Pathway - Social Life Wellness Programme

The Department  of Minority Welfare under Kerala Government had conducted a three day "Pathway - Social Life Wellness Programme" at GCTE Trivandrum on January 17th , 18th and 19th, 2023. Our college was selected among 18 other prestiges institutions, to host the programme. On the first day, after the rendition of the morning prayer, Dr. Isaac Paul, Assistant Professor of GCTE delivered the welcome address. The presidential address was given by the principal, Dr. VK Santhosh Kumar. Shri G. Madhavadas, Ward Counciller of Thycaud officially inaugurated the programme. Since Dr. Abdul Ayoob, the principal of CCMY, Trivandrum, who was supposed to be the chief orator in the event, could not make it to the college due to some unforeseen situation, Mr. Rafeeq adorned his place.Dr. Jayakrishna K, staff secretary and Assistant Professor in Hindi Education, GCTE, pronounced the felicitation , following which Ms. Asha Krishnan, Programme co-ordinator and Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology, GCTE rendered the vote of thanks.

The first session on Day 1 was on 'Marriage for Social Wellness' dealt with by Dr. Joju John, faculty in Mar Theophilus B.Ed training college, life skill trainer and guide. Among other things, he stressed the need for right brain development and also on  effective  communication among partners. He drew upon Abraham Maslow's Theory of Need to substantiate his views. However, some of his ideas like the concept of job after marriage and not before it particularly for women, having more number of children to facilitate each of their life skill development and being  reluctant to abort children even though both the partners are unwilling to accept a child at that specific point of time , etc were not in consensus with our convictions and attitude. These hackneyed perceptions, were, to a limited extend, deconstructed in the afternoon session by the resource person who gave a talk on 'Effective Communication skills for couples and healthy online communications'. Being a counselor who handled myriads of cases related to fissures in and breach of marital knots, he provided us instances drawn from real life to emphasise the need for love, understanding and trust between spouses and the maxim of "Us" instead of "I" or "You".The sessions of day 1 ended with reflection on the same by Vishnu, second year M.Ed trainee of GCTE.

The second day of the programme began with a session on 'Effective Management of In law relationships and conflict resolution techniques'. The session was handled by Dr. Bindu Theresa Philip. Through her interactive session, she put spotlight on Caring, Sharing and Bearing in relationships. Ample space was given to the student teachers to voice their view on marital conflicts and their resolutions. Group discussion was initiated for the same involving both teachers and student teachers. But I think her contribution to the stated topic of the talk was little. The fourth session on 'Infant and Adolescent Parenting skills, sex education and pregnancy' was delivered by Dr. Deepa SR, Guest faculty in Minority Welfare Department and practising clinical psychologist. Unlike the first three sessions which were a conglomeration of hitherto known topics as well as tug of war between progressive and patriarchal views, the third session, though not very interactive, was highly informative and useful to practical life scenario. Sex education, in particular, was something considered derogatory  even during our school days, hence the pertinence of the topic. The resource person gave us new insights into male and female reproductive organs, the stages in sexual intercourse and means to engage in safe physical relations. She went on to disseminate the roles and responsibilities of parents to their children which are essential for the physical,  mental, intellectual,  emotional and social development of the latter.

The third day of the programme commenced with a prayer song by Ms. Reshma Rajesh. The fifth session on 'Legal and Religious Aspects of Marriage' was dealt with by Advocate Thomas, practising barrister in Vanchiyoor district court and school counselor. He explained the major provisions in Hindu Marriage Act, Christian Marriage Act, Muslim Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act. He also informed us about laws associated with adoption and maintenance. The session was informative and interactive. Due to time constraints, the speaker could not deal will the religious aspects of marriage. The sixth and final session on 'Family Budgeting' was handled by Dr. Anwar who talked about fixed expense, variable expense and savings. He collected our views on different  topics like reasons and consequences of  dowry,  child abuse  and how to prevent the same and the reasons for increasing divorce rate in our state and the means to tackle the same. The session ended with  reflection from the part of Ms. Anju and Ms. Asha Krishnan.

 Personally,  I felt that the three day programme did little to convince the audience on Social Life Wellness. Even when the programme originally intended for students belonging to minority communities was attended by all of us in lieu of the gamut of the subject under discussion,   we seldom received new ideas on the same. We could not relate the talks on family and marriage anywhere even near to the welfare or upliftment of minorities in our society, currently being threatened by Hindutva political ideology propagated by the Central Government and state-sponsered 'bulldozing' politics. Except perhaps for the sex education talk, every other session witnessed merely the conflict of progressive ideas upheld by the present generation learners and the vestiges of a patriarchal set-up still running deep in the veins of the resource personnel, without any attempt by each party to tolerate the views of the other. I sincerely hope that the future programmes of the State Government will be beneficial for us as potential teachers going to deal with much more progressively minded children.