WOMEN’s EDUCATION AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Lady Irwin College has crossed the 60th milestone of its existence, has always taken society’s changes in its stride, says Osama Manzar
“It is tough to be the best But tougher to be an Irwinite.”
T his slogan was printed on the back of T-shirts made especially for Lady Irwin College’s diamond jubilee celebrations held recently. The front of the T-shirt read — Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, ‘Catalysing change since 1932’— with a sketch of a glamorous girl, showing the flight from the past to the present and an enthusiasm to achieve more.
A span of 60 years is no less a tin for an institution to make achieving the impossible its way of life and also not too much of a time to look back at where they were and how the institution started.
The college had been started in 1928, when the All-India Women’s Conference (AIWC) established the All-India Women’s Education Fund Association (AIWEFA), under the patronage of Lady.
During these six decades, the college has raised itself from a finishing school of 11 students to a college of science for human ecology, in general, and an institute of home economics, in particular, comprising 900 students.
Ruchika Deewan, a student of Re source. Management, and all set to go for interior designing, said: “It’s not home science as jharoo lagana and khanapakana. We do much more than that.”
Compared to other professions, the president of the girls’ union said: “We are confident enough to compare our selves with others and prove to be better. If you talk to a doctor, what will he or she talk about? Only about their professions? Our studies range from sociology to pure sc physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, economics, child development, resource management, fashion, textiles, foods and nutrition.”
Sunita Hora, a third-year student of Resource Management, added: “Studying here is a life-time asset for us. It makes us jack-of-all trades and master of one—if you do you
degree.”
At the 1930 Pachmari session of the AIWEFA, it was decided to establish a central college for women to bring educational reforms to foster a scientific outlook in women, develop their inherent capacities and enable then to apply the science of living to the individual, the home and the community. As a result domestic science, then unknown in India as an ‘educational discipline, was recommended for the progressive education of women.
Sudha Sachdeva, an alumna and a teacher in Resource Management and Extension, explained: ‘We believes broadly in four ideologies se1fnity, self-respect, self-learning and seIf-actualisation.”
“Employability today is dependent exclusively on amour and aggressiveness.” This was a topic for debate at the college’s diamond jubilee festival. True. Because the kind of exposure given to the students, they can fit into any kind of activity organis’ation or environment. No wonder, graduates of
Lady Irwin College occupy top executive positions in national organisations like the Planning Commission and international organisations as well.
The records say that in the past 60 years the college has awarded 4,521 B.Sc. degrees, 1,116 B.Sc. Honours, 1,797 BEd. degrees; 412 diplomas in Didtetics, Public Health Nutrition and 757 M.Sc. degrees iii four major thrust areas * Foods and Nutrition, Clothing arid Textiles, Child Development, and Community Resource Management and Extension. Among these, there are numerous alumni who are successfully setting trends in the fields of art, fashion, literature and as entrepreneurs in a remarkable variety of businesses.
The principal and director, Mrs S. Bajaj, said: Why should someone else be inventing pressure cookers? Who is going to remove your drudgery? The major objective of education is to help you lead a better life, under any condition.” According to her, today more education is needed to look after and manage a family than what was required before. Why? Because, becoming a parent is one of the most difficult jobs.”
Elaborating the college’s other objectives, she stressed on community-servicing and said: “The world has changed, so has social service. Now we call it social development. In a poor country like India, where there are few educated women, they will have to share their education with the community.”
To cope with the inevitable changes through the 1 970s and 8Os, the college provided itself with a new context. The concept of social service shifted gradually from the feudal to that of social development, with the woman fully participating in the community and well-informed about political, environmental and personal issues —from the village to the global arena.
Thus, home science was seen as being linked to developmental issues. Accordingly, today the most important objective is that all education should be centred on self-development to realise oneself the potential, the capability. Mrs Bajaj calls it the “holistic development.”
All the same, Lady Irwin t has its problems. Mrs. Bajaj revealed: “I must say that home science has not been clearly understood by the people, specially by the male counterpart.
The other problems are, however, of funds. We are funded for one unit, whereas, if it would have been one of the departments of Delhi University, the funds would have been equivalent to four units. Moreover, our instructors here have no designations such as readers or professors. They are simply called lecturers.”
Mrs. S. Bajaj explained: “We are trying to put our roots back into our own soil, of course not in a fundamentalist way.”
PHOTOS :  OSAMA