By TCN News,
Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University has on Tuesday refuted the allegations that girl students are denied access to Maulana Azad Library. In a media communication, AMU said it is providing equal opportunities to all boys and girls.
Responding to some media reports about gender bias in allowing the girl students of Women’s College of AMU to the Maulana Azad Library, Dr. Rahat Abrar, Public Relations Officer, AMU clarified that the university provided equal opportunity to all boys and girls and there was no gender bias in practice in the century-old institution. “Maulana Azad Library never denied access to the female students and provided the reference reading facility to all the 8266 male and 3670 female students registered as bonafide users of the library during the session 2010-2011,” Dr. Abrar said.
He clarified that the Maulana Azad University provides facilities as the reference library for higher academic and research purposes. It alone cannot cater the needs of all the 27000 students of the University as about 5000 to 6000 students visit the library every day. And therefore, various departments, centres, academic units and the colleges including the Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, J. N. Medical College and the Women’s College have their own well-furnished libraries fulfilling the needs of their students. The undergraduate students of these departments and colleges do not need to move to Maulana Azad Library for reading purposes except they need to refer to the research oriented books, journals and annals. The girl students in addition have such facilities in their residential halls as well besides being provided all the online facility through the Maulana Azad Library.
The undergraduate classes for students of the Women’s College are organized in the College campus itself, which is located quite at a distance from the Maulana Azad Library. It may not be possible for the students to go to the Library in day time as their classes may be adversely affected. “It is, however, noteworthy that the Research Division of Maulana Azad Library has a remarkable attendance of girls who use to come, sit and access research oriented resources of the library,” Dr. Abrar claimed.