Sustainable Nitte

GENDER EQUALITY

INTODUCTION                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, give prominence to efforts to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Gender equality in India should focus on equal and easy access to all available resources and opportunities irrespective of gender, including economic participation and decision-making and valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs. Nitte (DU) undoubtedly is a choice destination for women and girls for education and employment. It has a work culture that motivates and supports its staff and gives great importance to gender equality. Women are provided equal status with men in all aspects of the profession. Women at Nitte (DU) are empowered and inspired to bring out their best at their workplace as well as at their homes and in their contribution to society. Nitte (DU) provides all necessary support to working women providing facilities like concessions for medical expenses for her family, and crèche for infants and kindergarten children. Through a diverse curriculum, appropriate policies, and mentorship programs, Nitte (DU) is dedicated to making the work and study environment conducive for women.

With the various policies and guidelines, Nitte (DU) is committed to gender equity, non-discrimination, and women empowerment. With the University’s’ Focus on diversity during recruitment and fair compensation and promotion procedures, there are women holding administrative and leadership posts in the university.

Committees such as the Women’s Cell, Prevention of Sexual Harassment Cell, Equal Opportunities Cell, and Gender Sensitization Cell are present at both the Institutional and University level that identify, counsel, and address any grievances in regard to women staff and students.

With the University’s’ Focus on diversity during recruitment and fair compensation and promotion procedures, there are women holding administrative and leadership posts in the university.

Women researchers were recognized and awarded for their achievements in 2022.

The Nitte (DU) Team members comprising Dr.Roopa B. Hegde, and other faculty from the Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering won first place with a cash award of Rs. 50,000/- for presenting a prototype on ‘Design and Development of Low-cost Patient Monitoring System for Health Centre/Home ICU’ at the National level ‘Nitte Healthcare Innovation Hackathon 2022 held between 8th and 10th April 2022 at Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), Nitte (DU). Team Members comprising Dr. Rajeshwary A., Professor, and Dr.Kalam, Resident, in the Department of ENT, KSHEMA, Deralakatte, and Dr. Roopa B. Hegde, Department of ECE won the second runnerup prize - a cash amount of Rs. 15,000/- for presenting a prototype on ‘Thermography, Chemiluminescence, and Toluidine blue staining: A combined approach in detecting Oral Premalignant lesions and Cancers’.

International Women’s Day 2022 was celebrated on 09th March 2022 by the Women’s Forum of various institutions of Nitte University.

Guest lecture on “Invest in Your Work-Life Balance: A Path towards Happiness” by Senior Prof (Dr.) Kundabala M organized by Women’s Forum, ABSMIDS. A CDE Program was conducted by the Dept. of Oral Implantology and Dept. of Prosthodontics in association with Geistlich Biomaterials on Women’s Day – 8th March 2022. Dr Namratha Umesh was the Resource person and she conducted a Lecture on “Regeneration in Implant Dentistry and a Hands-on course on manipulation and use of Biomaterials in various clinical situations using models.

NMAMIT, Nitte in association with Rotary Club Nitte and IEEE Women in Engineering, under the theme of ‘Break the Bias’

A frontier lecture and screening program were held at Patanjali Yoga Hall, NITTE Institute of Physiotherapy. Dr. Neetha Poonja delivered a 30-minute talk on Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) in females with screening for 140 female students.

The interns of the Community Medicine department conducted health education for the inmates of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward of Justice K S Hegde Charitable Hospital. Charts were used as an aid in delivering the talk to the patients. They spoke about the rights of women, equal employment opportunities, access to basic healthcare and education, domestic abuse, and the various government programs catering specifically to women and the available helpline numbers.

1. Online webinar - “An Update on Gender Sensitization & Prevention of Sexual Harassment” on 17th March 2022. TOPICS COVERED: “Gender Sensitization: Navigating the Pressures of Gender Conformity & Other Gender Stereotypes” by Ar. Arul Paul and “Ignorance is not bliss; Know the POSH Act 2013” by Ms. Divya Sandeep, Director of Happy Feet Learning Centre, Mangalore, and a practicing HR Consultant with CCI Legal, Bangalore.





2. Online Webinar on “Nutrition in Health and Fitness for Women” was held on 21st February 2022 which included Guest Lectures by Dr. Sapna Sarkar [PG Diploma- Dietetics & Therapeutic Nutrition, Bengaluru]- “Nutritional Overview & Preventive Measures for Women’s Optimal Health”, Dr. Swathi D Shetty [MDS, OMFS, Bengaluru]- “4 Pillars for Healthy Lifestyle” and Dr. Swathi Pai [MDS, Conservative Dentist & Endodontist, Manipal]- “Love the ‘U’ in YOU-Highlights of my fitness journey”. There were a total of 143 registrations.
3. Guest Lecture on ‘Mental Health & Wellbeing for Better Quality of Life in Health Professionals’ for Interns on 21st October 2022 by Dr. Rameela Shekhar, Mental Health Professional & Trainer, Manashanthi Counselling, Research & Training Centre, Mangaluru was the Guest Speaker. She spoke on various aspects of mental health & its applications for a better quality of life.

NMAMIT in association with WIE IEEE MSS and IEEE NMAMIT Student chapter conducted an event “HackerEarth Hub- NMAMIT SHECODES” for female students of all branches on International Women’s Day. A total of 41 students participated in the event. A Health Camp for Women on the Campus was organized on 8th March 2022 between 10 am and 1 pm. A team of well-qualified and highly experienced doctors from Nitte Gajria Hospital were invited to perform Health checkups. The health camp included Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Gynaecology, and General Medicine with the facility of a general check-up, random glucose test, and ECG free of cost. More than 125 women (Staff and female students) utilized the facility for free check-ups.

The Women’s Cell and Youth Red Cross Wing of Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences organized a Guest talk on “Women’s Health: Facts about Fat” on 8th March 2022 at the NUINS Learning Centre.

The NSS Unit of Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences celebrated the ‘National Girl Child Day’ on 24th January 2022. The resource person Prof.(Dr) Shailaja Moodithaya, Dept. of Physiology, KS Hegde Medical Academy and Chairperson, Gender Sensitization Cell, Nitte (DU) explained the importance of the day and opportunities for the girl child. Prof. (Dr) Fatima D’Silva, Principal, NUINS, motivated the students to be achievers.

On the occasion of The International Day of Girl Child, the NSS unit of NUCSER conducted a program to spread awareness on ‘Menstrual Hygiene’ with a talk by Ms. Bhavya Hegde who is on a mission to spread awareness on the use of environment-friendly products like menstrual cups and reusable sanitary pads in & around Mangalore. The concept of Sanitary Waste Management has been a topic of active debate where the use of synthetic material becomes a hazard to the environment as well as women’s health. The program was organized for the girl students of NUCSER.

The Youth Red Cross Unit of Nitte Institute of Communication organized a talk on Sustainable Menstruation on the occasion of Menstrual Hygiene Day, 28th May 2022. Ms Anuradha Shetty, Head of the Department of Rural Development at the School of Social Work Roshni Nilaya (Autonomous), Mangalore, was the resource person. She spoke at length on sustainable menstruation and the use of menstrual cups in place of sanitary napkins. While being a sustainable and eco-friendly option, this method also is costeffective, she said.

An interactive session with alumni was held on Monday, 27th June 2022 at the college premises. Alumni Spoorthi Thej, Content Producer for IVM Podcasts and Content Creator for Spoorthi Speaks spoke to students about her journey to inspire the students.

World Breastfeeding Week observed by The Department of Paediatrics celebrated World Breastfeeding Week 2022 from 1st to 7th August 2022 at K S Hegde Charitable Hospital. The theme was “Step Up For Breastfeeding Educate and Support”. The undergraduates and postgraduates actively participated in various activities which included street plays and poster competitions.

• A wearable pregnancy monitoring apparatus to collect physiological parameters – PATENT PUBLISHED by Dr. Shankar BB of NMAMIT
• The project titled “Gender-Inclusive Outdoor Physical Activity for Women in Urban Public Spaces” by Ar. Nagabhoina Tejendra, Assistant Professor with a research grant of INR 1,50,000 from Nitte(DU).

• Dr. Sayeegeetha, Assistant Professor, I/c Head Humanities has been selected for the Dr. Herman Gundert Endowment Award for her work Tulu Cognate Dictionary which will be conferred at the 48th All India Conference of Dravidian Linguistics held at Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore in February 2022.
• Prof. Dr. Mithra N Hegde Has been duly admitted as a member of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on 28- 02-2022.
• Ms. Pallavi Shet, Intern, ABSMIDS, has won the Prestigious MERIT AWARD 2020-21 from the International College of Dentists, Section VI, India for bagging the first position in the final year BDS Examination during the Current Year (2020-21). The Award was presented at the Annual Convocation and Award Function of the International College of Dentists held on 27th February 2022 in New Delhi
• Dr. A. Veena Shetty, Professor, Department of Microbiology, K. S. Hegde Medical Academy has been selected and received the honor for contributing immensely to the research in science as an accomplished researcher and scientist for the year 2022 by Alva’s Education Foundation, on the occasion of International Women’s Day held on 18th March 2022 at Moodubidri.
• Dr. Lekha Pandit, Professor of Neurology was appointed to the position of Secretary of the Executive Committee of Pan-Asian Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.
• Ms. Manchi Vathsalya, Ph.D. Scholar at NUCSReM (Stem Cell Lab), K. S. Hegde Medical Academy was selected for an International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Travel Grant Award including complimentary registration for the ISSCR-2022 annual scientific meeting held in San Francisco, CA, USA from 15-18 June 2022.
• Dr. Kumuda Rao won second place for the paper titled “Correlation between morphometric parameters of maxillary Sinus and Nasal Aperture as an aid to forensic identification using Cone Beam CT” at the 3rd World International Dental Sciences and Oral Health Conference and Cynomedicx Forensic Symposium, 24th and 25th June 2022.
• Dr. Nireeksha Shetty won the best scientific paper presentation titled ‘Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism and LL-37 peptide dental caries’ faculty category at the international online conference on the Dental Genetics & Clinical Diagnostics Chapter Accredited by the American Council of Training and Development, New Jersey U.S.A on July 11th, 2022, a course organized by Indian Academy for Clinical and Dental Genetics.
• Dr. Kumuda Rao is the Winner of the Award in the category of ‘Best Researcher of the Year 2022’ in the CynoDent Star Dentist Awards 2022-Asia’s Biggest Dental Award Shows which was conducted by CynoDent International held on 25th June 2022 at Fairfield by Marriott Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
• Dr. Prajna Prabhakar Nayak, Assistant Professor received the certificate and cash award instituted in the name of Late Prof. Amrit Tewari (by her alumni) for Faculty Innovation Category presentations at the 3rd International Congress of SAAPD at the Vivanta, Panaji, Goa on 26th to 28th August 2022.
• Prof. Dr. Indrani Karunasagar recipient of the honorary fellowship by KSTA, DST, GoK was invited as a distinguished speaker to deliver a talk on the topic ‘Marine Biotechnology & its application’ in a one-week online workshop on ‘Skill Vignan on Biotechnology organized in collaboration with Karnataka Innovation & Technology Society (KITS) with funding support by DBT on 18th August 2022.
• Miss Akshitha Hegde, Research Assistant, JKSHIM, Nitte wrote maximum Manku Thimmanna Kagga in Kannada verses in the Mirror writing. Her name was included in the International Book of Records in July 2022.
• Ms. Nikitha Shetty, Research Associate at Nitte-Kobayashi Center of Excellence, JKSHIM, Nitte(DU) has been awarded for her achievements on the fastest mirror writing of the Indian Constitution Preamble in Tulu language within a duration of 8min 01 Second 55 Millisecond that is recognized by the India Book of Records and International Book of Records.
• Dr. Marina Koland NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mangaluru was SDG 5 2022 awarded the Best Poster Award for a poster presentation titled “Duel Effect of Chicken Feather Keratin and Bacitracin Zinc in the Rapid and Effecting Healing of Dermal Wounds from a Novel Dressing” at the Manipal Pharmaceutics Conference held at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences from 22nd to 24th September 2022.
• Mrs Ashwini M, Assistant Professor NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences was awarded a Ph.D in Pharmaceutics for her thesis “Design and Evaluation of Nano-Lipid Carrier (NLC) Loaded Transdermal Patches of Selected Oral Antidiabetic Drug for the Treatment of Gestational Diabetes” from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore. She has also been selected as the south zonal topper of Disso Research Presentation India, Scientific Research Oral Presentation competition for Young Pharmaceutical Researchers across Academia and Industry.
• Dr. Suchetha Kumari N, Professor, Department of Biochemistry was awarded the Best Oral Presentation (Faculty Category) for her paper “Effect of Dietary Fatty Acid on Disease” in BMSeCON 2022, organized by the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology & Centre for Biomedical Research, AVMCH, Puducherry, India held from 17th to 19th November 2022.
• Dr. Shilpa S Shetty, Assistant Professor, Central Research Lab was awarded the Best Oral Presentation (Faculty Category) for her paper “Fatty acid transport protein (FATP) profiling in women with and without breast cancer” in BMSeCON 2022, organized by the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology & Centre for Biomedical Research, AVMCH, Puducherry, India held from 17th to 19th November 2022.
• Dr. Reshma Amin ABSMIDS from the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology secured 2nd place in the paper presentation (virtual), titled Osteosarcoma of Maxilla – A Case of Diverse Histomorphology” at the International Conference on Craniofacial Pathology and Biology organised by Saveetha Dental College, Chennai on 7th to 8th October 2022.
• Dr. Nireeksha Shetty ABSMIDS from the Department of Conservative and Endodontics was awarded first place in the delegate category for the paper titled ‘Salivary vitamin D and vitamin D receptor Gene polymorphism in dental caries’ at the 37th IACDE National Conference held on 17th to 20th November 2022 at Bhopal (MP)
• Dr. Vani Vasudevan, Professor of the CSE Department, and Dr. Mohan S G, Professor and Head of the ISE Department won the best paper award at Mysurucon 2022 held on 17th October 2022 for the research article ‘Streaming and Rendering of 3D Dynamic Scene in a Network Virtual Environment by Predictive modeling’.
• Dr. Marina Koland, Professor & Head, Dept. of Pharmaceutics got an Indian patent for the invention ‘Taste-masked fast dissolving oral films of Fenugreek seed’ on 23rd December 2022.
• Best Microbiology Scientists in India: The 2nd edition of Research.com ranking of the best researchers in the field of Microbiology was created using data derived from various data sources including OpenAlex and CrossRef. The bibliometric data for evaluating the citation-based metrics were acquired on 21-12-2022. Position in the ranking is based on a scientist’s D-index (Discipline H-index), which includes exclusively publications and citation values for an examined discipline.

This event was organized by the gender sensitization cell of Nitte (DU) on 21st April 2022. The lecture brought about awareness in the young minds of students of various institutes of the university about the struggles of the LGBTQ community. The presentation was carried forward by Dr. Akkai Padmashali a founder, and social and political activist, and “Na Nayaki”, a State convener. Dr. Akkai is a male-to-female transwoman and a social activist and prefers to be addressed as she/her. Her journey has been instrumental in changing many lives of the members of this community.This event brought about a social awakening and targeted the importance of gender inclusivity among the young as well as the elderly gathered there. The lecture opened our minds and taught us about how we need to stray away from the patriarchal notions of the social order and all the more be in touch with the true essence of human life and value.