DIMAPUR:
Nagaland governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi said empowered women are a powerful tool to ensure increased participation in the progress and development of the nation.
Quoting Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, he said: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. However, if you educate a woman, you educate a whole family.”
“Women empowered means mother India empowered,” Mukhi said while addressing the annual day function and 31st fresher’s social programme of Pranabananda Women’s College Dimapur on September 29.
Stressing that education is the key to unlocking the golden doors of development, he said the true fruit is when one sees empowered and intelligent women saturated in good values and confident and ready to face the challenges and make their mark in the world.
Pointing out that women who constitute 48% of the total population are entering every field, Mukhi said the opportunities are limitless unlike in earlier days.
He also said an effective education system is defined as one that prepares the youth to navigate the journey of life meaningfully as schools constitute the basic pillars of an education edifice of a nation.
With thousands of students graduating each year, Mukhi said, education is more than honorary degrees and diplomas. It is knowledge, skills, attitudes, principles, and values that people acquire throughout their lifetime, he stated.
“The primary objective of our educational system has to imbue receptive minds with wholesome habits, philosophies and practices, integrity, honesty, decency, respect, compassion and zeal for hard work if we are to have any chance of producing individuals that we want and need to lead this country into the future,” the governor said.
Advising the students to have a vision, he said once it is decided what they want to be, they must have the conviction to achieve it with strong willpower and hard work.
Mukhi lauded the teachers of the college for their efforts in empowering women through quality education and thereby raising their capacity to contribute to society.
On the occasion, the governor presented the Governor’s Award (Syama Prasad Mukherjee) to K Neeha Chanu in the field of excellence for academics, Governor’s Award (Kamla Devi Chattopadhyay) to Sushmita Deb in the field of social responsibility, Governor’s Award (Deen Dayal Upadhyaya) to Sharmila Sharma in the field of extracurricular activities and Best Library User Award to Phalneikim. He also released the college magazine ‘Pranab Vision’.