By Mohammed Shafeeq

Peddapalli, Dec 3 (IANS): At a time when the gruesome gang-rape and murder of woman veterinarian in Hyderabad has shocked the entire nation, Telangana's Peddapalli district is taking the initiative of training girl students of government-run schools in self-defence.

Girl students of classes 6 to 10, will be trained in Kalaripayattu from December 6. As many as 16,000 girls across the state, will undergo the 22-day-long training.

Thirty Kalaripayattu trainers from Kerala will train the girls in the ancient marshal art that originated from the state.

Peddapalli, which recently won the award for the cleanest district in the country, will be spending Rs 25 lakh on this programme.

"Even before the shocking incident that happened recently, we had started working on teaching self-defence to government school girls," District Collector A. Devasena told IANS.

"We are not teaching them foreign self-defence like karate. We are teaching them our own desi martial art of Kalaripayattu, which is an ancient martial art from Kerala," she said.

The district administration has already signed an agreement with a group known for its expertise in the martial art.

The official pointed out that Meenkashi Amma, a practitioner and teacher of Kalaripayattu, was conferred Padma Shri in 2017 for her contribution to promotion of the martial art.

"The way she does kalaripayattu leaves young girls and even boys shamed. When an 80-year-old woman can do it, why not our young women do it?" Devasena said.