Punjab Newspaper

A UGC-sponsored Women’s Studies Centre was today inaugurated at the University campus here with Vice Chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh calling for an active participation of women in all spheres of life to ensure gender equality on political, economic and social fronts.

In his presidential speech, Dr Singh said the Centre should create a ‘pressure group’ to aggressively enforce the gender equality being defaulted in several manners. Such enforcements should go along with the Centre’s major function of conducting academic studies in the causes and traditions that underlie such social malaise. Recounting the prevailing gender- discrimination, Dr Singh said on the world level, women, constituting half of the population, share only ten per cent of income. Similarly, of the total property, women share only one per cent while rest, 99 per cent, is owned by men. In the same vein, he said, of all parliamentary fora world over, 90 per cent seats are represented by men. And in the executive and bureaucracy women’s share is only 3.5 per cent. The Vice-Chancellor observed that the educated and resource-rich families were relatively more affected by the colossal evil of female foeticide, even as the female deficit has reached an alarming stage in Punjab. The preference for male child symbolizes a deep social malady that needs to be corrected through education and awareness, he added.

The Centre was formally inaugurated by Prof (Dr) Pam Rajput, Vice President, National Alliance for Women (NAWO) who said the Centre would study invisible discrimination and disparity with women in the Punjab society and attempt to sensitize the people against such maladies. Already, 63 such Centres are operative in various parts of the country and setting up of 34 more Centres are in offing. Punjab Information Commissioner Dr Ravi Singh said efforts were being made to the effect that the state budget and planning should be orienbted more towards women’s development. Dr Manjit Singh , Dean, College Development Council endorsed the Vice Chancellor’s views that discrimination with female child in the land of Sikh Gurus whose holy scripture subscribe to gender equality, was all the more troublesome and unacceptable. Dr Manju Verma, Director of the Centre said they would coordinate and collaborate with the social organizations working the field of women empowerment in Punjab.