Address at the Golden Jubilee Function of Rbvrr Women's College

Evolution of Enlightened Women

I am indeed delighted to be here to participate in the concluding function of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Raja Bahadur Venkata Rama Reddy Women's College. My greetings to the members of the college managing committee, principal, faculty members, students and other distinguished guests. I particularly greet the faculty members for empowering women through quality education and thereby raising their capacity to contribute to the society. I find that the College strength has grown from fifty nine students in the year 1954 to nearly 2500 today in various disciplines such as commerce, science, arts, computer application, management and information science. I am happy to note that the college has started a number of professional courses such as pharmacy, bio-technology, bio-informatics and microbiology, medical laboratory technology as part of their programmes which will enable the students to seek professional employment and to become entrepreneurs. I would like to share with you some thoughts on "Evolution of Enlightened Women".

Working towards Excellence

I note that the College has generated a large number of graduates and postgraduates who are working in different areas in many reputed institutions in India and abroad. I am happy to note that a large number of students passing out from this college are taking up teaching as a profession, which is a very good sign for societal upliftment.

Women in Nation Building

In our country, women constitute 48% of the total population. Recently when I was in Himachal Pradesh, Vijaya Sharma of Rajkiya Kanya Mahavidyalya asked me what should be the girl?s role in independent India. I told her that there is really no difference in the roles. They are equal partners in national development.

Now-a-days women are entering in every field. They are becoming doctors, engineers, advocates, teachers, political leaders, administrators, police officials, professionals and they also have joined the Armed Forces. You have all got to get ready to take the responsibility of promoting a noble society.

I would like to share some of my experiences where I have found women performing pioneering work in their area of specialization. I was inaugurating the "2nd National Conference for Women in Police 2005" on 27th July 2005. There I met Smt. Kanchan Choudhry Bhattacharya, the First women to become the Director General of Police of Uttaranchal. I have seen many of the captains of the commercial aircrafts who are women pilots. In the health care and education sector women are leading. In political field also many women are playing a leading role. At Delhi I met two very senior Air Force and Naval Officers, Air Marshal (Mrs.) P. Bandopadhyay, Director General, Medical Services (Air) and Surg. Vice Admiral (Mrs.) Punita Arora, Director General, Medical Services (Navy). They are doing pioneering work in medical field. On 27th June 2005, the Chief of Army Staff brought the first women summiteers Capt (Ms.) Sipra Majumdar and Capt. (Ms.) Ashwini AS Pawar, who climbed Mt. Everest from the North side, that is from the Tibetan side. I also talked to the women army officers in the freezing temperature at Kargil. I appreciate their courage and perseverance for succeeding in their missions. During 1980s to 90 I had a lady scientist Smt. Rohini Devi, working in the area of composites. She was responsible for developing the heat shield system for AGNI missiles. Dr. Shanta who has been recently selected for Raman Magsaysay award is personally known to me. She was responsible for setting up the Radiation Oncology Department in Cancer Institute and organized the first-ever hospital tumour registry in India. She also established the first paediatric oncology unit. Above all the Nobel Laureate Mother Theresa represents the embodiment of removing the pain of the sufferings. These women who have performed pioneering work in their own area of specialization should become role models for all of you.

Particularly, enlightened women are very important for nation building since their thoughts, the way of working and value system will lead to faster development of a good family, good society and a good nation. Thus, the women in our country have tremendous opportunity for participating in the development of the nation. One of the programmes in which they can make significant contribution is PURA.

Women Engineering college and Rural Development

I had visited Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam in Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu and inaugurated a PURA Complex. I thought of sharing with you the developmental concept of a cluster of over 65 villages near Vallam, Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu which involves a population of 3 lakhs.

This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The centre of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centres, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centres. This has resulted in large scale employment generation and creation of a number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundred acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in either cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centres. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women. This gives me the confidence that PURA is a realizable proposition and this movement can be multiplied by thousands of entrepreneurs, educational administrators and philanthropic institutions with the support of the government agencies. I would recommend Raja Bahadur Venkata Rama Reddy Womens? College can undertake such a mission in the outskirts of Hyderabad for developing a cluster of tribal villages in the PURA mode.

Women Education

It is recognized that the women education is very important for societal growth. When the women are empowered, society with stability will get assured. We have to ensure the continuity of secondary education and university education for girls. It is essential to establish connectivity between the university and secondary schools. Distance education packages have to be evolved to cater towards women education for reaching remote areas. Periodically, secondary level students should be counseled to continue their education both in diploma and degree level. I am happy to note this college is giving due importance to these thoughts and promoting women to be full fledged graduates who will work for development of the nation particularly Andhra Pradesh.

Emerging women

When I am in the midst of future women professionals and leaders with an urge to participate in the national movement, I am reminded of Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharatiar, who in 1910 composed the poem envisioning women of India:

This beautiful poem brings out the profile of emerging women.

Emerging Women

She walks with raised head,

With her eyes looking straight,

She has her principles,

Unafraid of anybody!

She has a lofty

And knowledge based pride,

Such cultured women,

Don't falter from the chosen path.

She drives ignorance away.

She welcomes the bliss of life.

With learned mind,

This is the Dharma

Of emerging woman.

The dream of the poet, I am sure, will become a reality of life for the students of Raja Bahadur Venkata Rama Reddy Womens? College.

Satellite based education

Dear students, I would like to recall a recent event of launching geo-synchronous vehicle on 20th September 2004. It is a huge three stage controlled and guided rocket system weighing 400 tones. This world class rocket system has put a communication satellite called EDUSAT (Education satellite) in the geosynchronous orbit. This rocket has capability to inject a satellite of one thousand Kg in the orbit with the velocity of 10.2 kilometers per second. This means speed of the satellite is 36 times the speed of modern passenger jet aircraft. That means, you will be surprised to know, it will take less than five minutes to travel from Delhi to Chennai instead of two and half hours by a jet. Do you know what geosynchronous orbit is? Geosynchronous orbit refers to the path of the satellite around the earth at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers in equatorial plane with the same rotational velocity of earth. The satellite now beams the education programmes throughout the day and night.

Objective of EDUSAT

The prime objective of the EDUSAT programme is to provide support to education through low-cost ground segments and to reach the un-reached people of India to every nook and corner. The satellite is specially configured to have multiple beams covering different regions of India. This system will be primarily for school, college and higher level of education; however it will also support non-formal education. In the initial phase EDUSAT will cover about 100 to 200 classrooms per beam. The EDUSAT, when fully operational will have a capacity of 30 uplinks and about 5000 remote terminals per uplink. EDUSAT is expected to provide one-lakh fifty thousand ground terminals in its full capacity. Raja Bahadur Venkata Rama Reddy Womens? College can make use of this facility for improving the quality of their education by receiving lectures from well known teachers.

Conclusion: Righteousness

After your successful educational career, you will be pursuing many professions and also simultaneously managing homes which are equally important. The prime traits needed for our lives will be righteousness. I would like to share with you a hymn, which I have heard in a spiritual place.

Righteousness

Where there is righteousness in the heart,

There is beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home,

There is an order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.

It is a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. In a society we have to build righteousness among all its constituents. For the society as a whole to be righteous we need creation of righteousness in the individual, righteousness in family, righteousness in education, righteousness in service, righteousness in career, righteousness in business & industry, righteousness in civil administration, righteousness in politics, righteousness in government, righteousness in law and order, righteousness in justice. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Raja Bahadur Venkata Rama Reddy Womens? College I would like to wish you all success in your missions of life.

May God bless you.