SiliconTech organized two programs on its campus to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023. The Social Awareness and Gender Equality for Women (SAGE-W) Cell at SiliconTech in association with the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) organized the IWD celebrations on 25 March 2023. We also collaborated with the Google Developers Community and Women Techmakers Community to organize another event for IWD 2023 celebrations on 26 March 2023.
International Women’s Day is celebrated every year to emphasize the women’s rights movement and celebrate the achievements of women in different spheres of life. The campaign theme for IWD 2023 was ‘#Embrace Equity’.
On 25 March 2023 Ms. Dikhya Tiwari, Senior Associate Editor, My City Links and Mr. Satyabrat Sanu Ratho, Director, PNV Group & Co-Founder, Bocca Café joined us as the guest speakers to share their experiences and insights on this year’s campaign theme.
Ms. Tiwari spoke about the importance of breaking stereotypes and facing one’s fears to achieve success. She explained that giving up on dreams and goals because they have never been done earlier isn’t helpful. She cited examples from her personal life to depict how she worked hard and went out of the box to build her personality. She further explained the difference between equality and equity to emphasize how equity leads to equality.
Mr. Ratho expressed his views about the significance of equality in the professional world by giving real-life examples. He spoke about how stereotypes still exist and how one could overcome them. He also spoke about the importance of identifying the differences between equality and equity in professional as well as personal life.
Dr. Pratap Ranjan Mohanty, Senior Assistant Professor, EEE recited a poem titled ‘Nari Shakti’ and a mono act was performed by Puja Kumari, a student member of the theatre club. Sonam Acharya (ECE, 2023) was felicitated as the Woman Achiever of the year for her extraordinary achievements in academic and extra-curricular activities.
On 26 March 2023 invited experts from Google’s Women Techmakers Community shared their success stories to inspire women for achieving greater milestones in their lives. Rhiti Chatterjee Bose, Founder Artisana & Author, Tanistha Panda, stand-up comedian & content creator, Adyasha Mohanty, Software Development Engineer at HackerRank, Arpita Priyadarshini Sahoo, Angular Developer at VIS Network and Sharmistha Panda, Google Developers Expert shared their opinions and experiences about the struggles in a woman’s life and how she can overcome them.
The event also had many interesting sessions like an ice-breaking session, a panel discussion, a story-sharing session titled ‘SheSparks’, and a fun game called Scavenger Hunt.
Both these events received an overwhelmingly positive response from the audience.
