PU hosts Capacity Building Programme for Women Managers in Higher Education

Chandigarh, February 10, 2015: Women in decision-making are a “rarity”, said Chairperson, High Level Government of India Committee on the Status of Women in India Prof.Pam Rajput at Panjab University (PU) here on Monday. 

Prof.Pam Rajput was delivering the keynote address at the Capacity Building Programme for Women Managers in Higher Education, which being jointly organised by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development, (RGNIYD) Sriperumbudur and Department-cum-Centre for Women’s Studies, PU from February 9 to 14.

Participants from Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir are participating in the programme.

Earlier, inaugurating the Programme, Founder Director, Centre for Women’s Studies, Anna University Prof. K. Hemalatha and overall Coordinator of this programme highlighted that the Programme has three objectives of ‘Sensitisation, Awareness and Motivation’.

She further revealed that the RGNIYD took up this programme especially for empowerment of women academicians from the reserved categories as in the previous programmes, it was realized that women from these categories were not being mobilized to attend the programme. The Workshop is not a lecture based workshop, she asserted, but interactive where both resource persons and participants learn from each other.

Delivering the key-note address, Prof. Pam Rajput referred to the continuing biases inherent in society. She cited the example of a noted educationist from USA asserting that women should not study Maths as it disturbs their fertility and a recent example of a high level functionary stating that being successful for a woman meant to have a good husband and family.

She further revealed that in a study of 600 Universities among the Commonwealth nations it was found that around 50 Universities had women heads. She stressed that gender equality is a human right, one which is also emphasised by our Constitution. However, India ranks very low on the Human Development Index.  The problem is further accentuated by women themselves not taking up decision-making positions and that is why this programme is significant as it attempts to empower women to take up decision-making positions.

Founder Director, Centre for Women’s Studies, Jammu University, Prof. Poonam Dhawan, stated that “women are like water, nothing can stop us”. This programme she asserted is a journey towards empowerment, a life changer for many of the women who have undergone this.

In his Presidential Address, Former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Prof. B.S. Ghuman asserted that there is a need to invent new decision-making models and change the decision-making process. He suggested that women should take up the opportunity when it comes. We should be prepared for some sacrifices and not keep assessing the opportunity cost, for this is a short term thing, while the long term objective does not have the same opportunity costs. He further suggested that a letter should be written to the Vice-Chancellor or Head of the Institute of the Participants that these participants have undergone this managerial training and they are a resource which the institute can use.

Earlier, welcoming the participants and introducing the key speakers for the session, Prof. Manvinder Kaur, Chairperson, Department-cum- Centre for Women’s Studies revealed how she herself had undergone this training and the benefits it had given her in her career.

The resource persons include Prof K.Hemalatha from Chennai, Prof. Poonam Dhawan from Jammu University, Jammu and Prof. Nilofer Khan from University of Kashmir, Srinagar and Dr. Ameer Sultana from Dept-cum-Centre for Women’s Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, The programme would include two open sessions, in which Hon’ble, Justice Sabina and  Keshni Anand, IAS would be interacting and sharing their experiences with the participants.

(SK Vyas/Jalandhar)