Date:22/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/22/stories/2006082210880500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Committed to the cause of educating girl child'

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy stressed the need for developing guidelines and strategies to optimise women's participation in academic, industrial and corporate environments.

In his address to the national seminar on "Women: Science and Technology" at the Central College campus here on Monday, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government was committed to the cause of educating the girl child.

"Our Government will bear all tuition expenses of students belonging to below poverty line families who secure 80 per cent marks in their pre-university courses and who are willing to pursue professional courses in engineering, medicine, dental, agricultural and veterinary."

Stating that women had entered into all sections of science and technology, Mr. Kumaraswamy said in Karnataka the number of women engineers increased from 800 in 1975 to 56,000 in 1996.

There were about 10,00 women Ph.D. holders in the State. More than 60 per cent of women qualified in the National Eligibility Test conducted by the UGC and the Council of Industrial Research for appointment of lecturers in colleges and universities. In the medical profession, more than 40 per cent enrolment in the general quota constituted women. Of 3.77 lakh graduates awarded degree in medicine during the period 1950 to 1993, 1.5 lakh were women, he said. He called for an all inclusive growth to address gender issues and said the poor women from the urban slums and rural women continued to fight against all odds to just make a good living for themselves and their children.