In a bid to celebrate International Women’s Day by empowering women and also to promote silambattam which is the traditional art of Tamil Nadu, today nearly one thousand students performed silambattam at PCET Grounds at the Kaniyur campus of Park Institutions. Students currently studying in the various educational institutions run by Park Group of Institutions put up this performance this morning. We are told that this group has been trained in silambattam by a professional for the last four days.
“A woman was brutally assaulted and gang raped in Delhi in 2012. Since the following year onwards (2013), with the aim of empowering women, Park Group of Institutions has been celebrating Durga, International Women’s Day. Durga is the Goddess who is known to fight evil, thus, we have christened our Women’s Day celebration Durga. This year, we chose to motivate students of our educational institutions to put up a silambattam performance as it can be used as a self defence technique by women too.” Anusha Ravi, CEO, Park Group of Institutions said.
Following the footsteps of her mother, Prema Ravi, the CEO of Park Group of Institutions, Anusha Ravi who also is President of Tirupur District Silambam Association is promoting this traditional sport and we are told that students Park Global School are formally being trained in silambattam. Today, nearly 1,000 students of the Park Group of educational institutions put up a silambattam performance. Park Group of educational institutions is also aiming making an entry into the Limca Book of Records and Guinness Book of Records for silambattam performance.
The students underwent training from silambattam professional trainer, Ravi Chandran who also serves as Secretary of Tirupur District Silambam Association. Speaking to SimpliCity he said “I am currently training about 400 students in silambattam. A section of my students have participated in national and international silambattam tournaments.”
One of his students, Janani, who has represented India in an international silambattam contest said “This demonstration is to convey the message to women that they can use silambattam as a tool of self defence too. I have been practising silambattam for the past two years and it has made me a confident person. Apart from silambattam, I also practise martial arts too.”
As a part of Durga ’17, students who are currently undergoing training in silambattam in various schools in districts like Trichy, Tanjore, Pudukkottai, Tirupur and Arthur also performed as a team using various props.