Annual Report of Equal Opportunity Cell Seminar on ‘Stars Amongst Differently Abled’
4th January 2014
On 4th January 2013 on the auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of the braille script for the visually challenged, ILS Law college inaugurated the equal opportunity / enabling unit for students with disability with a view to promote inclusion of students with disability in the mainstream. The main objective of the cell is to disseminate knowledge about laws and rights of Persons with Disability. Dr. Sanjay Jain is the Faculty Co-ordinator and Ms. Apoorva Misra (V B.S.L. LL.B.) was appointed the student co-ordinator of the Cell for the Academic Year 2013-14. This year too we have nominated two students Sagar Shetty and Rahul Mankar (III B.S.L. LL.B.) for the National Convention for Youth with Disabilities 2014, New Delhi. The main highlight of this year’s activities of the cell was the event ‘Stars Amongst Differently Abled’. Following is the brief report of the same.
On the occasion of 206th Birth Anniversary of Louis Braille conceived an innovative idea of organizing an event ‘Stars Amongst Differently-Abled’. The college invited four outstanding visually challenged achievers namely, Dr. Mahesh Devkar, Head of the Department of Pali, University of Pune, Ms. Urvi Jangam, Teacher and Ph.D. Scholar in German, University of Mumbai, Ms. Neha Pawaskar, a mountaineer and adventure sports woman and last but not the least Ms. Manashri Soman, an upcoming singer and a Bollywood actor. All the four speakers lively interacted with the audience consisting of Faculty, ILS Law College, Able-bodied and visually impaired students across Pune city. Dr. Devkar emphasized on encouragement and support from the administration, Ms. Neha Pawaskar in her unique style narrated her experiences of climbing the Himalaya, she is the first visually challenged woman to have climbed more than 17000 feet. She said that being differently abled woman, life is a major challenge and emphasized on rehabilitation of persons with disabilities by promoting adventure sports among them. Ms. Urvi Jangam said that there are any no. of opportunities for visually challenged to engage in the profession as Translators by learning foreign languages like German. Ms. Manashri Soman, who has recently acted in the movie ‘Rajjo’ being only the first visually challenged woman thanked Mr. Vishwas Patil, the Director of the movie, and shared her experiences on the set.
The programme began with Saraswati Vandana and Garlanding of the photograph of Louis Braille by our Principal Ms. Vaijayanti Joshi. The same was followed by recital of poem by Mr. Ajay Adhiya (Adv.), Faculty, ILS Law College. Ms. Manashri Soman sang two melodious classical songs. In order to raise sensitization, a group of students performed a brilliant stage play the play was written by Sanket (student, Ist LL.B.) and directed by Adesh (student, Ist LL.B.). On this occasion, one of the students, Rahul Bhalerao (Vth B.S.L. LL.B.) also enlightened the audience about the life and work of Louis Braille.
Principal Ms. Vaijayanti Joshi congratulated Dr. Sanjay Jain, Faculty Co-ordinator, Equal Opprotunity cum Enabling Cell, Prof. D.P. Kendre, Co-ordinator, Student Welfare Department, all the other faculty mambers, the peer team of student volunteers of the Seminar particularly Ms. Apoorva Misra (Vth B.S.L. LL.B.) and Ms. Tapasya Parihar (IVth B.S.L. LL.B.) and all the student participants coming across the Pune to make this programme a grand success.
The college thanked the sponsors of the event for financial assistance, University of Pune and www.intellectualpost.com and Dr. Maneesh Machave.