A delegation of women leaders visited IGNOU, including the School of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS), on April 12, 2010. SOGDS organised a formal interactive programme with the Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Directors of various schools and the professors.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai welcomed the gathering and briefly gave an introduction about IGNOU. The Director of SOGDS, Dr Savita Singh gave an introduction about the School and its activities and introduced the faculty. She stated that SOGDS was in the process of introducing new courses in the area of gender, agriculture and sustainable development in collaboration with School of Agriculture, and Gender and Law in collaboration with the School of Law.

She also informed the delegation that along with post-graduate, diploma and certificate programmes the School was preparing to give training to the executives for 15-20 days. It was also concentrating on research on gender budgeting, gender mainstreaming, women and medicine and women and entrepreneurship.

The Afghan delegates interacted with the Directors of different schools. The Director of the School of Health Science, the Director of the School of Agriculture, the Director of Research, and the Director of Law interacted with the Afghan delegates and cleared their doubts. The delegates also interacted with the Vice-Chancellor who stated that IGNOU was concentrating on inclusive education and inclusive growth. After the interaction the delegates visited EMPC centre. A short film on IGNOU was screened and they interacted with the director of the EMPC.

The Afghan women leaders were in the capital to attend a workshop on ‘Leadership Development’, organised by the Institute of Government Accounts and Finance, Government of India.