Underlining the role of humanities and social sciences in the present context, Delhi lieutenant-Governor (l-G) Najeeb Jung underscored the necessity for these two academic streams. “When we think of issues which face our society — be it gender insensitivity, class and caste biases, religious intolerance, regional conflicts, subjects like humanities and social sciences become more relevant. For addressing all of these and more, we need, today more than ever, training in humanities and social sciences,” he said.
Jung was speaking at alumni felicitation function at lady Sri Ram College. He also college principal Dr Meenakshi Gopinath and two other faculty members during the college’s Annual Day function on Friday for successfully completing a tenure of 25 years. He also gave away awards to three distinguished alumnae, Foreign Secretary of India, Sujatha Singh, social activist Nivedita Menon and feminist
Chavi Raijawat, who have helped soar the reputation of the college in recent times.
Speaking about Gopinath’s long tenure, Jung said that she had helped make lady Shri Ram College a benchmark to measure academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular excellence and praised her for fostering a community which has an engaged sense of responsibility to society.
Jung also lauded the college in providing excellent education to women. He said, “The college is emblematic of a feminism that helps women find their rightful place in the sun. It trains
women who go on to excel in every sphere of their endeavour, be it the arts, media, education, the corporate sector or governance. They are empowered with an academic training, professional competence and an ability to assume positions of leadership with complete ease and self-confidence. This to my mind is both a symptom and a cause, of a slow but sure social revolution.”
During the event, even students who have excelled in their respective courses were awarded by the lt Governor. The felicitation was then followed by a cultural performance by the students of lSR.