The nation is all set to get its first unique university of its kind which will be meant only for women. It will be coming up at Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. The union government has cleared a proposal on this matter. The decision has sparked of speculations among all sectors of the government and the public.
The university is intended to focus primarily on pursuing research and higher education and is proposed to be named after the late prime minister of India Indira Gandhi. Ironically it is Rae Bareilly which was Indira Gandhi’s most favoured constituency for contesting the Parliamentary polls and she even contested there for a major timeline of her political career. Presently, this Parliament constituency is represented by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The Union Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said reporters that the proposal has been pegged at an estimated budget of almost 5 billion rupees and is set to be implemented during the 12th five-year plan. The bill regarding this proposal has been named “Indira Gandhi National University for Women” and is expected to be introduced in the coming monsoon session of the Parliament.
On this regard Tewari also added, “The University will be set up once the bill is passed by the Parliament.” His remarks came when Tewari was addressing the press representatives while declaring the government’s initiative and clarifying the corresponding doubts and queries.
The government expects that the university will work towards the betterment of the education scenario for women in India. It will initiate and promote inclusive and all-round growth of the women of the country while making them self-empowered in all respects.
It is also expected that the aforesaid initiative will supplement the already existent government projects for female education and empowerment and boost them with added vigour. This will assist the women to get enhanced exposure and access to employment oriented courses and high quality research work.
The government is of the opinion that the women in the country are in dire need of educational development for their enhanced development in multiple sectors especially in states that lag behind the national average in literacy rate. The most worrisome fact of all seems the constant underachieving statistics of the female literacy rate compared to that of the male literacy rate. Since independence, it has been observed that the female literacy rate in the country has always been much lower than the male literacy rate.
The major factors that seem to constrain the growth of education among the women are lack of opportunities, negative social mindset and low levels of awareness among the women themselves. The government knows that the women of the nation need to be educated for continuing with the sustained progress of the nation.
Currently India has a population of 1.21 billion individuals out of which 586 million are women. Most interestingly 95 million of those women are residents of Uttar Pradesh itself. Hence the government found Uttar Pradesh as the most fitting place of all to set up the university which will also be a fitting tribute to Indira Gandhi- arguably the most powerful Indian woman of the modern age.
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