Include women in the NS experience: focus group

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/include-women-ns-experience-say-many-students

Women should be allowed to take up National Service stints, said students at a focus group discussion organised by the Committee to Strengthen National Service (CSNS).

The session, held at Victoria Junior College yesterday, saw about half of the 72 students present raise their hands in the affirmative when asked if women should serve NS.

Extending NS to girls would also remove the social stigma that they are physically inferior to men and unsuited for “unfeminine” NS roles, he added.

The session yesterday was the first to be held with pre-enlistees.

Previous sessions were held with full-time NSmen and older members of the public.

CSNS steering committee member Suresh Divyanathan, who hosted the session, said the aim was to understand the attitudes of pre-enlistees towards NS, and engage their female peers on the importance of NS.

Compared to NSmen, who are concerned with existing problems and solutions, Mr Suresh find pre-enlistees more “aspirational”, brimming with ideas of what NS should be.

“They look at a lot of things in a very positive way,” he said.

On the suggestions made by the students for women to serve NS on a voluntary basis, Mr Suresh said the focus group discussions so far have yielded much support for the idea.

“For CSNS, it is great opportunity to relook into the volunteer scheme,” he added.