Tamil Nadu women have emerged on top in India, says CM Stalin

MADURAI: Taking pride of being the ‘Dravidian Stock’, Chief Minister MK Stalin after extending the ‘Pudhumai Penn’ scheme to benefit girl students studying in Government schools at a programme in Thoothukudi on Monday, said on the contrary that there was another force inciting violence by dividing the people by means of caste and religion and there is hardly a thought of progressive development.

Chief Minister Stalin said the women of Tamil Nadu are on top in India in terms of academic performance, they stand on their own merits, they are not confined to their homes and are not dependent on somebody, unlike in earlier days.

The women from Tamil Nadu have also emerged on top in the enrollment in higher education and employment. Thanthai Periyar EV Ramasamy, a social reformer in those days dreamt of providing education to women to get them employed to become self-dependent, he recalled.

It’s former chief minister K Kamaraj, who opened the eyes of education, and now “I feel happy to have launched this scheme at a college named after ‘Kamaraj’ in Thoothukudi”.

Now, women in Tamil Nadu excel in education, unlike a hundred years ago when there were obstacles to education on social and gender lines. In the days of yore, Needhi Katchi took a progressive approach towards education and girls got free access to education in high schools. More colleges were opened during Kamaraj’s regime.

After independence in 1947, 68 colleges were functional until 1967 and when M. Karunanidhi was the CM, as many as 97 government colleges were opened between 1969 and 1975. Now, the Dravidian model of governance accords importance to higher education and research, in line with them.

Stalin listed various schemes for the benefit of women and highlighted the Pudhumai Penn scheme that was promised in the election manifesto ahead of the 2021 polls. As many as 4.25 lakh students, who were given Rs590.66 crore, have benefited since the inception of this scheme in 2022. The Chief Minister said the Dravidian model governance led by DMK fulfilled the dream of Tamil Poet C Subramania Bharati.

“It is not felt as a burden of expense, but seen as a duty of father to provide education to girl students. Enrolment in colleges grew substantially every year through the benefits of the Pudhumai Penn scheme. Citing these, Stalin advised the students to focus attention on their studies and vowed to clear any hurdle to education.

P Geetha Jeevan, Social Welfare Minister, Anitha R Radhakrishnan, Fisheries Minister, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, School Education Minister, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Thoothukudi MP, Collector K Elambahavath and others were present.