Self Defence Training for Adolescent Girls

Prajnya tied up with Centre for Women's Development and Research's Snehidhi group for a self defence workshop, conducted by KravMaga Tamil Nadu. Snehidhi is a group for promoting leadership among adolescent girls.

The session was originally supposed to be held on the 10th of December, but had to be rescheduled and was preponed to the 8th. Around 40 students participated in the programme, and learned how to kick, punch and escape from an assaulter.



For the girls, this was an opportunity to test their strength and learn a few tricks. Some of them have expressed interest in learning KravMaga, and CWDR and KravMaga Tamil Nadu have decided to explore this opportunity.

Be Smart. Be Safe. Self Defence on Day 10

How important is self defence to women's safety? This is a contentious question - as it immediately brings up arguments of victim blaming in a case of assault. At Prajnya, we don't endorse the view that women are somehow responsible for the violence they face by not learning self defence. At the same time, we acknowledge that knowing a little bit about their own strength, women can feel more confident at home, at work, and while occupying public space.



For the third time during a Prajnya 16 Days Campaign, we tied up with KravMaga Tamil Nadu, and Mr S Sreeram, for free, 2 hour self defence sessions for women and girls. This year, around 15 women participated in the workshop, and learned how to get away from a violent situation quickly. Mr Sreeram have an overview of how everyday things can be used as projectile weapons and shields, giving women time to run and get help. He also taught the class how they can break some common hand holds, and what parts of the assaulter's body they should aim for to cause maximum pain, thereby giving them time to get away from the spot. 

Join the self-defense workshop on Dec 9

Prajnya, in association with the Chennai chapter of International Krav Maga Federation (India), will be conducting a personal safety workshop for women on December 9. The workshop will be conducted by S.SreeRam, a KravMaga self-defence instructor at Chennai, South India. To learn more about attending the workshop: http://www.prajnya.in/16d12selfdefence.htm

SreeRam teaches Civilians, Chennai City Police and Security. He started W.A.H.R (Women against harassment & Rape) an NGO devoted to increase personal safety awareness amongst women and to equip them to handle sexual harassment at public and work places. SreeRam conducts KravMaga personal safety and self-defense workshops at corporates, especially IT/BPO companies where many women work late. He has also conducted workshops, for rural women. To find out more, log on to www.kravmagaindia.in

We talked to SreeRam to get his thoughts on Krav Maga, heroes in movies and more... 

Do heroes only exist in tamil movies or can ordinary people learn to self-defend themselves

Actually 'Heroism" as a concept is very confusing for the common man. It makes them practice violence based on some out-dated values and self-righteous ego. Like how Romance is unrealistically portrayed in main-stream cinema, so is Violence. :)

I often remind my students that "Violence is a very stupid way of addressing an issue." Then why should one learn KravMaga - which is rated as one of the most violent combat system (the traditional martial artists see KravMaga as "dirty fighting') ?!The GOOD should learn to assert themselves; otherwise they have to be resigned to be dominated by the BAD.

That's why Imi Lichtenfeld, the father of KravMaga combat system gave the baseline "So that the good can do their work"

Ordinary people can learn self-defense. They have a right to protect themselves, their assets and their dependents.I will teach them once I am sure they are GOOD! ;) 
How fit do you have to be to learn Krav Maga?

Fitness is NOT a pre-requisite to learn to defend the self.. If one is fit, it makes the job of self-defense easier, that's all. In fact I would go further and state, "The unfit people have to be taught self-defense on priority; since they are the soft targets for criminals."

What are the tangible and psychological benefits of learning self-defense?

Well, a few years back i was touching 90 kg and my hip size was 42. After I took up KravMaga, I have been consistently been around 67kg and my hip size is a tolerable 34 inches. And I don't go to gym and definitely will not win any award for being disciplined! :P

Fitness is an integral part of KravMaga training, since we focus on improving 4 aspects -

• CARDIO-VASCULAR EFFECIENCY - Stamina in common parlance
• FLEXIBILITY - achieved by simple stretching exercise
• POWER - which is basically 'mass in motion' - not to be confused with plain Strength

and the most important fitness attribute- MENTAL FITNESS i.e the ability to handle stress; which has 2 dimension -
Our own Stress due to Frustration, Sense of inability and Fatigue
and the Stress created by others - Fear, Anger, Competitive ego