New Delhi: Priyanka Chopra, who came to India after almost three years, visited Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on Monday for a field visit to see the work done by UNICEF and its partners to end violence and discrimination against girls in the state.
During her visit, Priyanka visited a school in Aurangabad Village and spoke with Anganwadi workers, and school kids. She also gave a glimpse of the UNICEF office in Lucknow. She also shared videos where she can be seen interacting with children at school, making them do different activities, and visiting an Anganwadi center to see that proper diet and nutrition are imparted to children according to their age, height and weight.
Meanwhile, posters against Priyanka's visit were put up in the Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow. The posters had Priyanka's photo with a red cross and ‘You are not welcome in the city of Nawabs’ was written on them. Police is investigating the matter. It is not clear yet which group is behind these posters.
Priyanka took to Instagram and shared videos of her field trip. She wrote, “Today I saw how Technology and innovation can be critical in addressing the biggest challenges. In India, technology is at the forefront of change and I saw that first hand. Take for example these initiatives supported by @unicefindia.
1. The Poshan (Health) tracker, an app that helps keep track of key health and nutrition information on children and mothers at the click of a button for 1,80,000 ‘Anganwadi Centres’ in the state.
2. The Banking Correspondent Sakhi, which provides innovative banking services to people living in rural and remote areas by the use of mobile ATM machines. Women are employed to help provide cash on the spot when there are no banks nearby. It gives these “Sakhi’s” the ability to buy just make a real income but have a real standing in their communities.
It was so inspiring to see this technology being embraced irrespective of their age or education, and is delivering change at scale.
@unicef”
In another video, she can be seen visiting a school in Aurangabad Village and interacting with children and teachers. She wrote, “As we’ve always said, education changes lives. It’s a fact! And when that includes breaking gender norms and tradition, it can redefine the thinking of a new generation. I saw this first hand during a visit to a school in Aurangabad Village, with a unique programmme that aims to curb child labour and promote gender equality in everyday life, allowing these children to have equal opportunities to earning a decent livelihood in adulthood
At each of the centres, children are being introduced to life skills, including 60 different basic technologies in an innovative learning model - everything from cooking for boys to solar energy for girls - in order to break down gender norms. The students were so engaged in these learnings and proud to be passing them onto parents, siblings, family and friends .
During my interactions with the Meena Manch (platform for children in schools to discuss and voice their views), the young members performed a powerful skit on ending violence. In addition to teaching them to stand up and speak up in the face of violence, and more importantly ensuring the boys understand their responsibilities in curbing violence and breaking the cycle.
I was hugely impressed. We need to think about how we can look at tools like this for all children across the country…. Because change needs to begins at childhood.”
Priyanka is reportedly on a two-day visit to Lucknow. Prior to this, PeeCee promoted her haircare brand Anomaly in Mumbai.