanked AIR for partnering with UNICEF and providing a platform for change makers. “Your story of change will inspire others to take positive action towards gender equality and empowerment”, he said while thanking these change makers for coming forward and sharing their story.

Dr Prashanth Kumar, Health Specialist UNICEF spoke on importance of mental health particularly adolescent mental health and its impact on lives of adolescents. Pooja Singh, Social Specialist spoke on the theme of Women's Day and said we have achieved a lot but still have a journey to travel to reach the goal where we have complete gender equality in the society. 

Yeshwant H Chivande, Head of office AIR, Bhopal cluster spoke on women empowerment. Anamika Chakravarthy, Programme Executive extended vote of thanks.  Shivangi Singh, Anoop Kumar, Abhishek Sharma and Moulshree Saxena, anchored the stories and programme.

Dr Rachana Dubey, Director IEC, Madhya Pradesh health department joined the programme and shared that on March 8, National Health Mission, Government of Madhya Pradesh, will organise a Walkathon called Shakti to spread awareness on the comprehensive health of women and upcoming state of art centre at Katju Hospital.