Lucknow, March 6 Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on Friday urged universities to connect with villages as part of their social responsibility.
Patel made the remarks during an interaction with a 21-member media delegation from Karnataka and Tripura, led by officials of the Press Information Bureau, at Jan Bhavan, formerly Raj Bhavan, here, according to an official statement.
Universities should actively engage with rural communities and contribute to social development, she said.
Universities have adopted five villages each, where initiatives such as cleanliness drives, plantation campaigns, implementation of government schemes, competitions, and public awareness programs are being carried out, she added.
Patel further said that clothes, sarees, and books are collected and distributed among the children of laborers working at construction sites in the universities.
She emphasised that the development of universities is the collective responsibility of vice-chancellors, registrars, and all staff members.
The governor highlighted initiatives such as 'NAAC Manthan', 'Shiksha Manthan', and international conferences on world university rankings as efforts to improve the quality of higher education.
She said that more than 56,000 anganwadi centres in the state have been strengthened with better resources and stressed the need to ensure enrolment of all three-year-olds in anganwadis and six-year-olds in Class 1.
Sharing her experiences from Gujarat, Patel said that door-to-door surveys were conducted there to encourage enrolment of children in schools, and teachers distributed books among students. In villages where the women's literacy rate was below 35 per cent, incentives were provided for girls' enrolment under the 'Narmada Bond' scheme.
She also underlined the need for coordinated efforts to achieve the target of 50 per cent enrolment in higher education with the effective implementation of the National Education Policy 2020.
The condition of higher education in Uttar Pradesh has improved significantly, and universities in the state have shown better rankings on various national and international parameters, she noted.
Appointments in universities are being carried out with transparency, and the selection of vice-chancellors has remained fair and free from controversy, she added.
Referring to health initiatives, the governor said that the state government is running a free vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer among girls and women. Under this campaign, around 50,000 girls have been vaccinated so far.
On the occasion, Patel presented books published by the Jan Bhavan, including "Hamara Raj Bhavan", "Raj Bhavan Band", "TB Mukt Bharat", "Anganwadi Meri Aatma", "Chunautiyan Mujhe Pasand Hai", "Lokhit Ke Mukhar Swar" and "Parivartan Ki Sugandh", to the visiting media representatives.