As part of her initiative to empower girls and women through education and vocational training, Vancouver, Canada based model, entrepreneur and social activist Bir Kaur Dhillon is soon going to organise workshops by the end of this July in the rural Punjab to train girls and women there in self-defence.
A laudable effort indeed to be carried out through WOWW Foundation (WOMEN ON Women Welfare) which was founded by Bir and her sister Rose Khaira in 2013. The idea was born out of her conviction that empowerment of women comes with financial independence and gender equality.
Sharing the idea with babushahi.com in Ludhiana recently, Bir dwelt on the need to equip girls and women physically in a manner that enables them to foray into the professional fields considered so far predominantly the male domains. According to her, the kind of training she has envisaged is sure going to broaden the horizon of income generating employment opportunities as well as ensure personal safety for the rural Punjabi girls and women.
“Results show that girls are now doing better at school than boys. More women are getting degrees than men, and are filling most new jobs in every field. They are increasingly and gradually seen marching into domains like police, army, pilots, commandos and of late as professional drivers. But still they are the most underutilised resources,” she observed.
Patiala-born Bir was crowned Mrs. India Globe in 2013 and represented India at the international Mrs. Globe contest held at Shenzhen, China. The same year she became the national director for India for this one of the most popular international pageant for married women. Daughter of the Asian Games gold medallist in Shot put and Olympian Bahadur Singh, she herself has been national level middle-distance and marathon runner before migrating to Canada after marriage.
What made her set up WOWW Foundation? “Women want equality with men in matters of education, employment, inheritance, marriage and politics. Women want equal pay for equal work. Their quest for equality has given birth to the formation of many women’s associations and launching of movements, hence, our Foundation was born in 2013 to provide a platform to women realise their aspirations,” she said.
In fact, she and her sister Rose had informally been helping out women especially by involving them in their clothing design business under the brand name Kaur Couture. But now she has expanded the scope of this help in an organised manner by including education of girls and vocational training for women through WOWW Foundation. “We have already adopted villages Kheri Gujran, Haji Majra and Ablowal in Patiala district besides Surtia and Sukhchain in Sirsa district of Haryana for imparting vocational training,” she disclosed.
Does she aspire to take plunge into the Canadian politics which has of late seen unprecedented presence of Punjab-origin lawmakers in the parliament there? Bir would not answer directly though disclosed hesitatingly after a little prodding that she was not averse to the idea. “It’s premature to talk about this though I won’t deny having been approached by the Liberals. They need women leaders,” she said while spelling out her ultimate aspiration to see self-defence for the girls included in the Punjab schools’curriculum. “Yes, then I may enter politics because I believe in first doing work on the ground and then show it,”she summed up.
Raju William is Associate Editor, babushahi.com
Contact: +91-98551-01121, Email: raju.william@gmail.com