Sunday, Mar 23, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Special Correspondent
In the pre-Independence era, the desire for freedom and emancipation from the colonial rule was prevalent not merely among the country's leaders, but among all the people then. This collective aspiration and spirit now seemed to have disappeared, although individual aspirations still remained. "I believe that the entire country realises its immense potential. The twentieth century belonged to the Western nations and to some extent to countries like Japan. But "let us have a collective aspiration to make 21st century India's century and it is in the younger generation to contribute most to meet this aspiration," Mr. Advani said even while noting that in the days to come, it would be knowledge power that could propel India to development. Presiding over the silver-jubilee celebrations of the Meenakshi College for Women here, he said every Indian must have this motive of achieving for the country, what little he or she can. ``The county has to realise that it has immense potential, but it has been backward only because of the neglect of two areas — health and education," he said recalling the words of the Nobel Prize winner, Amartya Sen. Contrary to the general belief, gender bias was never inherent in India's culture. ``We had given the right to vote for women as early as in the 1950s." He said institutions such as the Meenakshi College that nurtured excellence only could "make the real change for the country." The former President, R. Venkataraman, who was the college's founder-chairman and also a close confidante of the institution's founder, the late K.R. Sundararajan, called for re-orientation of educational patterns so that the spirit of research and inquiry could be created among young minds. The Education Minister, S. Semmalai, said higher education, despite its growth in size and number, continued to be a producer of mere graduates, while research and teaching disciplines had not grown to meet the requirements. Gender inequity was another problem area in which Tamil Nadu hoped to achieve parity by 2010. The Information Technology Minister, D. Jayakumar, who launched the website of the college, recalled the steps being taken by the State Government to make Tamil Nadu, a major IT destination. The College secretary-principal, K.S. Lakshmi, said that in the past 25 years, the institution had secured a name for excellence in academic and other activities. It now had 19 UG and PG courses, besides offering M. Phil and Ph. D studies. No effort was being spared to provide quality infrastructure to the learners. She recalled the pioneering efforts of the founder, Sundararajan, to establish a women's college in the area.
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