UNESCO Chair for Amrita University

26 Sep 2016, Amritapuri – Amritavarsham 63 celebrations

The Government of India’s Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar announced the establishment of a UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment at our own Amrita University. The Chair will focus on mapping vulnerabilities of women for a holistic approach to designing necessary solutions.

Said Prakash Javadekar: “Nothing is more noble than creating centres of excellence in education, and Amrita University is among the best in the country. The UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment will play a vital role in future. It takes care of all the millennium development goals, as they are directly or indirectly linked to the health, welfare and upliftment of women, be it maternal health, education, sanitation or infant mortality.

“The British were not interested in the empowerment of the country. They were interested to create a cadre of obedient officers and not uplift the education of the poor and underprivileged. After independence, the country has taken education to all houses, and achieved 98 percent enrollments in primary care. We have achieved expansion, now we have to receive quality education. That equality can be brought by Women Empowerment and Gender Equality, which is the focus of Amma’s new initiative with the UNESCO Chair on Women Empowerment and Gender Equality . As a HRD minister, it will be my duty to help good universities such as Amrita University, and it will be given boost for the future.

“Education is not a political agenda. Education is neither Left, Right or Centre. Education will be the top priority of our nation and I hope Amma will guide us. And we are all here to celebrate, to get blessings , and to give our pranams to Amma because she is the embodiment of love, compassion and humanity.

“Looking at the institutes which she has created in her birthplace, I can only say Brahma created this Sristhi, but you created another Srishti here. Nothing is more noble than creating centers of education. And you have created one, and today I am very happy to launch and declare the UNESCO chair. This is a very unique chair – it takes care of all women empowerment goals accepted by the UN. If a man is taught, one is taught, but if a woman is taught, the entire family and society is taught, because she is mother to all. When we teach women, this takes care of universal primary care education, lowers infant mortality, improve health, lowers possibility of contracting HIV.

“All religions teach respect, culture of live and let live, non-violence, truth. If people become religious, they will follow this noble path. I am happy as HRD minister and it will be my duty to help good universities like the one you have created. We are all creating a system where good universities have more autonomy and less regulation” said the Minister announcing the UNESCO Chair for Amrita University.