When children enter into a formal schooling system at grade one, the in-between challenges they face and what they receive at the end of schooling reveal a lot about our education system. See, I am not here to change anything radically, but I feel children learn from teachers they like—the ones who can bring a smile to their faces and connect with them on a real, human, personal level. And so, as I embarked on my journey to become a teacher, this eventually became a bigger goal for me.
Category: The Unconventional Women of SSMI
“The recurrent episodes of humiliation shattered my self-esteem. To release myself of this misery, I attempted suicide several times” – Jayashree Yadav
The story of Jayashree Yadav, a primary school teacher at Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute of Art and Craft, is an insightful reflection on how psychological abuse damages a person’s idea of self. How it causes one to doubt their abilities? How quickly mental and emotional abuse converts into physical violence when one refuses to sit on the sidelines and starts confronting others? Her story speaks for all those women who have been abused by their partner in some way and those who have dared to break that pattern and walk out of a toxic relationship. Her story is both – heartbreaking and brave.
Stop. Breathe. Reset. | SSMI Re-aligns Strategy, Adopts Digital Self-Reliance for More Impact
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI After hand-wringing for a few years, SSMI is now taking significant steps toward digital transformation by including digital training, and media literacy programs in their employee development plan. While partially, this could be an after-effect of the recent encounter with COVID-19, the cascading effect of which led to an…
Bravehearts of SSMI: Two Women Tell Harrowing Accounts of Domestic Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI | Written by Manvi Pant Gender-based violence is one of the most notable human rights violations globally, prevalent across all socioeconomic strata. However, in India, violence against women and girls is more prominently seen in marginal communities. Despite having policies and interventions in place, we have, time and again,…
“We need a more humane approach to solve social problems” – Vijayluxmi Bhardwaj
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI The social care system in India is very poorly understood. Most of us fail to recognize elements of it that are mentally and emotionally exhausting. Being a social worker means being at the forefront of overwhelmingly large problems that our society is plagued with – unemployment, poverty, access to…
“If you have worked so hard for yourself and come this far, why sit at home?”- Eram Jaffrey
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI “Head straight, chin up! I tell myself every single day as I walk out of my house. It’s been ages, and I haven’t looked back because I foresee a bright future for myself and my family. The year was 2012. I was studying in 12th. One evening, Abbu came…
“At SSMI, each role demands ‘a different me’ to show up!” – Gurdeep Kaur
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI Delhi-based Gurdeep Kaur has worked across an array of disciplines at Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute. From acting as an intermediary between teachers, parents, and school management to coordinating projects for the Gender Resource Center (GRC) and more, she has never shied away from looking beyond the horizon, taking risks,…
Sunita Bhasin on Closing the Gender Gap and Helping Marginalized Women Move Forward
Series: The unconventional Women of SSMI “Nervousness among men in the house when a woman steps out is one of the most common phenomena, I have noticed in all these years,” says the Director of Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute, Sunita Bhasin. For her finding means and ways to fight everyday challenges of the social sector and…
Real Life Heroes - by Manvi 