The New Indian Express
3rd December, 2002

CM for Govt-varsity collaboration

CHENNAI: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday called for a collaboration between the Government and Universities to raise the standard of women in the State.

Universities should focus their research on socially relevant gender issues so that their findings could "form the basis for our policy-making and assist the Government in identifying crucial issues and suggest solutions to translate them into appropriate schemes for the welfare of women," she opined in her address at the 12th convocation of the Mother Teresa Women's University here.

She felt that there was an imperative need to shift the focus of planning from seeing women merely as recipients of welfare schemes to recognising their role as producers, making a major contribution to the family, the State and the nation as agents of social transformation.

"Education of women must, therefore, be accorded the topmost priority for bringing about improvement in the status of women," she said.

She repeatedly stressed that her Government was committed to promoting women's empowerment through various schemes particularly through education and entrepreneurial training so that they were economically and financially independent.

Citing statistics on the male-female literacy divide, Jayalalithaa, said the vast gap indicated the enormous responsibility on the part of the Government as well as the education institutions in improving the literacy rate among girls and women.

With globalisation and universalisation firmly established as growth patterns of development all over the world, education is fast becoming a significant and integral part of human life and we, in India, can no longer afford to have 50 per cent of our human resources namely women, being uneducated and ignorant, she said.

"In this era of Information Technology, with the dynamic growth of the Internet, it is high time that we prepared our women to face the challenges of the 21st century by exposing them to the latest, modern, innovative and technical courses,' the Chief Minister said.

She also listed out the various non-traditional Departments where women were given employment after she took over the reins of administration.

Governor-Chancellor P Rama Mohan Rao presided over the convocation. Education Minister and Pro-Chancellor M Thambidurai and Mother Teresa Women's University Vice-Chancellor Anandhavalli Mahadevan participated.