A three hour session on Diversity Equity and Inclusion was conducted by renowned activist, Harish Iyer, on 10 May 2023 for the members of the Breaking Barriers Campaign at TIS,VV. Harish Iyer is currently the head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Axis Bank. Harish’s valuable insights and fun references to pop culture kept the students hooked throughout. They appreciated his humour and approachability The main objectives of the workshop were to: Raise awareness about the importance of inclusivity and diversity. Encourage open dialogue and create a safe space for students to share their experiences, thoughts, and ideas. Foster empathy, respect, and understanding among students from different backgrounds. Understand why is equitable distribution important for inclusivity To let students hear real life experiences and take snippets of popular culture to understand and empathize with the problems faced by certain groups of people. Guest speakers shared their personal experiences and expertise related to inclusivity and diversity. The speakers discussed topics such as racial and ethnic diversity, gender inclusivity, LGBTQ+ rights, disability awareness, and cultural sensitivity. The sessions were informative, engaging, and sparked meaningful conversations among the participants. Students were divided into small groups to facilitate deeper discussions on various aspects of inclusivity and diversity. This encouraged students to share their perspectives, challenges, and ideas and focused on developing practical strategies to promote inclusivity within the school community. Students were encouraged to think out of the box and try to break societal stereotypes. Some amazing ideas emerged from the students, proving that this workshop had successfully helped children become more inclusive. Participants had clearly gained a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by individuals from different backgrounds and developed empathy towards their peers. The event provided students with a platform to engage in meaningful discussions, develop empathy, and formulate action plans.
On 11 February 2023, Project Saksham, a student-led initiative of Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, in collaboration with Special Olympics Bharat, held a unified sports event where students with and without intellectual challenges played together. This event was a unique opportunity for people to come together and enjoy sports while promoting inclusivity and breaking down barriers. The event was attended by employees of Macquarie, and commenced with a short presentation by Raman ma’am (Director Marketing and Communications at SOB) along with SOB youth leaders. followed by campaign president, Tishya Chandok, introducing Project Saksham to them. Football and basketball matches were enjoyed thoroughly by all participants. Students of Classes V to XI of our school were invited to play with the athletes. The event was organized by campaign heads, Tishya Chandok and Sanvi Awasthy along with a team of youth leaders from Classes VII and VIII. Vrinda Arora was the compere. At the end, a medal ceremony was held where all participants were awarded by Air Cmde Sharma, Executive Director, SO Bharat and TIS, VV Principal, Dr. Parul Tyagi.A photobooth was prepared by the art team and was much appreciated by the audience. Refreshments were served to all attendees. The event was a huge success and it was a heartwarming sight to see people working together, laughing, and having a great time. The atmosphere was filled with positivity, as everyone cheered each other on and celebrated each other’s achievements. It was a powerful reminder of the importance of inclusivity and reminded us that we can all come together to make a difference in each other’s lives.
To celebrate and spread awareness about our rich cultural heritage, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, is one of the guidelines of the NEP. However, TIS,VV has always held this to be one of the guiding principles of the school. One of the many initiatives taken by TIS in this regard is the formation of SOCH or the Society of Caretakers of Heritage (S.O.C.H) SOCH has been especially active in disseminating awareness about various historical monuments and took the students of Classes V and VI on a heritage walk to Rajon Ki Baoli in Mehrauli on 02 and 07 February 2023. The importance, stories, facts and legends associated with the Lodhi period baoli (stepwell) shared by the well-trained student members of the club from Classes IX and XI, kept the enthusiastic participants engrossed. The information and ideas shared during the fun-filled visit was reinforced by the worksheet that the students were asked to complete afterwards.
IIT Delhi’s Queer Pride Festival, “Vibhinn” was organised from 20-22nd January 2023.As part of their All India Queer Collective Conference – Spaces in the Making, various queer collectives from all over India were invited to share their journeys. Two of our students – Sonakshi Sharma and Arnav Tanwar (both of Class IX) participated in the panel discussion as representatives of our school’s Breaking Barriers Campaign. A discourse on the struggles and the achievements of these collectives of various institutions was conducted. Breaking Barriers was the only school level campaign present among the queer collectives of universities as well as various NGOs and Trusts.
Flawless Flaws is a student-led campaign of Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar which works for the welfare of acid attack survivors. This group, in collaboration with Team Awaam, the theatre team of our school, performed a play to raise awareness about acid attack survivors at District Centre, Janakpuri on 30 December 2022. The eight students who performed were Saira Bhateja, Gunamay Rakhyani, Saiansh Kwatra, Saivansh Kwatra, Vrinda Arora, Tishya Chandok, Prabhtej Singh and Harnoor Kaur. A crowd gathered at the sound of dhol being played by Shriyans. Those who started watching the performance, stayed till the very end which showed how riveting the performance was. One could see how deeply the audience was affected. At the end, the whole team along with Ms Uma Chopra received a huge round of applause and a number of viewers filled out the skin donation forms which will subsequently be deposited with NOTTO.
The power of education can bring about great social change. An interactive and impactful Gender Sensitization Workshop was conducted by Breaking Barriers for DPS Rohini on 19 October 2022 for Classes X and XI , with almost 400 students attending this session in twobatches.The entire team worked together with much enthusiasm to deliver a very informative presentation. The campaign team members discussed various concepts related to the LGBT+community and human rights. The audience was keenly engaged and asked many questions and made note of key points. They expressed interest in having more sessions like these and so that they may initiate Breaking Barriers campaigns in their own campus.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Educational Institutions Breaking Barriers celebrated the 4th anniversary of the repealing of Sec 377 on 6th September 2022 by organizing and conducting an Educators Workshop on “Inclusion Matters” – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Educational Institutions. Close to 40 educators including counsellors , teachers and Vice Principals attended this workshop which was supported by the High Commission of Canada. The session had opening remarks by Mr Colin Shonk, Counsellor and Head of Advocacy Program from the Canadian Embassy, and talks by Atindra, Counselor and Legal Advisor for NAZ Foundation and Kiran, Transgender Model and Actress.As educators are the catalysts of change so the aim of this workshop was to engage educators in discussions on greater inclusion in classrooms via activities, social experiments, class discussions, art, films, and more. Educators brainstormed ideas, asked questions and took these thoughts back to their schools. We hope that they now work on creating inclusive school policies and create comfortable, safe space for their students and staff in their campus. All the educators gave positive feedback and wanted our campaigners to visit their schools to initiate the Breaking Barriers campaign in their schools. That students conducted the workshop and that lgbt+ guests shared their experiences was what impressed them most.All participants received certificates from the Canadian Embassy and from our school.
Disha is an annual event organized by Project Saksham, a student led initative of Tagore International School Vasant Vihar, which aims to sensitize society especially the youth. In June 2022, over the course of three days, young people who are intellectually challenged, took part in various competitions organized by the volunteers of Project Saksham. These events boost the confidence of such youngsters and give them an opportunity to display their talents. Their art work, music, photography skills, food art and gardening efforts were all much appreciated by the judges and audience. Certificates of participation and appreciations were given to the participants. We received over 200 entries and all were unique in their own way. The judges commented that it was a tough competition but for them everyone went home a winner. The volunteers (Tishya Chandok, Gurmaan Singh,Vrinda Arora, Saanvi Awasthy,Viniti Sabharwal and Lavanika Nanda and others ) were delighted to see the smiles of their intellectually challenged friends. Disha 5.0 was indeed a special event which once again highlighted the service mindset and social outreach of TIS,VV.
Students of the school Eco Club project TerraTime, visited Samarpan School, in Vasant Kunj on 15th July 2022 to conduct a workshop on the management of plastic. TerraTime is an initiative to collect non-recyclable plastic and create eco-bricks out of them, which is then used to make furniture, such as tables and stools. Our students sensitized Samarpan School students from grades 4 to 6 about the ill effects of plastic and demonstrated how to make eco-bricks. The children from Samarpan were excited when each group made their own eco-bricks! They were enthused by the prospect of making their own eco-brick stools , chairs and other creative innovations at their own homes and in their school. An eco brick stool made by us was also presented to them.
Another impactful Gender Sensitization Workshop was conducted by Breaking Barriers campaigners for Soami Nagar Model School students of grades 9 to 12 on 16th July 2022. Our enthusiastic students are eager to create similar resource groups in other educational institutions.The workshop was conducted in collaboration with the High Commission of Canada , in two batches of one hour each, with more than a hundred students benefiting from this workshop. The workshop started with a short talk and video by the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada, Ms Amanda Strohan highlighting why such workshops are extremely important at youth level.Breaking Barriers is a youth level social initiative based on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no. 4, Gender Equality. The focus of this sensitization workshop was: to reduce bullying and discrimination that happens at educational level. to spread awareness on human rights, equal opportunities and lgbt rights to raise empathetic humans who respect diversity in all forms and create a inclusive and just world for all to open dialogue and foster open mindedness right from a young age to offer a platform that allows conversations that were long treated as stereotypes
