New Delhi: In bid to empower the girl child between the age of 9-12 years and instil self-confidence in them, FICCI and the Judo Federation of India (JFI) have embarked upon a unique project that will train students in MCD schools in Martial Art (Self Defence).

That project which envisages training of over 50,000 girl students and is sponsored by South Delhi Municipal Corporation was kicked off today on the International Judo Day which is celebrated every year on the birth anniversary of Prof. Jigaro Kano founder of Judo on 28th October.

The technique of self defence will be taught to a group of about 50-60 girl students/lady teachers. The duration of training will be for 7 days and each group will receive intensive training for about 60 minutes per session.

Martial Art training and confidence building classes will be imparted in four zones that is Central, Najafgarh, South and West, in the phased manner. All the schools and students will be divided into 862 groups.

The primary objective is to teach safety awareness and basic self defense techniques used in judo to beginner students. The other objective is to make them strong not only physically but also mental and emotionally . FICCI believes that at the conclusion of the project, students and teachers would able to understand the common behaviour of a predatory person including some of their modus operandi of engaging with the prey. Through the project the girl students would be able to learn to defend against strangers.