While addressing a convocation ceremony at the Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU) on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel expressed her views on how women should strive to become “expert mothers” before focusing on career aspirations.
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The Governor, who is also the Chancellor of state universities, stressed on how family responsibilities should not be denied for the sake of professional ambitions.
“Expert mothers” before IAS officers
During her speech, Patel emphasised how women must not give up their professional ambitions and instead should strive to continue their education and career even after marriage.
“Whether you become an IAS officer or a teacher, first become an expert mother. Everyone should know how to cook the food prepared at home,” she said. Patel urged young women to use their knowledge and skills for nation building.
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Further, she stressed on how parents’ responsibility in the upbringing of their daughters does not stop at securing them admission in schools or colleges. “Parents should know what their children are doing after they enter educational institutions. Even a small lapse in supervision can adversely affect their future,” she added.
Patel then went on to talk about the prevalent drug abuse issue around university hostels, revealing how a monitoring team constituted by the Jan Bhavan (formerly Raj Bhavan) had found instances of narcotics being supplied
The governor then stressed on how education transcends beyond what’s on paper into the moral space as well citing increased instances of domestic violence and crime against women. “If degrees are increasing but society continues to witness such crimes, it reflects the true state of our education. Moral values are as important as academic knowledge,” Patel stated.
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Love marriages and women’s health
No stranger to comments surrounding women’s lives, Patel had earlier stressed on the need for greater awareness about women’s health, nutrition, anaemia, menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and maternal health at a mother-daughter conference at Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University in Lucknow following its convocation.
She prompted universities to carry out regular health check-ups of female students, install BMI testing facilities, and introduce “garbh sanskar” courses to teach students about maternal nutrition and foetal development in order to ensure healthy pregnancies.
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She had also previously stressed on how nation-building is the ultimate goal of education. “It is not enough for a student to obtain degrees but they should develop into personalities filled with knowledge, devotion and answerability to society while ensuring contribution to nation building which is actual goal of education system of any nation,” she said in her address at the third convocation of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh University at Aligarh, as HT previously reported.
At the 24th convocation of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University in Lucknow a day earlier, Patel had called on women to become self-reliant before marrying someone else. “If you like someone, first become self-reliant, then get married,” she asserted.
