The Hindu : New Delhi News : Jamia coming up with art gallery dedicated to Husain

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Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Jamia coming up with art gallery dedicated to Husain

Staff Reporter

V-C makes announcement at the university convocation

‘During the last three years, the UGC has sanctioned 171 new teaching positions for Jamia’
‘Muslims have the highest child sex ratio of any social group in the country’

NEW DELHI: Jamia Millia Islamia is coming up with an art gallery on its campus that will be dedicated to renowned painter M. F. Husain, who is currently living in exile abroad.

Also, veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal and owner of Roli Books Pramod Kapoor, who is a member of the University court, will work together for setting up a museum and archive devoted to the freedom struggle.

These announcements were made by Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan during the Annual Convocation ceremony here on Tuesday.

Sharing the recent developments in the University, Prof. Hasan gave details of the new projects on which work will start soon -- a Centre for Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, an India-Arab Cultural Centre, flats for scholars, a academic staff college building, a new girls’ hostel and staff quarters.

“During the last three years, the University Grants Commission has sanctioned 171 new teaching positions for Jamia. We have also created 63 non-teaching positions. While 15 new centres have been established since 2004, proposals for three more centres, that is, Centre for Bangladesh Studies, Centre for Indian Ocean and Centre for Northeast Studies, await the UGC approval,” said Prof. Hasan.

“We have also not forgotten our commitment to the community amid which we are situated, Jamia’s outreach programme continues to expand to include the marginalised and the disempowered in its neighbourhood activities,” he added.

Chancellor Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters on Shyam Benegal, M. F. Husain, sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and Urdu writer Qurratulain Hyder (posthumously).

Except for Mr. Benegal, the family members and relatives of the others received the honour. While awarding the citation to Mr. Husain’s eldest son Shamshad, Mr. Khorakiwala told him that he hoped the “famed artist returns to his motherland soon”.

Referring to the Sachar Committee Report on the social, educational and economic condition of the Muslim community in his convocation address, Vice-President Hamid Ansari said it had “succeeded in quantifying the extent of deprivation” in the country.

“It (the Committee) reported that ‘the topic of education was raised most frequently in the representations (made to it), followed by reservation, employment and security-related issues’. It identified with some precision the areas of State failure, suggested urgent corrective action and recommended that this ‘should sharply focus on inclusive development and the mainstreaming of the community while respecting diversity’,” Mr. Ansari pointed out.

“Muslims have the highest child sex ratio of any social group in the country. They are more urbanised than the general population. On the other hand, the literacy rate among Muslims is 59.1 per cent against a national average of 65.1 per cent. It is even lower in the case of female literacy. The incidence of poverty among urban Muslims is even higher than among the urban Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes. These figures speak for themselves in terms of the imperative for correcting social imbalances resulting from social immobility.”

“Their effort would need to focus both on legitimate demands on the State and on the mobilisation of internal resources of the community for the empowerment of the marginalised.”

As many as 1, 430 students received their degrees on Tuesday.

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