Speakers at the seminar stressed upon the importance of education for women and appealed to the families, especially from the minority communities, to send forward their daughters for higher education by breaking all the rigidity, which will ultimately help in educating the generations.
By TCN News,
Guwahati: ‘Educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, it’s equal to educating an entire generation’, keeping this adage in view, the Education Research & Development Foundation (ERDF) has set up its first college exclusively for women in Assam’s Karimganj district.
ERDF is hopeful that the Khairun Nessa Begum Women’s College (KBWC) at Badarpur will bring a sea of change.
On May 24, this newly started College had organized a huge Women’s Rally, where more than 1,000 girl students, women academicians, guardians and well-wishers across the region, irrespective of cast, creed and religion had actively participated.
EDRF women rally.
Students displayed placards with slogans such as ‘Education Liberates a Woman’, ‘Support Women Education’ etc. Following the rally, a panel discussion on ‘Participation of Women in Higher Education – A Barak Valley Perspective’ was organized at the premises of the new college at Hasanpur, Srigouri, Badarpur.
Girl students taking part in the rally while displaying play cards.
The discussion was presided over by Kamaluddin Ahmed, former principal, Karimganj College & Director, KBWC and moderated by Bibhash Dev, former director, CDC, Assam University, Silchar.
The speakers of the panel discussion were Alaka Sarma, Dean, Students’ Welfare, University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya; ANS Ahmed, former professor, IIT Guwahati; Shib Tapan Basu, former principal, NC College & Rector, KBWC; Shahab Uddin Ahmed, Associate Professor, Karimganj College, Karimganj; Shahinara Begum, Associate Professor, Assam University, Silchar and eight other significant academicians from the nearby colleges of the valley.
All the speakers stressed upon the importance of education for women. They appealed to the families especially from the minority communities to send forward their daughters for higher education by breaking all the rigidity which will ultimately help in educating the generations.
Scholars and Experts take part in the seminar organized by EDRF.
Minority women’s literacy rate in Assam is only 40 % and, accordingly, women’s participation is also very less in higher education.
Khairun Nessa Begum Women’s College management has claimed that all kinds of facilities and a congenial environment for the girl students to pursue their higher education keeping the religious values intact will be provided at the college.
The college is named after the mother of Mahbubul Hoque, chairman of ERD Foundation, who underwent significant struggles & sacrifices to educate her sons and established them well in life.
“Our vision is of a world where all girls are empowered through quality education to realize their full potentialities & responsibilities, so that they can contribute to become a successful family manager & in the process make the society a better place to live,” reads the vision of the institute on its website.