Maharashtra government to make self-defence as a part of its curriculum
- 25 February, 2019
The Maharashtra government is planning to make training in self-defence a part of the school curriculum across the state. Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawde gave an assurance in response to a petition filed by a woman self-defence coach from Pune.In the petition posted on change.org in the month of September in 2018, Shirmal, a mother of a seven-year-old girl had demanded to make self-defence compulsory for all schools across the state. The petition is said to have received over 1.38 lakh signatures from parents in support.
The petition cited an example of how an 18-year old girl was able to fight off three men who tried to harass her and later handed them over to the police.
‘I believe that every child should be trained to protect himself or herself from an early age. I am asking Maharashtra Government to make self-defence training compulsory for all the students from 5th standard onwards’, Shrimal stated in the petition.
In response, Tawde said, "Taking due cognisance of the petition, I am now considering running the programme and making it a part of the curriculum. We recently decided to introduce an hour-long sports session for school students. And we are planning to introduce self-defence as a part of these sessions."
A senior official from the School Education Department confirmed the state government’s plan in this regard.
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